present moment

Arrive Here: An Aromatherapy Blend to Anchor You in the Present Moment

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An Aromatherapy Blend for the Present Moment

Scent is the fastest route to the nervous system. Before the mind has time to interpret or resist, a breath lands — and something in the body responds. This is why aromatherapy and a slowing practice belong together.

This week’s blend was built for one purpose: to help you arrive.

It is rooted, resinous, and quietly alive. Nothing sharp or demanding. Nothing that asks you to move faster. Just a scent that says — you can put it all down now.

The Blend: Arrive Here

This combination moves through three layers the way a slow exhale does — top note releases, middle note settles, base note holds.

Top note — Bergamot Bright without being jarring. Bergamot lifts the mood gently and eases the mental chatter that keeps us one step ahead of ourselves. It is the first breath of permission.

Top note — Wild Orange Warm, soft, and grounding in its simplicity. Orange brings you into the body without effort. It is presence without pressure.

Middle note — Clary Sage The nervous system exhales here. Clary sage is deeply calming, slightly euphoric, and beautifully suited to restorative practice. It bridges the busy mind and the quiet body.

Middle note — Lavender A foundation of stillness. Lavender needs no introduction — it is the scent of permission to rest. Used here not as a sleep aid but as an invitation to soften.

Base note — Frankincense Sacred and ancient. Frankincense slows the breath naturally, deepens meditation, and carries a quality of reverence that matches this week’s theme exactly. The pause made tangible.

Base note — Vetiver The deepest root in this blend. Vetiver is earthy, smoky, and profoundly grounding. If frankincense opens the inner space, vetiver anchors you inside it.

Accent — Roman Chamomile A single drop is enough. Roman chamomile is one of the most calming oils available and adds a gentle sweetness that softens the whole blend. Optional, but beautiful.

Recipes

Diffuser Blend

Use in any ultrasonic or nebulizing diffuser. Run for 30–60 minutes during your morning practice, journaling, or evening wind-down.

  • Bergamot — 3 drops
  • Sweet Orange — 2 drops
  • Clary Sage — 2 drops
  • Lavender — 2 drops
  • Frankincense — 2 drops
  • Vetiver — 1 drop
  • Roman Chamomile — 1 drop (optional)

Total: 12–13 drops

Diffuse before your yoga session to signal the nervous system that it is time to shift gears. Let the scent fill the room before you step onto the mat.

Roller Bottle Blend (10ml)

A portable version to carry through your week. Apply to pulse points — inner wrists, base of throat, behind the ears — before practice, before a meeting, or any time you need to come back to yourself.

  • Fractionated coconut oil — fill to shoulder of bottle (approx. 8.5ml)
  • Frankincense — 5 drops
  • Lavender — 4 drops
  • Clary Sage — 3 drops
  • Vetiver — 2 drops
  • Bergamot — 2 drops
  • Roman Chamomile — 1 drop (optional)

Total essential oils: 16–17 drops (approximately 5% dilution — suitable for daily use on adults)

Roll onto wrists and pause. Bring hands to your face, close your eyes, and take three slow breaths before beginning anything. This becomes a ritual fast.

Body Oil Blend (30ml)

A nourishing blend to use after practice, after a bath, or as part of your evening nurture ritual. Massage slowly into legs, feet, and lower back — the areas that carry the most tension and respond most to grounding touch.

Carrier base (30ml total):

  • Jojoba oil — 20ml (absorbs well, suitable for all skin types)
  • Sweet almond oil — 10ml (softening, slightly richer)

Essential oils:

  • Frankincense — 8 drops
  • Lavender — 6 drops
  • Vetiver — 4 drops
  • Clary Sage — 4 drops
  • Bergamot — 4 drops (use bergapten-free if applying before sun exposure)
  • Sweet Orange — 2 drops
  • Roman Chamomile — 2 drops (optional)

Total essential oils: 28–30 drops (approximately 3% dilution — safe for full body use)

Apply with slow, intentional strokes. No rushing. This is not maintenance. This is tending.

How to Use This Blend This Week

Diffuse it during your morning practice or meditation. Keep the roller on your desk and use it as a reset before transitions — before a call, before school pickup, before the part of the day that typically speeds you up. Use the body oil in the evening as your closing ritual, the physical equivalent of the mantra: I am already enough, right here.

When scent becomes part of a consistent practice, the body begins to associate it with a particular inner state. By the end of the week, a single breath of this blend will begin to bring you home before you have even tried.

Safety

These blends are formulated for healthy adults. Avoid clary sage during pregnancy. Perform a patch test before full body application of the body oil if you have sensitive skin. Keep all essential oils away from children and pets.

This post is part of The Sacred Pause, a four-week May yoga and wellness series. Each week pairs a yoga theme with an aromatherapy blend designed to carry the practice off the mat and into daily life.


Enjoying this content? My book 52 Weeks of Wisdom & Wellness goes deeper — find it here.

Arrive Here: A Week of Slowing Down and Coming Home to Yourself

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Arrive Here

There is a particular kind of exhaustion that comes not from doing too much, but from never quite landing. You move through your morning, your meetings, your meals — but part of you is always somewhere else. Anticipating the next thing. Rehearsing a conversation. Running over what you forgot to do.

This week is an invitation to stop.

Not to stop entirely — but to stop rushing past yourself.

Week one of The Sacred Pause is built around one simple idea: you cannot tend to what you are not present for. Before we can root, we have to arrive. Before we can rise, we have to touch down.

On the Mat This Week

Sessions this week are slow and supported. Long holds. Props welcome — blocks, blankets, bolsters. The practice is not about getting somewhere. It is about feeling where you already are.

The mantra for the week is simple and worth returning to whenever the pace of life tries to pull you forward:

I am already enough, right here.

Let that settle into the body, not just the mind.

Off the Mat: Three Ways to Practice Arriving This Week

The real work of a slow practice happens in ordinary moments. Here are three things to bring into your week.

Pause before you begin anything. Before you open your laptop, before your first sip of coffee, before you start the car — take one full breath. Inhale slowly. Exhale completely. This is not about adding time to your day. It is about claiming the time you already have.

Notice the texture of what is in front of you. At least once a day, put your hands on something — the ground, the bark of a tree, the rim of a cup — and actually feel it. Not mindlessly. Actually feel it. This is how the nervous system learns it is safe to be here.

End the day with a body check-in. Before sleep, lie down and ask: where did I hold tension today? Not to fix it — just to notice. The body keeps a record of everything you moved through. This is a way of saying, I see you. I was here too.

A Thought to Carry

Presence is not a destination you arrive at once and stay. It is something you return to, again and again, like a breath.

This week, every time you find yourself already somewhere else — in tomorrow, in the worry, in the to-do list — let it be a gentle signal to come back. Not with frustration. With the same soft curiosity you would offer a friend.

You do not have to earn your way into this moment. You are already here.

This post is part of The Sacred Pause, a four-week May yoga series exploring presence, pacing, rest, and nurture.


Enjoying this content? My book 52 Weeks of Wisdom & Wellness goes deeper — find it here.

Breaking the Cycle: How Repeated Complaining Drains Us — and How Repeated Gratitude Heals

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We’ve all been there—caught in the loop of saying the same frustrating things over and over. The stress, the pain, the overwhelm, the “why me?” moments. Repetitive complaining is surprisingly natural… and surprisingly draining. It doesn’t make us bad or ungrateful; it just means we’re human.

But here’s the truth I’ve learned through mindfulness, yoga, and healing:
What we repeat becomes what we reinforce.

And while complaining might feel like release, gratitude is what creates actual relief.

Why We Fall Into Repetitive Complaining

When something is hard — your body hurts, life feels heavy, you’re tired, or you’re juggling more than anyone realizes — the mind wants to loop. It’s trying to make sense of discomfort. But when we repeat the same story too often, it keeps us stuck in the same emotional place.

Repetitive complaining can…

  • increase stress hormones
  • shrink our perspective
  • drain our energy
  • make challenges feel bigger than they really are
  • prevent healing (emotionally and physically)

The hard moments deserve acknowledgment — absolutely. But they don’t deserve ownership over your entire inner world.

The Shift: Replacing Repetition With Intention

Instead of repeating the pain, we can repeat the gratitude.

Not the toxic positivity kind.
Not the “pretend everything’s fine” kind.

But the grounded, honest, heart-centered gratitude that reminds us:

There is still some good here.
There is still something working.
There is still something steady beneath the struggle.

This shift isn’t about silencing your pain — it’s about changing the soundtrack of your inner world.

Why Repeated Gratitude Works

Practicing gratitude repeatedly — especially in small, simple ways — can:

  • soften emotional tension
  • support nervous system regulation
  • expand your perspective
  • create new thought pathways
  • bring your attention back to what is supporting you
  • help you feel less alone
  • anchor you in hope, even during hard seasons

It’s the repetition that matters.
Just like complaining reinforces stress…
gratitude reinforces resilience.

A Simple Daily Practice to Try

If you catch yourself repeating a complaint (it happens!), try this gentle shift:

  1. Pause.
    Notice the loop without shame.
  2. Acknowledge the truth.
    “This is really hard right now.”
  3. Add one small gratitude.
    Just one.
    “And I’m grateful I’m learning to take better care of myself.”
    “I’m grateful for the support I do have.”
    “I’m grateful for the strength I didn’t even know I had.”
  4. Repeat the gratitude instead of the complaint.
    This is where your healing gains momentum.

A Repeated Gratitude Mantra to Use All Week

“Even in the hard moments, there is something supporting me. I choose to notice that.”

Say it as many times as you need.
Let it become your new repetition.
Let it anchor you back into compassion — especially compassion for yourself.

Closing Reflection

We all slip into repeating our pain. But with awareness and intention, we can choose a new pattern — one that restores instead of drains, one that lifts instead of weighs down.

A life rooted in gratitude doesn’t ignore the hard things.
It simply refuses to let them be the only things.

The Path We Choose

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Choose a path and walk it well.

~Anonymous

To choose a path and walk it well is the best path to walk.

Sometimes we spend years or even decades on a path that may not be where we want to actually be, but because of responsibilities we may have, we stay walking down the same path, looking at the same landscape year after year. The proverbial path might be a miserable job that is meaningless, a relationships that is not fulfilling, or a lifestyle that doesn’t lend itself to vitality.

During a major upheaval to my life, I learned that whatever path I chose to walk, I better walk it well.

During the pandemic many of us had the opportunity to reevaluate our lives and perhaps even get off the path we were on, at least for awhile. Perhaps if you were like me, you made radical changes to your life. I went from being scattered, overly scheduled and often overwhelmed to being more intentional and deliberate with what and who I said yes to. I reduced my list of “friends” as I rolled with the impacts of all the societal changes. In doing that, I changed the “landscape” of my life and the results have been mesmerizing.

While we are no longer in a global pandemic, we are in the midst of change through the seasons as we lean into fall and the cold and hibernating months of winter are right around the corner.

It is not uncommon that we might feel a slight pull towards a change or shift this time of year. Nature is so obvious in showing us that it is okay to do just that, especially this time of year when we see the trees so effortlessly let go of the season’s growth. Some of us resist that pull, and end up staying stagnant and even miserable, when we could be feeling liberated. Or at the least, we could be aligned with our deepest selves as we welcome in the offering a change may bring.

If we opt to be on the path, why not choose to at least walk it well?

The season of work and health for me is coming to a change as I feel and listen to the pull to complete some projects that I have begun and been too scared to finish. This is my final push of vulnerability. Part of the reason to walk this path is to complete some big projects that I have been working on, and the other part of me is listening to the interior landscape of my soul asking me to align my actions with its deepest truth so that I can truly walk it well. If you know me at all, you know that I rarely put less than 100% effort into every opportunity I say yes to.

Today, look at the path you are on and ask yourself if are you walking it well?

If health is important to you, are you giving it all to maintain a healthy life? If love is your path, are you allowing unloving actions to come your way? If your job doesn’t feed your soul, are you willing to stay?

If a change, like the seasons is calling you, then take the other path. Just be sure that whatever path you take, walk it well.