Stop Trying to Optimize Your Life (Here’s Why)

There's been a cultural obsession recently with optimizing your life, your health, your body and more. And while optimization can provide support and scaffolding, there’s a hidden danger of focusing too much on optimization.  I’ll unpack that silent drawback in today’s episode.  I’ll also share a…

An Unexpected Reason You Don’t Feel Supported

In today’s episode, I share a metaphor I’ve been using in my yoga classes lately that has served me in the rest of my life, too.   If you’re new here, or if you missed it, I’m teaching yoga! For now it’s one each week at Hot Yoga of East Nashville, a free / donation based 60 minute flow class on F…

In a Chaotic World, We Need More of This Lost Art

Human beings have a primal need that we don’t often talk about.  It’s not food or water or love, although we need those things too.  It’s the human need that drives you to watch Netflix, scroll Instagram, gasp at a text message that says, “you’ll never guess what happened!?” and even binge a grea…

Let AI Take Over Everything but This

AI has been a constant topic of conversation lately, mainly because we’re watching the world change at a rapid pace in ways that are unprecedented and can be unnerving.  We’re in uncharted territory.   As nostalgic as I can sometimes feel about a time when iPhones didn’t rule our lives, I tend to…

Who Is Narrating Your Story?

If we’re all a sort of “hero” in our own personal narrative, it begs an obvious question: who is narrating the story?  I watched Harold and the Purple Crayon on Netflix with my kids over the weekend, a children's book turned movie where the main character of a book goes searching for the narrator …

My Deconstruction Story

One of the most common questions I’ve been asked in the past ten years is if I would talk about my evolving process with the Christian faith of my childhood.  I even recorded an episode called, “Are you still a Christian?” here:  Finally, after years of avoiding and evading the question, after ne…

The Purpose of the Villain in Your Story

One of the most common questions I am asked from anyone who is writing about their life goes like this:  How do I write about the people who hurt me?  Maybe you find yourself wanting to write about your parents, lovers, ex-lovers, siblings, neighbors, bosses, co-workers, etc but you aren’t sure h…

Moving Past Toxic Positivity

Research shows that a daily practice of gratitude can make you happier but have you had a time in life when “gratitude” felt impossible? Have you ever felt like “staying positive” might be blocking you from feeling what was true for you that day?  What is the line between “being grateful” and pret…

For When You Are Fumbling Your Way Through

Today’s episode is a love letter to anyone who feels like they are fumbling and stumbling their way through something right now. Whether it’s work or working out or parenting or creativity, if you feel like a beginner or like you don’t know exactly what to do next, you’re normal, you’re doing great…

Don’t Get Duped by This Publishing Scam

I heard recently about a publishing scam that would be hard to detect by an average consumer and that preys on the vulnerabilities of new, hopeful authors. And yet with just a little bit of publishing context you can arm yourself with enough information to sniff out the fakers and find a publishing…