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In April, I bombed a keynote—45 minutes late, broken A/V, a room that wanted their drink tickets.
Here's what that failure taught me about participation, discernment, and why every Enneagram type has its own sophisticated reason to wait until it's "ready."
What if becoming someone was never the goal? A therapist and Enneagram facilitator on shedding the personas we mistake for our true selves.
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Thoughts on motherhood, breast cancer, and what attachment theory and the Enneagram taught me about being loved
In April, I bombed a keynote—45 minutes late, broken A/V, a room that wanted their drink tickets.
Here's what that failure taught me about participation, discernment, and why every Enneagram type has its own sophisticated reason to wait until it's "ready."
What if becoming someone was never the goal? A therapist and Enneagram facilitator on shedding the personas we mistake for our true selves.
Today you’re in for a treat! I’m bringing my pal Koula Callahan, master yoga instructor and speaker for the Self-Care Workshop, on the blog to share why movement, namely yoga, is incredibly powerful and important for us to practice as we move through our days. If you’ve always wondered what all the fuss is about —and yoga and why is really effective, today is the day—you’re going to get some answers.
Six months before my breast cancer diagnosis, I was quietly falling apart. This is my story and the heart behind why I created the Self Care Workshop.
Discover how each Enneagram type relates to structure—and why the right kind of rhythm can help you thrive. Learn how to create supportive routines without stifling growth.
When we hear the phrase self-care, most of us picture bubble baths, yoga classes, or carving out an hour to finally read that book on our nightstand. And while those things absolutely have their place, if we stop there, we miss the deeper, sustaining work that actually helps us thrive.
What I’ve learned in my own healing and in my work with clients is this: self-care without self-compassion can feel more like another to-do list item when it’s really a relationship to nurture.
There’s a moment, sometimes subtle and sometimes seismic, when you realize you have the chance to begin again. Maybe it’s the first crisp morning after a long summer. Maybe it’s a job change, a new relationship, or even the quiet decision to show up differently in the one you’re already in.
I’ve learned that beginnings—whether chosen or thrust upon us—are vulnerable places. They ask something of us: a willingness to step into what we don’t yet know. And if you’re anything like me, that’s both exciting and a little unnerving.
This is where curiosity comes in.
Are you ready to stop running on empty and start living from a place of wholeness?
Join me, alongside Ally Fallon (best selling author + writing coach) and Koula Callahan (yoga teacher + speaker), for an unforgettable day of enneagram insight, intentional writing, and embodied movement — what I call the trifecta of true self-care.
Somewhere between the smell of freshly sharpened pencils and the first rustle of fall leaves, we’re invited into a familiar rhythm—one that feels both nostalgic and energizing. Whether or not you have a backpack in your life anymore, the back-to-school season has a way of nudging us to recalibrate, recommit, and reset. It’s not just for students. It’s for all of us seeking a deeper sense of alignment and intention.
So, in the spirit of fresh starts and The Back-to-School Edit.
“You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.”
“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes…including you.”
— Anne Lamott
“The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.”
Mitch Albom
“The Enneagram helps you discover who you were before the world told you who you were supposed to be.”
-Ian Cron
“Distractions are everywhere. Notice what takes your attention, acknowledge it, and then let it go.”
-Andy Puddicombe, Founder of Headspace
Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life.
-Anne Lamott
“As long as you keep secrets and suppress information, you are fundamentally at war with yourself…The critical issue is allowing yourself to know what you know. That takes an enormous amount of courage.”
Bessel van der Kolk
“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”
-Rumi
“Where we think we need more self-discipline, we usually need more self-love.”
- Tara Mohr
“The human body is a river of intelligence, energy, and information that is constantly renewing itself in every second of our existence.”
- Deepak Chopra
“When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened.”
– Winston Churchill
“If we observe ourselves truthfully and non-judgmentally, seeing the mechanisms of our personality in action, we can wake up, and our lives can be a miraculous unfolding of beauty and joy.”
-Richard Rohr
“People will forget what you said, forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
-Maya Angelou
(e)Motion – BarreAmped
I tend to feel a bit relieved when January rolls around. The holiday craze and/or blues have come and gone and the promise of renewal and possibility stir in my heart. Also, we inch towards more sunlight and longer days which is good news for all you seasonally affective joining me out there.
Space to Ponder
If you live in Nashville, you know that it is frozen solid, offering her inhabitants some forced down time, or the chance to bravely (?) slide around those icy streets (not recommended). So, how are we doing? Personally, after a week of being sick, I have traded in my flu symptoms fora case of good ole’ cabin fever. Neither is ideal, but I’ll take cabin fever over the flu any day!
The Power of Ritual (Desire)
The enemy of art is the absence of limitations.
-Orson Welles
What is it that drives you? What gets you out of bed each morning? Perhaps it is a steaming hot cup of coffee, or the inevitable 8am commute to that blessed place called work, or training for a 10k, or… love? I am talking about that thing you love and desire more than anything else. It’s the thing that makes us depressed and edgy when we ignore it, yet freaked out and energized when we embrace it.
I am still trying to fully define this for myself, so if you are clueless, don’t worry…you’re not alone. More and more though, I think what drives me on many levels is healing and beauty. As broad as those may seem, it’s what I keep coming back to. It seems once we hone in on an area of interest, or the general concepts behind it, we can experiment and tease out the specifics over time.
For example, despite the fact that beauty and healing are pretty nebulous, I have learned that they really do show up in most of my daily focus. This can look like working with clients in a counseling setting or communicating through writing and/or song, or maybe even creating a space for others to enjoy it while connecting over a dinner table (assuming my cooking turns out beautifully). Thankfully, I havelearned that our drive, calling, passion, whatever you call it, doesn’t have to look a certain way. We can get rid of the boxes. Calling is birthed in desire and nurtured through ritual. It’s far less complicated than we make it.
The Power of Ritual #2
Happy Summer!
I know. It’s been awhile. I will go ahead and confess to you that I have massively fallen off the morning ritual wagon, hence, the silence. Not only that, but I have found that the further I have fallen, the more daunting the distance to get back on track. We call that the old “all or nothing thinking.” I am my own study in terms of tackling the stuff we talk about on this platform as well as in a therapeutic setting. That said, I am taking my own insufficiency and putting it on the dissecting table for us all to poke holes in. (I hope that didn’t gross anyone out.)
Thoughts on motherhood, breast cancer, and what attachment theory and the Enneagram taught me about being loved