Zenful Mindings LLC

01/11/2026

This last week has been... much and devastating and much and horrific and too much. My spirit has been weary. I am making a concerted effort to only tune into the news in manageable spurts. My mental and emotional capacities are thin and I need them intact.

So do you.

This is a reminder to take care of yourself. In your grief, in your devastation, in your anger or disbelief, in whatever you are experiencing, reinforce your resources so you can maintain capacity to function as well as you can.

We cannot do anything if we toil away to nothing. To stand up, we must be able to stand, and that starts with our internal states. So please.

Please.

Please.

Take some time.

Don't live solely in the overwhelm.

This morning I happened upon this lovely poem meditation I wanted to share. Take this 3 minutes to remember what's beautiful. All those things still exist. Each day is still new. And you are so very important.

This poem is a calm and reflective meditation on beginning the day with presence and intention. It encourages letting go of urgency and past burdens, focusing instead on breath, stillness, and mindful awareness. Using nature-inspired imagery and gentle rhyme, it invites the reader to embrace the mor...

12/31/2025

Happy magical last Wednesday of 2025 💜

With much delight and heart-forward magic, I want to share the remaining bits of mindful advice from a budding potter I started last week, starting with a gentle recap. So without further ado, may you find exactly what you need ✨

A Gentle Recap:

1. Embrace the plot twists.
2. Don’t overwork it.
3. Know when to scrap it.
4. Avoid unnecessary force.
5. Stay curious.
6. Laugh at yourself.

More Bits and Bobs:

7. Get messy. You’re not coming out of this clean. You have to get in there and get dirty. Dress as best you can for it and know it all comes out in the wash.

8. Reuse your resources. Just because it didn’t work out for you doesn’t make it garbage. With the right tools, time, and energy, clay can be reclaimed to make new things with new hands (or yours again!). Take some space. Let it regroup while you do too.

9. Stay anchored. It’s important that some part of your arms are touching a stable surface so you’re not at the whim of the wheel’s centrifugal force. You have to continuously have the ability to regulate your movement. Lean into what grounds you.

10. Use more than your eyes. Looks can be deceiving as a cylinder spins around. Feel what’s happening under your fingertips. Body presence gives you the best information.

11. Be humble. As special as you are, you are not the end all be all. The wheel keeps on spinning whether you’re confident or not. Knowing its groove is just as important as knowing your own so you can partner up for some bodacious creative expression.

12. Breathe. You have to move patiently and slowly with your clay, and you can’t do that if you’re all uptight and ready to pass out. Inhale and exhale. Don’t rush. Dip back to analog and remember that we’re humans creating art, not machines on a production line.

Once again, I’d love to hear your thoughts or anything you feel called to share, so send it my way.

As a reminder, this will be the last regular Mindful Morsel for a while since I’ll be taking some time to revamp publication energy for Zenful Mindings. Stay tuned for more info as I’m ready to share it.

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12/30/2025

Happy New Year’s Eve Eve to your delightful heart 🎉

As much as it no longer personally aligns for me to count the changing of the year number as the close of something, it is an energetic shift around the world that I can’t ignore. There’s fun in the festivities and the coming together, and I’m a sucker for confetti 🎊

In that spirit, I felt compelled to write a letter for this transition to document my experience and observations, and to propel some much-needed magic into the rising future ✨

​Enjoy the handwritten version (because I’m way leaning into analog 💜) or for easier reading, you can peep the typed version below 👇

Dear 2025 —

Culturally, what a mindf-ck. You have asked of us resilience. Light in perpetual darkness. To untangle ourselves from superficial habits. To lean into the profound and meaningful. To have an existential crisis out loud and in community. To stop taking our own names in vain.

You have made us lay our convictions bare for all eyes to see — and through that we can more clearly see our kin, community, and safe spaces. We can no longer deny what is causing us harm and ways we are harming the world. 2025 has cast a harsh light out of love. One that begs for us to turn the wheel sharply in another direction by remembering that we’re in the driver’s seat.

We all may not have all the choices, but we have many — where we spend our money, how we earn it, how we invest our time, how we treat those we love, how we connect with new people, what values we live by, whether we treat our beliefs as an inherent freedom or an agenda, how we enjoy living, whether we love out loud, what we create, and so on ad nauseam.

May all we’ve uncovered in 2025 help us shift more radically into softness in 2026. May we take things slower. Check in with ourselves more often and with love. Hold the line. Love our boundaries. Expand our edges offline. Pour our energy into more connection, and make genuine kindness a higher priority than going viral.

With love, gratitude, and an endless well of hope 💜

12/24/2025

I’ve wanted to make ceramics since I was a wee little kid asking for a toy pottery wheel every year for Christmas. This year, I gifted myself the opportunity to explore my dream, and I’ve now been throwing clay at a killer local studio (shout out to Studio 83!) for almost a year.

It’s been quite the adventure — funny, serious, nerve wracking, fantastic, freeing, and an absolute riot. Consider me a lifelong potter now.

I’ve learned a lot about clay and throwing techniques, and surprise, surprise …. they’re all poignant mindfulness bits and bobs, so this week I give you mindful advice from a budding potter.

In the spirit of Everybody's Free To Wear Sunscreen, I’ll point out that “my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience.” And to keep this digestible, I’m breaking this up into 2 parts, so stay tuned for more next week.

For now, I hope you find exactly what you need ✨

1. Embrace the plot twists. You can have the biggest and grandest of intentions when you start working with a ball of clay, but one small deviation can really put a hitch in your giddyup. Even the most skilled of potters I’ve seen have to pivot. Resituate and get a new perspective. It could be better than you imagined.

2. Don’t overwork it. Clay can only take some much, just like all of us. A combo of too much water and too much time on the wheel leads to clay not holding a shape and flopping around as sad, aimless potential. The right resources, time, and energy help it become a beautiful piece.

3. Know when to scrap it. Sometimes, even after trying new things and doing your best, things don’t work out. That clay isn’t rebounding in this moment. It can be reclaimed through a process, but that takes a different set of skills and tools. Sometimes we just have to know when to walk away or recognize that something isn’t a right now task. You can’t make more time but you can reallocate how you spend it.

4. Avoid unnecessary force. Firm pressure and stabilization are big giant yeses at the pottery wheel, but the moment you start to surpass assertive, your clay is going off center. And physics isn’t your friend with unwieldy clay. Small, confident moves make big magic.

5. Stay curious. The same hand positions and techniques don’t work the same for everyone. Ask questions and experiment. Expose yourself to new ideas. See what works for you.

6. Laugh at yourself. Things are going to take a turn. Sometimes clay flies around the wheel or a side caves in. S**t happens. This isn’t a contest to see who can be the best. Don’t take it or yourself too seriously.

I would love to hear how these lands for you, so if you have something you’d like to share, send it my way.

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12/23/2025

I’ll be taking some time to revamp publication energy for Zenful Mindings, so after 12/31/25, there will be a pause in regular Mindful Morsels.

Keep an eye out for them as scheduled on 12/24/25 and 12/31/25, and if you're subscribed to my mailing list, peep your inbox 💌

I’m unsure exactly how long this pause will be, but I plan to give this new project intentional and purposeful energy without rushing. Thank you for your patience and I look forward to sharing new evolutions with you 💜

12/17/2025

We’ve all been so many beautiful, wonderful, and brilliant people — so many different versions of ourselves on the way to becoming who we are today, and we’re nowhere near done evolving and growing.

I don’t know about you, but I haven’t always been proud of who I’ve been or where I’ve come from, and I also know that I wouldn’t be the me I am now if it hadn’t been for each of those older versions who have come before.

It’s a good time to love on ourselves and honor our personal histories as we head into the reflective winter season, so today I’d like to offer you a meditation of gratitude for all the people you’ve been.

There is no recording for this meditation — it’s best that you set the pace yourself. Block out some time — at least a few minutes. Create your space — somewhere you can sit or lay down comfortably and sustainably. Decide if daytime or nighttime is the best match for your energy. Maybe light a candle or grab a supportive object. Make yourself cozy.

Then, however you can, connect with the lifetime of all the yous that have existed beginning as far back as you can recall. Visualize them or call upon memories, however feels best to mark time. Maybe it’s by places you’ve lived, partners you’ve had, life events — maybe a hodge podge of whatever wants to flood in. Notice yourself in all those spaces and times — on the way to becoming the you that you are today. Really take some time and breaths to soak it in.

When you feel ready, give all those ancestral versions of yourself an offering — flowers or whatever might feel good — and allow them to give each version of you (including present you) an offering in return. You have all done this together. Though separated by space and time, you are in union with yourself — a whole being and source of your own magic.

When this feels complete for you, take a few deep breath cycles to come back to your now and feel free to revisit this anytime that feels best.

May your reflective season open your heart to all the good you do ✨

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12/10/2025

I used to get frequent headaches after a yoga practice that included plank pose. I thought I was powering through and improving my strength because I would be holding on for dear life until whoever was leading the session cued moving on. And then a smidge after practice…tension headache city.

Wamp wamp.

I thought it had to be the posture, not me. Somehow my body wasn’t made to do that. So I avoided it and just stopped.

But I realized through a LOT of self exploration that this was happening because I was trying to push through the effort using the muscles around my neck and shoulders rather than my deep core.

I was utilizing an inefficient (and inadequate) set of muscles because the larger muscle group built to do that work wasn’t ready to do it on its own AND I hadn’t learned how to tap into that larger muscle set in a supportive way.

Sensing into our bodies can be hard because there’s a lot of noise and it can feel overwhelming to distinguish sensations. It’s like having too much on your task list — your attention is yanked in all kinds of directions and instead of intentionally giving your focus to one thing well, it feels haphazard and reactive.

Enter more consistent prop use. I’m still not the best with plank and can find myself relying on those smaller muscles at times, but it’s easier to catch and shift effort because I’ve spent the time getting to know my internal experience by quieting down the loudness with props.

Think of props as the equivalent of simplifying your to-do list — they gift you the opportunity to stop struggling against yourself, your ego, and overwhelming sensory information so you can give your attention more fully to the nuances of your internal experience.

Props can be the raddest addition to your practice and they’re no different than any other support system you lean into. I get that we have pride and we want to feel awesome at all the things, but awesome isn’t about projecting an inauthentic outward image. It’s knowing your body’s language and capabilities, leaning into where you’re at, which is ever-changing because you’re human living in this world.

So be kind to yourself and let something else support you.

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12/03/2025

I write to you on our first official snow day ❄️ of the season! Overnight, it snowed 4-5 inches, my daughter has the day off school, and we are here for it!

Last night we did A BUNCH of snow day rituals to help the cause: flushed a few ice cubes down the toilet, danced around, wore our pajamas inside out and backwards, and slept with spoons under our pillows. I have no idea where these come from, and I don’t remember any of this from when I was little, but it was great fun and an absolute delight when we woke up this morning and saw all the snow :)

What magic ❄️

Do you remember the excitement of snow days from when you were a kid? I hope you had that experience. As a grown up, it’s so easy to forget. Very few of us get snow days, and when we do, we might feel relief, but not the tangible electric excitement of snow days of our youth.

In anticipation of today, I made sure to pick up a couple new sleds yesterday since ours broke last year, and we are making time to go try them today. Thrill or fail, it’s going to be a fun time, especially followed by homemade hot cocoa with fresh whipped cream and marshmallows ☕

Today I urge you to remember that feeling from when you were younger and not so bogged down with the serious of being a grown up. Regardless of how many very important responsibilities you shoulder, you still deserve playdates and adventures. We should never grow out of that.

Whenever you see this, it’s your sign to invite yourself to get nostalgic. Have some fun and get silly. Feel good about it. And get down with your bad self ✨

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11/26/2025

I’d like to first send out a ginormous wave of gratitude for all the support and community I’ve connected with over this past year. I’m extra grateful for the opportunities I have to spread some mindfulness and joy in places that are receptive and in need. May we all be so lucky ✨

I’d also like to take this opportunity to reflect on how grateful I am for the hard things we go (and grow) through. I’m specifically referring to the smaller scale things we handle, maybe on the daily or weekly — things we might get so frustrated and annoyed with. And while I wouldn’t wish them on anyone on purpose, I see how we emerge more capable, more resilient, and even brighter than we might have ever thought we’d be.

We’re going through a good string of growing pains in my house. My daughter is growing up, and that means we’re experiencing a healthy mix of separation and maturation, temporarily regressing back to younger childhood behaviors, and springing without warning into teenage mentality. It’s a wild ride for us both.

There’s a lot of tension sometimes, and there is also so. much. awesome. — from the amazing conversations and ways we connect on deeper levels now, to watching her express her own needs and get curious about her interests, to getting a little more free time to explore things that fill me up in different ways, and still leaning into these beautiful family traditions we’ve built together. Pure magic ✨

And today I’m extra grateful because it really landed within me how much I’ve grown and healed from being a parent. I’ve learned stability in love and family, what it feels like to know that an argument isn’t the end of the world, that you can always take a mulligan, and that hugs have this ancient healing power that we don’t tap into enough.

The way I grew up taught me none of that, but along the way, as I’ve been learning how to be the parent I want to be, I’ve been reparenting myself. And that is some big love, and I’m bursting with gratitude for all of it.

In the face of all the things we witness going on in the world today, I hope you recognize how you yourself are a pocket of light. You are a mystical being who has done more than anyone knows or gives you credit for, and you not only persist, you flourish. You make the world better. Thank you for all the ways you show up through the hard things for yourself and others.

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11/19/2025

I have NKOTB’s You Got It (The Right Stuff) stuck in my head (and maybe now you do too) as I’m thinking about today’s topic: right resourcing.

This story begins with the breaking of my beloved French press on an afternoon not too long ago when my daughter was home sick from school. Picture this: I’m washing dishes post lunch, dreaming about a delicious and hot cup of coffee that I’m about to make when my French press slips right out of my hands, shattering into the sink.

A travesty.

My best solution at the time was to use a shopping service to get a replacement delivered quickly, but all the available French presses seemed like junk, so I seized this opportunity to try a pour over that I’d been eyeing. It was delivered promptly and I got to make myself a cup of coffee.

But the coffee sucked. It tasted like actual bean water, lacking the bold vivaciousness I dig.

I thought maybe I had to get used to it. After all, I love a good pour over from places like the Village Farmacy. It had to be something I could tweak. I adjusted how I grind my beans and the amount of beans I use. Nothing worked. The water just wasn’t staying with the grounds long enough to extract the flavor I need.

During this process of trial and error, I purchased a goose neck stove kettle I had on my wish list for awhile, but it was taking a long time to arrive. The kettle I had from my French press era was giant and clunky and meant to douse water into whatever vessel you were pouring into without the control and nuance that pour overs require.

I was ready to give up and go back to a French press. But then my new kettle arrived.

And it’s everything I needed.

It’s the right resource to control the pour rate of water so I can tease out the flavor of my coffee beans. It also brings this renewed sense of magic to my coffee making ritual — it requires more patience and gives me time to mindfully immerse myself in the process and infuse my coffee with positive energy as I pour. It’s also just downright sexy.

And now everyday when I’m making coffee, I have this extra delight, not only in all the ritual of it, but in the decadent taste and experience of drinking this beverage I’ve brewed for myself with such care and love.

Do you see where I’m going here? I finally had the right resource to meet my needs.

Whether it’s a tea kettle or blocking off an hour in your calendar or putting an extra blanket on your bed, do it already. You’re worth it. Give yourself the right resource.

Don’t make do and make yourself a martyr because you were taught that’s the cool and chic thing to do. We all deserve to have our needs met. And every time you lean into that resource, you’re reinforcing how much you care about yourself, and that’s some BIG magic ✨

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11/17/2025

The next Lunar Love Letter will grace inboxes on Thursday, 11/20, and is only available (free!) via email.

This lunar cycle's reflections center around all the facets of ourselves and our life experiences. Join the mailing list through this link so you don't miss out ✨

11/12/2025

As I’m sitting down to write this, I’m cozy inside watching blustery snow fall and flitty birds gather snacks at the bird feeder outside my window. I love this season so much.

I find such joy in the magic and possibilities that snow brings, and I think we could all use a little extra oomph to tap into our imaginations right now.

Imagination might seem to be in opposition to mindfulness: letting your mind wander and dance with ideas that have no bearing on the present, dreaming of things that aren’t current reality, and creating fantasies that have no sure-footed roots. But I don’t think imagination is a foe of mindfulness. I think they need each other quite deeply and fervently.

How can we ever find joy in a world where we don’t have the ability to see magic and where we can’t imagine our wildest dreams? How can we even entertain possibilities that imagination inspires if we can’t be with ourselves in the here and now? How can we ever turn inward with wonder if we aren’t excited at what we might meet there?

At some of the lowest points in my practice, where I find I’m physically showing up but I’m not all in, it’s because I’m stuck in drab practical mode finding it difficult to connect with my dreaming self — I get too serious and too structured and too intense about routine and security and adulting, and I rob myself of my own whimsy.

And baby… I’ve got whimsy coming out the w***o. But when it gets buried in there, it feels lightyears beyond reach.

Which is all the more reason to seize the moment when inspiration comes around (whether that’s in the form of frozen falling water or something else). So follow your whimsy and get silly. Daydream and catch snowflakes on your tongue. Let your imagination run wild and free.

I’d love to hear how this lands for you and what you dream up, so feel free to share :)

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