Do you know the most important part of a house? What about a tree?
Is it the big windows and fancy backyard? Is it the glorious leaves and fruit? Or is it the foundation and the roots?
What’s the most important part of YOU? I believe it isn’t the material gains, titles, how much you weigh, how fast you can run, the size of you bank account, the size of your home, how much weight you can lift, your boundaries or how smart your kids are.
What is it then?
It’s the depth of WHO you are and how you show up in the world. It’s your values that lead you down the path. It’s the beliefs you hold most dear to yourself. It’s the way you treat yourself and others.
Not sure what values make up your foundation or your roots? If you don’t know yourself that well, it’s likely your behaviors and choices aren’t aligning with your best self and you’re often struggling in relationships and in life. A few years ago I wrote my ten principlesthat guide my decisions. These values make up my tree roots that sustain me during trying times.
Truth.
Thanks for reading my #tedtalk of the day and reach out if your life can’t seem to withstand the storms. It’s likely you have a rotten root or a weak foundation wall.
It seems many people have opinions on other peoples business model, and the two most common statements I get as it relates to my yoga business is 1) I’d never drive that far for a class or student, and 2) I would never teach a class for that little of a rate (usually followed by a laundry list of all the trainings and education they have).
Here’s the thing. I’m not in it for the money, but the money is always there. I’m not in it for the fame although I am booked solid week after week and literally have no room in my schedule for more. I’m not in it for the ego, yet I know that I make an incredible difference in the lives of many.
Why do I drive hundreds of miles a day only to find my student still in bed because staff didn’t bother to wake him up? Because I said I would and because when he did decide to get up, together we created a beautiful session that included him doing something he hasn’t done in decades. This incredibly special student was injured at age 25 and his college roommate continues to write him a letter every single week and they are now in their mid 50’s. My student actually wrote him a letter back! Remember, yoga is defined as union and it doesn’t have to include pretzel shapes with our bodies.
I do it because it is service—which to me is defined as doing something without an attachment to personal gain. I do it because it is my gift. It is purpose. I do it because this is the manifesto my business and life is structured around.
The minute I start calculating how much money I am going to make, I have stepped out of service.
And do you want to know what? The money is always there.
I’d much rather show up within the foundation of my manifesto than seek out fame and fortune. That isn’t what I am about. I am about service and becoming the best version of myself through those I humbly serve.
It is not the beauty of a building you should look at; it’s the construction of the foundation that will stand the test of time. ~ David Allen Coe
This time of year is ideal for getting back into ourselves after a summer season of play, vacations, kids home, and way less structure. This is the time where we reclaim our sense of self and rediscover the aspects of ourselves that support us in our everyday life.
You may know if you stop here often that I believe in the power of aroma to shift our chemical response in our brain. We can influence our state of arousal and our emotional state simply by smelling something. How cool is that?
As you experience a more predictable schedule and life begins to resume some sort of normalcy, take a few minutes to consider the four walls, or four main roots of a tree, that represent your foundation. This is the scaffolding which supports all the other parts of our home, or tree, during times of turbulence.
Here are some ideas; faith, service, accountability, kindness, diligence, love, fulfillment, action, compassion, etc.
Not sure where to start? Grab one of these blends, take 4-5 deep breaths, apply it to your spine and under your nose and then listen. You already know…you just need to listen.
By the way, check out the emotional benefits of these oils:
Douglas Fir.This one invites you to invoke your high wisdom and learn from the past experiences and people who may have crossed your path. This essential oil is perfect for turning inward in the season of more introspection.
Frankincense.Frankincense asks you to welcome in feelings of protection, wisdom, discernment, and a spiritual awakening. This sacred essential oil invites individuals to shed the lower vibration feelings that are often negative and draining. This truly brings our your own magnificence.
Ho Wood. This peaceful oil brings out a sense of calm and helps to quiet the mind. By clearing the mind of anxious thoughts or simply clutter, we can fine tune into the deepest parts of who we are. This helps us to live in alignment with our principles and aspects of our foundation.
Blue Tansy. This one is a powerful aroma that helps to bring out inspiration and the committed response of tacking action. This helps to be more purposeful and responsible, which is such a beautiful aspect to a solid constitution. Blue tansy welcomes in a sense of freedom and sense of walking towards your deepest dreams and desires.
Blue Chamomile.This sweet and delicate flower is commonly known as German chamomile and offers a beautiful blue hue to the oil. Like its counter part Roman Chamomile, this flower oil is the perfect choice for bringing out a peaceful and serene mental state. This brings out emotional harmony and illuminates the wisdom with your soul.
Spruce.This stable, grounded aroma brings out an enduring balanced outlook to life while also giving strength through your wisdom. When we soak in this aroma we are reminded of the rhythms and ancient wisdom the earth offers.
Cassia.This bold oil which a friend of cinnamon is warm and earthy as it invites you to feel courageous, strong, self-assured and confident in your authentic self. This brings an embracing warmth to the confident and meaningful connections in our life.
Petrified Wood Chips. It helps to create balance and offers a foundation from which to launch new goals or undertake a different path. This grounding stone helps to calm scattered energies and look closely at the essence of what guides our decisions.
These beautiful oils and solid gemstones will be a constant as your dive into the fall season of a slower pace, a calmer mind, and as you seek out the principles in which your life is sustained by. To learn more about the principles I have chosen for myself, check out this blog post.
You can purchase this blend here and it will soon arrive in your mailbox with lots of grounding love.
If I were a flower… I would be a sunflower. To always follow the sun. Turn my back to darkness, stand proud, tall and straight even with my head full of seeds.
Sunflowers are by far my favorite flower. I anxiously await this time of year when they open into all their glory. I find their patience to grow tall and magnificent to be a great lesson for me. Nature amazes me over and over.
Lessons from a sunflower-
1) DREAMS START SMALL. I held a sunflower seed in my hand and felt the beauty inside wanting to come out. I want to believe this is true of most people — that there is a beauty inside that wants to come out.
2) FACE THE SUN. I know that the best way to grow is with light and love. I reminded myself that facing the sun, or the light, is a good way to ensure I’m taking actions that are aligned with my higher purpose.
3) GROW BIG. The way a sunflower grows is this: She grows from the stalk — her neck. The only way a sunflower gets big is by literally sticking her neck out again and again and again.
4) LET MYSELF BE BEAUTIFUL. I’ve never heard a sunflower complain about a bent stem, petals too long, or a center too fat. I asked myself to let myself shine, shine, shine!
5) CENTER MYSELF EVERY DAY. A sunflower grows on one side of her stalk and then on the other side of her stalk. Often at the end of a day, one side of her stem is longer than the other. This is why a sunflower can be bent to one side. For me, I take this to mean making time to breathe, sleep, eat good food and be still.
What oils do you gravitate towards when you are feeling overwhelmed? You can grab all of these in a bundle for great savings and access to my ongoing education and mentoring plus a personalized wellness plan. Check out this beautiful ebook also to see how versatile essential oils can be for your family. Just these listed can help support sleep, skin, aches and pains, mood and much more. The uses are endless!
With over fourteen years experience, Stacie Wyatt is a E-500 hour Registered Yoga Teacher with Yoga Alliance, Certified Brain Injury Specialist, Life Wellness Coach, Senior YogaFit Instructor, Mind/Body Personal trainer, Stress Reduction and Meditation Instructor, Pilates Instructor, and Barre Instructor. Stacie is also certified in Integrative Movement Therapy™and is also a believer in the power and application of essential oils for health and wellness and proudly shares doTERRA essential oils.
Every morning each of us is faced with a choice—focus on the things that are challenging or focus on life.
I choose LIFE. I choose to notice the colors I see. I choose to listen to the birds that fly in and out of the yard. I choose to feel the aliveness in my body—even if that aliveness is pain. I choose to get up and live LIFE.
I choose to embrace all aspects of my experience each day and not to dwell on the parts of being human that are tough.
Pain sucks.
But I am alive, determined, magnificent, and so amazingly grateful for this life.
According to the Cambridge dictionary, abundance is defined as an amount that is more than enough.
Have any of you noticed how much nature reminds us of that same bounty that is available? The constantly changing and growing plants tell me that the same extraordinary potential exists within me. I see how the animals gather and forage what they need and this reminds me that everything I need is right here. I am grateful for the rain and the amazing colors that surround me. My garden is a perfect example to me of “more than enough”– the green beans and cucumbers this year may just feed the neighborhood! Oh, and I made my first ever batch of chokecherry jelly and it is amazing.
For years I have focused on creating a more abundant life and the ways in which that has all happened marvels me on a daily basis. Some may think of abundance as simply financial bounty, but I have come to see it as so much more.
For me abundance shows up in the random acts of kindness I receive, the support I consistently have for my classes, my friendships, the magnitude of joy in my life, colors everywhere, laughter that fills a room, a belly full of food, and enough money for me to live happily and generously.
As we come into the long, and usually hot month of August, I encourage you to look for the bounty in your own life that exist all around you….Simple things like lemonade, lazy afternoons in the hammock, delicious ice cream, sunflowers, sweet watermelon, a basket of veggies, the feel of a breeze against our cheek, the laughter of children chasing the ice cream truck and much more.
When we recognize all that truly IS, we can shed the notion that there is not enough.
This morning’s schedule change allowed me to have a long walk along a tree lined creek. I am certainly most grateful on these unexpected days where I have time to connect and be with myself and nature. Days like today are just one of the many benefits of being self employed. There certainly are some downsides to being your own boss, but time to get outside is a huge bonus! As I spent time watching hawks fly and bunnies hop, I found myself reciting this favorite poem of mine. Trees and time to commune with them often is something that is a must for me. I feel more connected, more energized and way more alive.
When I Am Among the Trees
When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.
I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.
Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.
And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,
“and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
Ever since I started gardening a few years ago I have gotten a huge thrill out of watching something grow from a tiny seeds into something that sustains me. Nothing beats fresh produce right out of your own garden. I love the constant growth and it is such a good reminder to me of having patience, providing loving presence and attention to something and enjoying the abundance that always comes.
Trying new things has always been one of my strengths. I rarely shy away from learning new skills and when it comes to trying FUN new things, I am all in. I have two really large chokecherry bushes along my back fence and for the last three or four years I have muttered to myself that I should try making chokecherry jelly. Somehow each year that thought remained just a thought.
Until this year. Last night I grabbed a bowl and off I went to pick. A great memory I have is my sweet grandmother talking about making chokecherry jelly. While I was picking I felt her spirit as my hands got sticky and red. I had no idea how many cherries I needed to pick to get enough for jelly, but I kept picking. I ended up picking three pint size mason jars and told myself that if it was easy and fun to make jelly, I can always pick more.
Making the jelly was easy and fun. So much so that as soon as my batch was cooling, I took off with a bigger bowl to pick more!
The first thing you do is make the juice. After rinsing and discarding leaves and big stems (don’t worry about the little ones attached to the cherries) cover your cherries with water and boil for 30-35 minutes. You can use this right away for the jelly, or you can freeze it for later. To make the jelly, just follow this simple recipe!
Chokecherry Jelly
Ingredients:
3.5 cups chokecherry juice
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon butter or margarine
1 pkg dry pectin 1.75 oz
4 1/2 cups of sugar
Optional—I added two drops of wild orange essential oil! Bam!
Instructions:
Pour juices in kettle.
Add pectin, stir.
Bring to a boil, add sugar.
Boil and stir for 2 minutes.
Remove from heat, skim.
Ladle into jars leaving 1/2 inch space. Add the top and the ring, twist just finger tight (not super tight).
Process in hot water bath for 10 minutes. A hot water bath is when you add filled jars to pot of simmering water that covers the jars.
Remove from bath and cool undisturbed for 24 hours.
Besides being fun and easy it is also gorgeous to look at! I cannot wait for a little toast and jelly with my coffee while sitting on the patio tomorrow morning. There is something SO satisfying about making your own food…and even more fun actually picking the ingredients to feed your people. Plus, how amazing will these little jars be for neighbor gifts come holiday time?
** update to original post. After making this two years in a row, I have some measurements that may help. You’ll need approximately 10 cups of berries to yield 4 cups juice. This recipe that calls for 3.5 cups juice yields 7 jars of jelly.
You can find some of my favorite DIY supplies and follow me for more inspiration below!
“The confinement that I feel is only what I ALLOW myself to feel.”
I often say that I am putting all of the amazing nuggets of wisdom that come from my students with brain injuries into my future book. Who knows, maybe someday a future Ted Talk. Wouldn’t that be amazing?
Year after year I am humbled at the insights that come from people living with brain injuries. I feel so strongly that they can teach the world so many things about truly living. Over the years I have kept a little notebook with some of the teachings that they bring to my life. It is common that I often pull inspiration from that notebook and share with others.
This one is a keeper.
I have been teaching from the theme of freedom this month. According to Webster’s dictionary,freedom is defined as having the ability to think, speak and act without hindrance or restraint. As we broke down each of those areas and shared the hinderances in our lives it is easy to see that everyone has certain hinderances or restraints that keep them from living fully free. For some, it is living without the ability to move their legs, or for others it is not being able to drive or work. Although I can drive and work, I have certain physical limitations and responsibilities that keep me from being fully free in my actions.
We then moved onto our ability to speak without hinderance or restraint and it was evident that while the idea of free speech exists, there is a limitation to what we can all say and not get into a little hot water, whether that it within our own home or in the community.
We finished our discussion with the realization that the only true place we have freedom is in our thoughts. It was decided that we are all free to think what we think. No matter what our challenges or our struggles are, it is ultimately what do with it through our mindset.
Here is the moment of ah-ha that has stayed in my heart for weeks. As we were closing up our discussion on living freedom, this was spoken:
“The confinement that I feel is only what I ALLOW myself to feel.”
Read that again.
The woman who said this is a student who lives in assisted living and occasionally comes down for yoga. Her body is riddled with pain so her practice is breathing and sharing. She is brave and wise.
She also lost her independence, her family, her ability to work and drive, and do things that feed her soul. And yet, she has the insight to see that despite all of her lack of freedoms, she can escape the cage with her thoughts. She is one of the most insightful and grateful people I have ever met.
To think that I am called the teacher. I disagree.
The truth is, I am a conduit for their wisdom. I get to be the messenger.
According to researchers, multiple environmental factors determine how you feel. These include physical factors around you as well as the community spirit. Your housing environment, for instance, can have an effect. People tend to have higher levels of well-being when they live in attractive, warm, and cozy properties. Their homes recharge their batteries, so to speak, enabling them to take on the challenges of the world with more confidence. Well-being tends to decline when properties are dilapidated, dirty, or affected by dampness.
In the Yoga world, we call the practice of purity and cleanliness Suacha. It is the practice of cleaning up our thoughts and our space and eliminating clutter in both areas of our lives.
The level of tidiness can also make a substantial difference in how you feel. When your rooms are tidy, it has an influence on your unconscious. The less cluttered your environment — the less you have to think about — and the more you can ease into life.
The lighting, smells, and color of an environment can also profoundly affect your mood. Shutter companies know this very well. They understand that the level of light that gets into a room determines how the occupants feel. When light levels are high — as they should be in the daytime — it helps to calibrate the your natural sleep-wake cycle.
The people you spend time with also have a profound impact on how you feel. If you are around elevating people who support you, you’ll feel like you can do just about anything you want with your life. Likewise, if you are around negative individuals who bring you down — life will feel like a constant series of battles.
Surrounding ourselves with people, calm colors and a clean and serene space can play a big part in our overall wellbeing.
How do you control your environment to better your mind, body and spirit?
Did you know that thistle is actually part of the sunflower family!?
I saw this thistle today and was amazed by its beauty. It is one plant I enjoy in other peoples garden or in nature that is for sure.
I did a little digging about this plant that is stubborn and plentiful.
Here is what I found:
Considered one of nature’s toughest flowers, it’s one of the most debated plants by most gardeners. Some call it a weed while others view it as an excellent source of medicine and food, as well as a beautiful ornamental plant. Certain varieties are considered beneficial to wildlife because they produce a substantial amount of food for insects and birds and their foliage is also used by butterflies.
The thistle represents overcoming adversity and difficult situations. It’s a symbol of resilience. In Celtic regions, the thistle represents devotion, bravery, determination, and strength. In the Basque region of France, the thistle is considered a symbol of protection. It is also called the “flower of the sun“ and the “herb of witches”. It’s used as protection against evildoers because people believe that witches cannot look directly at the sun. The thistle is often seen on the front doors of the homes of this region. The flower’s pink and purple colors represent nobility and royalty.
Milk thistle, another variety, contains a chemical known as silymarin. Research suggests that it has bolstering effects on the liver and it is widely sold in various cleansing and detox products. Full of nutrients, the thistle has been found to contain higher vitamins and minerals compared to other more common vegetables. Various parts of the plant can make excellent additions to stews and salads, albeit with careful preparation.
I appreciate taking milk thistle for my health and observing her beauty, but I try to avoid them in my yard.
