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Launch Something; Learn Empathy
Putting something new out into the world can be terrifying. Saturday morning I woke before my alarm, even though it was early and I had been up until 1:00am the night before working on the final details. Launch day – time to ship. For the last 7 months I have been part of a team that has been working on a new App for Specialized Kinesiology practitioners. Something new and scary that has the potential to change the way things are done completely, while also having the potential to create anger or confusion. I am thrilled with this App and what it represents; all the things that I fully believe…
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What does success feel like to you? Literally.
I was recently interviewed for a book and this was on the list of questions. I had been given the list in advance, so I had some time to prepare my answers. I made a few notes that were probably pretty unremarkable: happy healthy family, the ability to travel, knowing I’ve helped others, etc. But then during the actual interview, she changed the question somewhat. She asked me, ‘What does success feel like; as in how does it literally feel in your body?’ And with that slight change in the question, the answer changes entirely. It goes from a question that can be answered easily into a moment that actually…
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An unconventional meditation
I am not the type to sit quietly and cultivate stillness. I understand all of the reasons why I am supposed to, all the benefits for mind/body health. And yet, any time I have tried to sit peacefully for an extended period of time, what I end up with is a back in spasm and an anxious brain. So what is a quasi-enlightened person to do? Find another way. This is the first half hour of my day: When I emerge from my little cabin in the morning, I get a few supplies ready, pull on my boots and walk across the property to the animals. It is early and…
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Unlikely Warriors
Thoughts on ‘The Warrior Ethos’, By Steven Pressfield Tomorrow I begin Seth Godin’s altMBA program. Our first writing prompt was to create a one-page actionable summary of a book most will not have read that changed our minds. This is mine. I’m the kind of person that my father would refer to as a ‘Bleeding heart liberal hippy’. As I write this, I have a runt goat with a splint in the yard that I have been helping to eat at 4-hour increments rather than take him back behind the barn like any reasonable farmer would. So what am I doing reviewing a book about Stoic philosophy; a book that…
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Homesteading Goals 2018
Last year around this time, I broke my rule of ‘don’t tell people your goals’ and published a blog post about three things I was hoping to accomplish around our little homestead through the year. I thought that this might be an interesting time to take stock of the situation: review what actually happened in each of these three areas last year and think about what the goals are for the next year. February will mark two years since we embarked on this weird little adventure, so this whole homesteading/self-sufficiency thing is still fairly new to me. I am genuinely curious as to what my family will manage to accomplish…
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Touch for Health Instructor Training – Some thoughts.
John Thie’s original vision for Touch for Health involved having people on every street helping their families, friends and neighbours achieve health and balance in a gentle and holistic way. This is the legacy we find ourselves entrusted with nearly 50 years later. Great strides have been made – you can now attend a TFH class almost anywhere in the world, but TFH on every street? We are a long ways from that still! If we want this dream to be a reality, we need to create more instructors who can go forth and share what they know with more people. This is the reason why I began the process…
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Touch for Health Testimonial
What’s it like to take a Touch for Health Intensive in Costa Rica? After teaching my first one here in August I wrote this blog post called The Power of One (which you can read here) about the experience from my perspective and what I learned in the process. Today I received an email from a student with her thoughts about the experience, which I am so touched to receive and honored to share with you: “I was so fortunate to experience a Touch for Health Intensive (levels 1-4) in Costa Rica with Alexis Costello. I had the option to take the courses in my home town, however, I am…
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Quiet/Noisy Life
This life is full of contradictions. The one that I am thinking of today has to do with noise and what that means to us. Because it is never quiet here: the river rushes steadily below us, the cicadas sing in the rainforest, the rain cascades unrelentingly through the leaves. The birds are calling, and every shift in the sky or weather is greeted enthusiastically by my over-zealous rooster. All this, plus a 4 year old with a personality many sizes too large for him who doesn’t stop talking even in his sleep. And yet, despite the constant noise that surrounds me, I appreciate the quiet of this life. That…
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GEMS Nutrition
We love food. I have written before about how, when you start doing any type of homesteading, you become basically food-obsessed. I think many people in the holistic health industry find themselves in this position, learning more about the body means learning more about how to feed it for optimum performance. GEMS Nutrition is a course that has been percolating in my mind for a long time. I thought it was done nearly two years ago, then found out to my chagrin when I sent the files to a student, that I had somehow saved over some of the files incorrectly. As we had just moved to the rainforest all…
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Brush with a Hurricane
When I was little, I loved the book “I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Solew” by Dr Seuss. If you’re not familiar with it: there is a wonderful land, Solla Sollew, on the banks of the beautiful River Wah-Hoo where they never have troubles, at least, very few. But of course, the journey is weird and Seussian and generally not what it’s cracked up to be. This is how I felt this week. I arrived in San Jose Tuesday evening after a 12 hour flight from Switzerland. My poor brain was jet-lagged and scattered, I had a reservation at a nearby hotel and plans to travel on one of…
