To be fair, it was Mardi Gras and I was probably the least inebriated person in a three block radius.  But honestly, there are a lot of pictures of me like this out there, and most of them were taken on regular Tuesdays, not Fat Tuesday.

I am a 40 year old recovering party girl.

This is also me.
Serious, focused, and standing on one leg.

You could take this picture of me any day of the week. I get up daily before dawn to meditate. I practice asana ten hours a week. I’m vegan. I eat local, love home grown food and I can tell you where to find nutritious edible weeds.

I am a yoga teacher.

It may seem like these are two very different people, or at least two very different sides of me. But the reality is that I am both of these people at the same time.

Last week I baked pot brownies. They were vegan and organic. The oozed with THC and ooey gooey very high cacao content chocolate chips. Yum. I ate two. In the afternoon on a weekday. What did I do with my altered state? Binge watched bad tv.

Not.

I practiced. I got on my mat and wrung myself out. I luxuriated in the novelty of my altered state. I had a personal epiphany about side bends, twists, and subtle undulations of the spine that I neglect in the discipline of my regular practice (read sober).

Those ideas now inform my teaching. I’ve spent every class since slowing my students down, asking them to move in new ways, asking them to find strangeness in the familiarity of their own experience.

I did NOT tell my students that they should also get high so they can experience their practice with new eyes. I used my experience to help guide them into new territory. Altered consciousness can be experienced with subtle shifts in perspective. No substances necessary.

So why did I get high? Because it was a fun way to spend my afternoon. Duh.

I could probably do a lot of justifying my stoned yoga by saying that I did it to increase my awareness or so that my students don’t have to, blah blah blah, but really, it was just fun.

And I like to have fun. Not just good clean fun, but also sloppy drunk fun. Also muddy one with nature fun. Also spacing out and watching TV fun. Also marathon curriculum planning hard work fun. I like all the fun.

Some of y’all are totally on board with this. I see you outside the studio with a big fat spliff. I see you working 14 hour days doing something you love. I see you struggling to find that mysterious state called balance.

Some of y’all are totally not into this and you are probably judging me hard right now. Go ahead. I’ve been there, too.

Here’s the thing. We all have ideas about what yoga teachers are supposed to be like and what health coaches are supposed to be like. All of us want to have teachers and guides that we can look up to. The reality is that all the people we look up to are totally human beings who have habits that may not jibe with our expectations. There are no perfect role models.

So, then, we have a choice. We can accept our less than perfect role models or we can live in a state of constant disappointment. Personally, I think it’s more realistic to accept that our teachers are not perfect and, instead of judging them on their imperfections, we can judge them based on how they handle their imperfections. Do they use their bad habits to evolve or devolve. Do they unquestioningly follow their pleasures and addictions, or do they question and learn from everything? Do they show their work?
My general philosophy of life is, “try it.” Try it and see if it works for you. Be brave enough to see the answer. At this moment in my life, I really like the fun of tapping into my dinacharya in ways that allow me to feel more expansive, more energized, more alive, and more thrive. This is what brings me here to Body Thrive and Yoga Health Coaching. I also like pot brownies. Right now, both are working for me

I’m not new here. I’ve read the book three times. I’ve gone through the habit changes once on my own, once as a member of a group, and once as part of an immersion that I led. The changes I’ve made in my habits have had a monumental effect on my general feeling of wellness, on my productivity, on the alignment of my thought and action.

I believe that making subtle small shifts in your daily habits can change your total life experience. I want more of that, and I want to share it with other people. But I don’t want to be uptight about it and I don’t want to give up fun. But I am willing to question all my habits and pleasures to find new kinds of fun and new kinds of balance and new levels of thrive.

I’ve committed the next year to charting my voyage through the ten habits of Body Thrive here on this blog. I will go in deep on each habit for one month.

You can come, too.

Each month, I will write about my experiments in habit evolution. Each month, I will struggle and succeed (maybe). I will show you what it is like for a “real person” with bad habits and a rebellious streak a mile wide to commit to thrive. For your entertainment, I will demonstrate what it looks like when someone with equal parts discipline and total disregard for the rules comes into greater alignment.

I’ll laugh. I’ll cry. I’ll mediate. I’ll get high (on life, and maybe other things). I will use the wisdom of yoga and Ayurveda to evolve. And you will know that if I can do it, so can you.

So, you’ve been reading my blog for a while now, right?

Keeping an eye on the conversation? Having an occasional revelation or chuckle?

Well, I’m glad, but let me ask you…

What has changed in your day-to-day life?

Do you do things different?

Do you feel better?

Are you more awake and interconnected?

Do you live more at-ease than overwhelmed?

Let me guess…

You’ve been overextended. It’s hard to implement the simplest of the health evolution strategies when you

’re overextended.

You encountered conflicting tactics?

You’re annoyed with yourself for staying stuck?

There’s a reason why.

To tell you about it, I need to tell you about my Jewish colon.

If you’ve been around the blog you may have come across my early childhood migraines, constipation, and other such maladies. These shifted into horrific seasonal allergies where I had snot streaming out of my face most days of high school. So gross.

Due to the migraines and the allergies and my parents allopathic approach to life I was fed pills. I earned the name The Pill Popper by the time I was 10.

A simple holistic body habits course would have changed my life. It would have changed the patterns that influenced how my cells patterned and re-patterned through early childhood, childhood and my teen years.

This sucks.

Why does it suck?

Because when we’re growing up our cells turn over quickly and tendencies develop. Imbalances get patterned into the person. Many of you know that Ayurveda saved my ass. You may take this literally.

You see, I  have Lynch syndrome. It’s a genetic condition passed down on my Jewish side. I’m predisposed to an 80% chance of colorectal cancer.

I have a 60% chance of contracting endometrial cancer.

Them stats aren’t in my favor.

Butt.

I mean but…

But, many of you are paying attention to the field of epigenetics. And many more of you have common sense that says there are things we can do to impact our future.

On a cellular level.

Which brings me to that simple holistic body habits course that could have changed my life.

As a teenager I picked up Fit For Life by the Diamonds. It’s sold over 12 million copies… so it’s not surprising that one ended up in my backpack. Learning that what I ate impacted, perhaps dictated my symptoms was a revelation.

I tried it.

It was hard.

In 1988, age 15, I had trouble finding others who were reading Fit For Life or experimenting with their body habits. But I was hooked. When I found Ayurveda in my early 20’s I dove in hook, line and sinker.

I dissolved my allergies, my headaches. I even dissolved massive chunks of ego.

The cure  wasn’t an herbal formula. It wasn’t a specific cleanse. It wasn’t even the Fit For Life diet. It was simply better body habits.

The problem with body habits is that most of are doing a good enough job and we can tolerate living at 80% of our capacity. Dr. Fuhrman, who is an expert on this matter puts that number at 70%, but here at Yogahealer I’m generously giving us an extra 10% of embodied body intelligence.

What would living at 90% of your vibrant wellness potential look like? Feel like? Be like?

Living at 90% of your capacity would look good. You’d be within a few pounds of the weight your body would prefer. Your skin would be juicy and clear. Your eyes would be sparkly and clear.

Living at 90% of your capacity would feel energized and relaxed. You’d obviously be getting plenty of exercise most days and plenty of rest most nights. You’d have to be eating feel so your cells would be happy with you feeding them what they actually need.

Living at 90% of your capacity would be easeful. You would be living in an easeful, not a stressful relationship to your own stress…. I mean your own life. You would be relaxed and aware as your default mode.

Yes – 100% would be fully amazing. But, chances are, you’d feel an insane amount of benefit from a 10% improvement.

The thing about a 10% shift in health is that it requires nothing less than a 10% shift in our daily habits.

I’m going to say that again and get out the BOLD because it’s perhaps my most profound realization. A 10% shift in actualizing your body’s potential requires a 10% shift in your daily habits.

Upgrading your habits, even by 10%, is hard. Which is why we’re happy, or happy enough, to stay in that 80% of our personal potential range.

But, if you’re like me and you have ancestors, and your ancestors had issues, whether it be arthritis, diabetes, heart attacks, depression, a 10% shift could actually mean an exponentially greater reduction of future disease.

Take that in.

Bam.

Also, get this:

Upgrading your habits, even by 10%, is harder when you do it alone. Isolation is cruel ineffective punishment used by parents and prisons around the world. Isolation has little to do with stepping up your potential. Isolation has even less to do with better habits for the long haul of having a body.

I’ve read the research. I’ve interviewed habit evolution pros. I’ve even created a certification program for yoga teachers to help their students evolve their old habits into vibrant health habits.

And now, I’m giving 20 people a chance to go through my simple holistic body habits course. It’s called Body Thrive. It’s simple, but it’s not easy.

If you want to apply to be one of the 20, click here.

Or, if you know of someone who needs this program, please forward this email, or share this link.

(My simple holistic body habits course is a teaching program. Our sessions will be listened to by the Yoga Health Coaches-In-Training.) There is a financial investment to be a member. Only apply if you are serious about your 10% health evolution.

Tomorrow I’ll tell you more about my Jewish colon + Making Sexy Choices regarding cesspools and microbe factories.  Stay tuned. And by the way… the 20 spots are on a first come, first serve basis.