Creating an altar or sacred space in your home

An altar is a sacred space, whether for religous worship or simply for ceremony and ritual. Creating one in your home can be a fun project that inspires you each day to live mindfully. And, it’s simpler than you might think.

I enjoy my altar daily offering prayers and wishes throughout the day as I pass by it. It displays reminders of what’s sacred to me and helps keep me spiritually centered. To learn the basics of how and why to set up an altar, check out my video, where I offer you a tour of my own!

I hope this inspires you to create your own altar at home and celebrate what is sacred to you.

I’ll post some more inspiring ideas on how to use the altar in a future post.

Interested in learning more about yoga and spritual traditions or how to meditate, consider booking a 1:1 Wellbeing Coaching session, which can be focused on yoga, meditation or spiritual wellbeing, among many other lifestyle topics (partnerships, work, health, goals).

Thanks for stopping by! Leave a comment to say hello.

Healing Yoga for Body Confidence [FREE Online Mini Workshop]

The journey to loving your body does not involve a diet, an outfit or a number on the scale. It truly starts by going within.

How do I know? Well I took the extreme route on my body confidence journey. I went from feeling mortified to be in a bikini, starving myself before social gatherings and never wearing shorts or leggings to becoming a gogo dancer! My body didn’t significantly change in appearance, yet I went from hiding and feeling ashamed of my body to shaking my ass on stage as a circus/bulesque performer. Now I teach yoga, so wearing leggings is my daily uniform. I also choose to be in a bikini everyday to go surfing! I gotta say, loving my body is way more fun!

I went from being mortified in a bikini to dancing in fun, skimpy costumes in public. There was no diet or body transformation at all, it was a mindset shift that made me love and feel proud of my body.

What changed for me? I studied yoga and mindfulness and learned that no matter what I changed on the outside, self love and body acceptance only comes from within. I know that sounds incredibly cheesy and also confusing (what do you mean I need to love myself more?). Well, if you are not celebrating your body everyday and happy with it in all its various forms and fluxuations, you deserve to love yourself and your body more.

There’s no need to take the extreme route like me, I’ll teach you what I learned by facing my biggest fears.

Start to love your body with this sacred self-care journey.

FREE, On Demand Workshop

In my self-paced mini workshop you will:

✔️ Release stored up beliefs and emotions that have been holding you back from exploring your full presence and space in the world.

✔️ Connect subconsiously with each cell of your body, exploring your body’s divine connection with infinite love.

✔️ Release patterns of shame and unworthiness through deep inner work.

✔️ Rewrite your body confidence story to empower yourself and commit to new habits that support your journey.

If you would like to hear more about my personal body confidence journey, check out my podcast interview where I include some mindfulness tips for body image.

Note: This workshop is currently closed but feel free to sign up for a 1:1 session.

I wish you the best on your journey to body confidence. Let me know how it’s going!

Finding Body Confidence Through Joyful Movement [Podcast]

Body image is something that most of us have struggled with at one time or another. How do we learn to accept our bodies and not let our limiting beliefs hold us back from living life to the fullest?

I’m sharing my best body confidence tips in this podcast episode.

In our conversation, we talk about my body confidence journey and how we all can learn to love the bodies we’re in right now. We discuss the power of joyful movement, our blocks to body confidence, and how mindfulness plays into it all.

Listen here, on Spotify or your fave podcast platform.!

Let’s dive into body confidence and what you can do today to start loving your body.

Let me know if this podcast inspires you.

Be sure to check out my Body Love Mini Workshop inspired by this podcast. It’s free for a limited time!

How to Create a Powerful Aura and Presence

Our sense of personal power is aligned with our confidence. When we feel powerless or lack of confidence, we often feel small. We feel we don’t deserve to take up space or attention. We hide our energy and retreat clinging to our inner fears and anxieties. Our body, posture and energy can reflect this.

How can we step into a more powerful presence, especially in situations where we feel powerless?

Visualization

One way is to actually visualize yourself and your energy as expansive. Close your eyes and literally visualize your aura of light growing and glowing around you, taking up more and more space. Feeling larger and expansive, begin to visualize what having more power in your current situation looks like.

Aligning the Chakras

It’s hard to maintain confidence each day, but working through the Chakras, the body’s energy centers, we can cultivate a sense of power, even when we are not feeling our most confident. The graphic below offers a path through the chakras to align your energy to your personal power.

Some journal prompts for reflection:

What makes me feel powerful?

What are some small things I can do to feel more confident right now?

Namaste.

Ready to do the work? Join me for 1:1 healing (or a yoga session!).

Want to Love Your Body? Focus on Your Mind (and Then Do This)

Let’s Start By Letting Go of Self-Judgement

We all have had our horrors in front of a full-length mirror. Judging ourselves so harshly as we prepare for a big event, summer swim season or even just starting our day. Can you relate? That mirror may as well be a magnifying glass, and God help us all under fluorescent lighting.

We are a society plagued by negative self talk, and that’s especially true for women. It’s not only the media (Instagram, we love you and we hate you!), but it’s an all out attack that comes from our closest social circle and community.

I grew up ashamed of my body because I was teased “playfully” by people around me. This had me dieting and counting calories by the fourth grade, which I learned from my mom’s Redbook magazines. Even my dermatologist had the audacity to point out unrelated to any medical concern that I have little pockets of fatty bumps in my heels (that’s “piezogenic papules,” btw!). Great, even my heels have cellulite!

No matter your size, shape, or fitness level, there’s a constant questioning and judgement that goes on in our heads. We can blame societal pressures, but we are our own harshest critics when comparing ourselves to others or media ideals. And guess what, that ideal body your comparing yourself to probably has it’s own inner-self critic!

There was a time in my life when I reached my thinnest and I still had the full-length mirror battles with my inner-self critic. I hid under baggy clothes and just accepted that I would never have the body or the confidence to wear certain outfits, such as shorts or yoga pants. It didn’t matter how thin I got (and hungry!), or how toned or in shape, I saw “orange peel” skin or bra-elastic induced “back fat” and whatever labels marketers coined up.

It’s Not About a Perfect Body, It’s About a Healthy Mindset

Radical self acceptance means you take a radical approach inward to express gratitude for your body, without judgement and negative self talk. Radical for me meant parading that “orange peel” skin and “back fat” in front of live audiences in skimpy costumes on stage. How’s that for vulnerability? I became a circus, pole dance and burlesque performer. 

This journey began about 12 years ago when I stepped into my first pole dancing class. I had no experience with dance. I joined a six-week series designed to build confidence and teach women to look and feel sexy in their own skin within a safe and accepting environment. So safe, there were dark rooms with black lights and each gym member coined her own dance name for anonymity. It was at Studio Rio Twisted Fitness in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where I became “BombChel.” 

I was told by the gym when I called to join the series that it was best to wear a“booty” shorts to class. Booty shorts? Ha, I had avoided wearing any type of shorts for the entirety of my 20’s. Why would the instructor think I just had “booty shorts” stashed away in my drawer. I was terrified of showing my legs!

What Joyful Activity Can Help You Connect to the Miracle of Your Body’s Movement?

Taking those pole dance classes was the beginning of bringing joyful movement into my daily life.

If you want to love your body, connect your physical body to a sense of joy and gratitude daily.

How does moving your body bring you joy?

Joyful movement is a physical activity that makes you smile. It’s not activity that that “targets your glutes” or makes you feel guilty for skipping a day. It’s a way to enjoy the miracle of your body’s movement every day. For me, it’s taking a walk on the beach, dancing to hip hop, playing with hula hoops, flowing to yoga and surfing.

Not sure how to explore joyful movement? Grab your journal!

List out some ways you find joy while moving. Maybe it’s taking a walk with your partner, biking with your kids or gardening. Think about what activities you are doing, who you are with and where you are when these activities take place.

Consider these questions:

• Is there a way to add more fun movement to your day and/or spend more time in the places that bring you joy?

• What hobbies did you have as a child (did you tap dance or twirl a baton or roller skate)?

• Is there an activity that you like to watch and admire, but are discouraged to try for yourself?

• What local classes, meet up groups or even YouTube videos could help you get started with an activity you will enjoy?

• Does your current exercise program (if you have one) bring you joy? If not, how could you make movement kinder to your body and more joyful?

Once you have a starting point of potential new, joyful activities, it’s time to find some confidence to try them.

What blocks or fears come up in exploring a new form of movement?

Many times, our self-criticism keeps us from even starting a new activity. I often hear, “I’d like to try pole dancing, but after I lose 10lbs and am in better shape,” or “I want to try yoga, but I’ve never taken a class before.” This could be fear of failure, fear of success or lack of confidence talking. Give yourself the space to be a beginner, start as a novice and learn.

Maybe your fear is trying something alone. I really had to push myself to hike trails alone as I prepared for a trekking trip to Nepal. Maybe it’s the fear of the unknown. I felt incredibly ackward when I showed up to my first-ever yoga class! We all have fears and we all grow by leaving our comfort zone, even if we just start slowly.

The inner self-critic expects you to fail. Self acceptance says you don’t have to be good when you begin an activity. The joyful place inside you just knows how to have fun, laugh and enjoy learning. It’s not about succeed or fail.

How can you invest some self care time in these activities?

To improve your self confidence, it takes dedication. It’s difficult to prioritize ourselves when the inner critic is telling us we don’t deserve it. Cultivating a habit of self love through self care plants the seeds for joyful movement and body acceptance. Give yourself time to grow.

How I Shut Up My Inner Self Critic

Exploring joyful movement without any expectation of the outcome is how I found peace with my body. The unitended consequence is that I’ve ended up performing pole dance, hoop and fire entertainment under the burlesque name “Gypsea BombChel.” I not only have booty shorts, I have mounds of cheeky shorts and bikinis that I wear on the beach, in public, under the bright sunlight.

Now I’m a dance and yoga instructor sharing what I love to do and a Certified Integrative Health and Well-Being Coach, inspiring body confidence.

What changed? For me, I started to have fun, expressing myself through movement, and that joy eventually took precedence over my own self-judgement. It took years to work on this, but it’s incredibly liberating to wear anything with confidence performing, even when I’m not admittedly feeling or looking my best. 

Make joyful movement a daily practice and over time, you too will see results. This practice of self love means choosing to enjoy life on your terms, rather than being concerned with the thoughts and opinions of others.

Life is too short to be self-conscious about your body each minute of it

I changed my mindset and embraced my own joy within. My body is for ME to enjoy, who cares what anyone else thinks?

You can love the body you are in now. Right now — not 5lbs from now, not 6 months from now, not a detox diet from now or 8 glasses of water from now. You can change your mindset and start to make peace with your body. Begin with daily joyful movement to connect your body with a sense of joy and gratitude.

Ready to get started? Take my online Body Love course for a sacred self-care journey. Check out the first module of the course as a free preview and you will access my Wellness and Wanderlust podcast interview about body confidence.

Confused About How to Meditate? Start Here.

Meditation can be intimidating, especially with so many methods and options for learning. You don’t need to understand yoga or study with monks to begin. You don’t need a yoga mat or to be perched on a mountaintop, you can start right here and right now. For real, go on…start this video. You are three minutes away from completing your first meditation.

There are many different ways to meditate, but what you are looking to do is acheive a little stillness in the mind that will put you fully aware in the present moment - not ruminating about the past or anxious about the future. The peace of even a minute of meditation offers many life-changing benefits. Here are a few biggies:

• Calming stress and anxiety

• Promoting healthy brain function

• Elevating mood and happiness

• Reducing negative thoughts and depression

• Enhancing overall well-being, greatly reducing the risk of chronic illness

The best way to get better at meditating is to practice regularly. Before you know it, you can increase your 1-minute practice to 5, 10, 20, 30 or more minutes! If you are interested in learning more, please contact me for private or group meditation or mindful movement classes.

The Genius 10-Minute Break that Will Improve Your Workday + Well-Being

Whether you are working sitting or standing, and whether that’s in an office, at home, or like me, in a coworking space - you should be taking a mindful movement break.

These little work day stretch breaks are genius, and here’s some benefits:

• Reduce chronic stress and burnout

• Refresh your energy and increase creativity and productivity

• Improve your physical and mental well-being

I explain more and offer a nice stretch in the video below so you can try out a Genius Break session for yourself.

Contact me to bring virtual Genius Breaks to your workplace and inspire your team. If you would like to focus more on creating better habits for your daily self care, consider a well-being coaching session.

How to (Realistically) Stay Fit While on Vacation

If you have a regular fitness routine, congratulations on creating a healthy lifestyle habit. But what happens when you go on vacation?

Vacation is a time to put life on pause and enjoy new activities and experiences. This doesn’t mean you have to stop working out completely. But letting go of your daily habits is a valuable part of going on vacation. It brings new perspective and can leave you feeling refreshed and renewed when you return back home.

There’s a way to have it all! One way to stay in shape while on vacation is to do mini workouts of higher intensity. Maybe at home you dedicate an hour to working out, but while on vacation, just a 20 minute burst of exercise can keep your body feeling great while giving you more time and freedom to explore new places.

I’ve developed this high-intensity Vacation Fit Yoga flow to offer a full body, high-intensity workout (and stretch) in just 20 minutes. All you need is a yoga mat (which I make sure to provide to all my Airbnb guests). This class is developed for an experienced fitness level to help you continue your healthy habits while on vacation. The workout features awesome beats by OBX (Outer Banks) local artist Indigenous Beets. Enjoy!

This mindfulness tip will create more time for your self care

If you have been struggling to make time for your own self care, evaluate where you spend time being distracted during your day. Maybe you’re spending a little too long picking out your clothes, texting a friend, scrolling your social media feed, or even cleaning. Any mindless task could be a filler in your day to keep you from connecting with yourself. Simply eliminating a few distractions could help you find a few extra minutes for your daily self care goals.

Elimitating distractions is known in the business and psychology world as Attention Management. In yoga, we consider this mindfulness and being intentional with our time. I explain more in this quick video.

Explore these journal prompts for creating more time for your self care.

• What are some of your go-to distractions each day?

• What feelings come up for you when you find yourself seeking out a distraction?

• What are your daily self-care goals?

• How much more time do you need to achieve each of your self care goals?

• What habit changes can you make today to create more time for your self care?

If you would like to focus more on creating better habits for your daily self care, consider a well-being coaching session.

Wake Up and Do This for 1 Minute to Increase Your Happiness

“You are what your deepest desire is. As is your desire, so is your intention. As is your intention, so is your will. As is your will, so is your deed. As is your deed, so is your destiny.”

— UPANISHADS

How do you start your morning, that very first moment you wake up? Be honest.

In the past, I’ve been guilty of waking to the alarm on my phone, which then means my phone is in my hand and by habit, my first moment awake, I was checking email and social media.

That’s a pretty passive, powerless, stressful and mindless way to start a day.

Fortunately, each morning is a chance for a renewal, a new beginning for the rest of our lives. So think about your morning routine. Maybe you do good things for yourself. Maybe you work out or go to a yoga class, maybe you enjoy tea or coffee and downtime. But it’s the very moment we wake up that has the most profound impact on our thoughts and successes for the day ahead.

How do you wake? Do you wake exhausted and unhappy that you have to get out of bed? Or do you wake up full of promise and positivity?

It just takes one minute each morning to vastly improve your day ahead.

Here’s how to change your life in just one minute each morning:

Every morning when you wake up, set an intention for your day. Ask yourself, “How do I want to feel?” or “What’s my deepest desire?” You can use the same intention each day or create a new one. Phrase this affirmation in the present tense (as if it’s already been accomplished) and use it as a powerful and positive way to start your day.  

When we first wake up, our bodies are fully relaxed and our minds are just starting to clear into awareness. We are still tapped into our subconscious state, which is the perfect time to really seal an intention within you.

This quick moment setting your intention each morning will change your life. Not only will you start each day feeling positive, powerful and uplifted, you will mindfully create your own destiny.