Heal-Thy Self Yoga: The Blissful Path & Holistic Wellness Retreats

11/11/2025

Why We Can’t Just “Let It Go”
When they say, “Let it go,”
I say, “Let it be.”

Some pain doesn't just leave. It requires our willing reception. Our losses, traumas, and inherited grief can settle deep down within us like heavy silt at the bottom of the sea. They reside in the undercurrents of our lives, often unseen & unacknowledged, yet faithfully present.

The Rising:

Sometimes, that pain begins to stir. A whisper, a gust, a memory, an ache of sorrow, a flash of fear. Something rises from the dark depths, pushing through the water, coming up for air. It rises from the bottom to be seen, to be here with us on the surface.

~ Just like someone stranded out in the ocean must let go and surrender to float to the top, they also must be seen and acknowledged to be saved.

Healing can’t happen on the ocean floor.

We must allow the hidden or shamed parts of ourselves to rise to the surface, where the light of our conscious awareness can touch them, & where healing can begin.

There is no rescue in repression, no healing in avoidance. Without our attention, old pain, beliefs and identities, stay in the undercurrent of our lives influencing our perception and life's direction.

The Medicine:
If you can't let it go,
Let it be felt.
Let it be seen.
Let it be held.
Let it be as it is.

We must let it come. Let it be known. Let it be received, offering your presence like a warm hug. Don't try to change it or fix it. Just let it bring its story into this present moment, reminding you that it survived with you & now you can rest together.

~ Like a tree struck by an axe, the mark remains forever. But the tree lives on, growing ring by ring, upward and outward, making the wound part of its living truth.

If you can’t let it go,
Just let it be a part of you. 👣💧

🍂 The Wisdom of the Metal Element (Autumn)
The Metal Element season of TCM deeply echoes our message to "let it be. This is a time to move beyond forcing release, and instead, align with the natural wisdom of acceptance. By being present with our grief, we find true healing by allowing all parts of our story to simply exist.

11/06/2025

🍂 A new rhythm is unfolding at Heal-Thy Self ~ for women across every season of life, seeking deeper connection, embodiment, and the courage to live their own medicine, heal from life’s challenges, and step fully into their power 🪄✨️

✨ Embody Your Movement Medicine Newsletter ✨
"You are the practitioner of your own practice".
Seasonal rituals for self-care, reflection, and renewal ~ delivered straight to your inbox. 💌

~ Each newsletter is a gentle invitation to slow down, reconnect with your body, and root into what sustains and nourishes you. Inside, you’ll find practices, reflections, and inspiration to help you live in rhythm with the seasons ~ and with yourself.

~ Soon, we’re also opening the doors to "The Self & Soul Sanctuary" ~ a space for connection, self-care rituals of renewal, and embodied living.

Together we’ll move, breathe, and restore through:
🌿 Weekly tune-ins ~ guided breathwork, Qi Gong, and grounding rituals
🌙 Monthly restore & yoga sessions ~ deeper dives into vitality, balance, and healing through the phases of our lives
✨ Rooted in our signature Embodied Medicine Map ~ a modern framework for self-awareness, rhythm, and renewal.
🍂 Seasonal Retreats & Embodied Experiences ~ sacred spaces to move, restore, and realign with the rhythms of your life, nurturing your body, soul, and the seasons within and around you

~ If you’re craving more presence, more meaning, and more harmony in the pace of your days, this is your homecoming. 🩷

🌿 Subscribe to the newsletter via LINK IN BIO - Scroll down booking page to see newsletter sign up: https://healthyselfyogawellness.com/book-your-retreat/

🪷 Self & Soul Community Coming Soon! 🧘‍♀️

10/26/2025

Thanks to these amazing inspirations this week. ✨️🕊🩷 I am working on a lot behind the scenes. With a new, fresh perspective growing in the dark/ beneath the surface ( beyond what can be seen ). 🌱 Finding & becoming the light in the dark is the real and only work for all of us. 🌠 I am both a teacher and a student of life. I learn from everything and everyone around me. I learn when I am right and I learn when I am wrong. I learn from my children, and I learn from my parents. I learn from those who are good to me and from those who are hurtful. I learn from my teachers, and I learn from my students. I learn from nature every day. I learn from the sky and the water, and mostly from the trees. I learn from the dragonflies, the cardinal, and the gator, because I'm willing to be a student of life. I'm willing to see it all and wonder about it all - unwinding the conditioned need to know it all - and be a child of the world again and again, to continue to grow and to learn everyday from the world around me, even if it makes me uncomfortable, or if I had thought differently before. There is always more to discover, and so much wisdom already here within me that I find new when I'm open, present, and curious. 🕊✨️🩷

Thank you to the fellow wisdom keepers in these images. 🕊✨️🩷🫶🌱🌠🤘🤓

10/23/2025

💝💝💝

Just as good parenting mirrors back to a child that they are lovable, when we understand and accept others, we affirm their intrinsic worth and belonging. To receive this kind of Radical Acceptance can transform our lives. By mirroring back to someone their goodness, we offer a priceless gift, and its blessings ripple out through a lifetime.

10/02/2025

🌿 "The organs weep the tears the eyes refuse to shed." 💧– Sir William Osler

Caroline Myss says it clearly: “Your biography becomes your biology.” ✍️📖🧬

Everything you’ve lived, experienced, and endured ~ your triumphs, your wounds, your stories, your victories, your losses ~ lives with you, literally within you.

Your history is etched into your cells, your tissues, your organs. What you went through then isn’t gone; it is here, shaping how you move, think, feel, and relate now....

~ Childhood experiences leave traces that influence your adult relationships, your self-care, and your sense of worth.

~ Past trauma, neglect, loss, may still echo in your body as tension, hypervigilance, fatigue, or emotional flashbacks. (Me, too).

~ The liver stores anger. The lungs cradle grief. The heart pulses with joy. The spleen stores worry. The kidneys hold fear.

~ Awareness of your own experiences and related patterns is the first step toward reclaiming your whole self; your voice, authority, & sovereignty.

~ What parts of you are signaling, through feeling or sensation, that they’re ready to be seen, supported, and acknowledged?

~ We don’t need to wait for someone else to heal us ~ we start with our own body, our own breath, our movement, and our own practices & self-care rituals, which are our most accessible tools.

~ We can also get help, but it will be most beneficial to help ourselves first, through ourselves, building a solid and reliable inner foundation.

~ Healing is not a destination; it is a daily practice, a ritual, and an ongoing conversation with yourself. 💞 👄👣

~ I speak as a student and as a teacher; I am learning, practicing, and exploring alongside you, using what I know now, from what I've learned from my own experiences, continued study, and practice.

💖 I know for sure that every act of attention, presence, and self-care reclaims a piece of your story and transforms it into living medicine.

👣☀️🕊🎶🌱🍂🍁✍️📖💞✨️🪄💝👄🌷

📸🎨 #2 🪄✨️

09/30/2025

The Common Denominator of Wisdom
🌑✨🪶 This is a special post highlighting quotes and images from multiple creators that all point to the same insight: grief, hardship, & suffering are not detours~ they are part of life’s path to wisdom and compassion~ they are our teachers & healers, "the soil of our soul." 🌱

In my work ahead, I will guide people to meet this process where it is most real: in the body, in the senses, and in the spark of our own inner light that is revealed to us when everything else goes dark. That is the purpose~ to become our own light in the dark, & to rediscover who we are. ✨️

Previously, our retreats focused on cultivating bliss~ the reverent pause, the embodied presence, the deep joy of being fully alive. 🩷🕊✨️ Now, we'll bring bliss to the realized wisdom that genuine growth & fulfillment are awakened when we bring our full selves into rituals of renewal or restorative experiences~ re-membering and revealing our whole, embodied self, including our stories, challenges, shortcomings, traumas & discomfort.

This is the alchemy. 🪄✨️

Every hardship or loss can become compost for new growth if we feel it, express it, & let it nourish our potential.

Through suffering, we illuminate our spark~ the inner light that carries us upward, nourished by our lived experiences. The pieces of who we were become the compost that nourishes our blossoming. They feed our new life, our evolving self, and the wisdom we carry forward as medicine.

By embracing our own humanity, we grow more understanding, more compassionate, & more awake to the sensations & experiences of our own being~ & therefore, to those of others.

What we have endured becomes a resource not only for ourselves but for how we move through the world, guide, & support those around us.

~ I’m grateful to the artists, writers, & creators whose work inspired this reflection~ thank you for the wisdom you’ve shared that illuminates the journey for all of us. 📸 garysturgis tarabrach michellcclark lauri.podre

09/25/2025

Why Grief Work is Essential to Our Wellness & the Key to Our Bliss 🤲✨️🩷

Separating our wellness from the reality of human life is what keeps us disconnected & stuck. It’s when we bridge the gap that we create the medicine & the alchemy within our own body and being.

We often treat wellness like an escape. We’ll go to a retreat, take a class, or do a practice ~ but then we come back home, and life is still overwhelming. The problems, the situation, the stress, it's all still there.

Why? Because we separate our practice from our life. We leave our struggles, our grief, our humanity behind. We push away the hard stuff as if it doesn’t belong in our well-being. But life & wellness can’t be compartmentalized to see the benefits.

The emotions we call “negative” ~ anger, grief, sorrow, struggle ~ are not the enemy, our avoidance of them is. If we repress them, deny them, or try to escape them, they linger and quietly (or loudly) & shape our lives without our permission.

But here’s the key: when we allow these experiences ~ our reality, our suffering, our humanity ~ into our retreat, our class, or our practice, as a part of who we are, the practice itself becomes medicine. Otherwise, its just a workout. That’s the difference between doing a practice & being the practice. 🤲✨️

When we welcome the full spectrum of our human experience into our body and heart, something shifts. It’s like turning a light on in a dark room ~ the alchemy of integration happens ✨🤲

We return home clearer, more fulfilled, more connected. We are no longer operating from avoidance or escape, but from presence, wholeness, and clarity 🕊️

Wellness is no longer a temporary pause or fleeting bliss ~ it becomes a remedy, an antidote, a medicine. Through this practice, our struggles, our grief, our humanity are not obstacles ~ they are the doorway.

🤲✨️ Your undivided attention is the key to your own health, vitality, and healing. Your full human experience ~ your highs, your lows, your suffering ~ is the path. When you bring it all in, you become living, breathing, embodied well-being.

09/24/2025

🌱 Grief Is the Soil, Bliss Is the Bloom 🌷

Grief and bliss reflect one another. Grief changes how we see the value of life. It calls us to notice what matters most and understand the depth and height of our human experience. It gives us meaning.

From the soil of our suffering, a flower rises and bliss blooms. Grief, like compost, nourishes the blossoming of new life, and bliss carries the echo of that soil. They are compassionate companions on the path to emotional and spiritual well-being.

Gratitude, wonder, appreciation ~ they grow naturally from the depth grief has created within us.

This balancing act of light and dark surrounds us in all of nature and existence. It's evidenced in everything we witness and shows us the way to healing, presence, and wholeness.

The path to wholesome bliss is uniting our suffering with our joy, acknowledging both as medicine for the soul. 👣🌱🌷☀️

The darkest night gives way to dawn. Winter's cold softens into spring sun. Blossoms fall, feed the earth, and the earth feeds new life. Even in spring, the memory of winter lingers and will return again. Even in daylight, night waits quietly to return. Life moves through death, and death moves through life.

It's in nature & in our nature.

Grief and bliss are mirrors of each other. To experience bliss, we must experience grief and hardship. Because we experience bliss, we will eventually experience grief, the loss or change of whatever was associated with our bliss.

Death helps us appreciate life. It gives life its value. The darkness of our suffering, the soil of our soul, enriches our being in ways we may not see or understand.

Mary Oliver asks:
“Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

Grief and bliss live together in us. They are intertwined and woven together. One opens us to presence. The other opens us to gratitude. Both call us to show up fully, to be awake to the brief gift of being here, now, in this body, at this time. This is the heart of embodied well-being. 👣🌱🌷

09/22/2025

🌊🌊🌊

In grief,
in trauma,
in loss,
we are in darkness.
Blind to what will come of us.
The shock of our foundation
crumbles our vision,
shatters our point of view,
fractures our understanding of the world.

Tears blur our eyes.
Grief blurs our heart.
We cannot see in the dark.
We must feel.

Feel the rising and falling sensations.
Feel with our senses.
Feel with our instincts.
Feel with the body that remembers.

The body is ancient and primal,
It holds memory of time.
The body carries wisdom.
When we listen,
we hear it speak:
What do you need?
Where do you long to go?
How do you wish to move?

Believing our body,
Trusting the body,
we allow it to guide us.
Through the rise and fall of emotion.
Through trenches of anguish and despair,
Through cliffs of anger and winding sorrow,

And in time,
we become a light
inside our own darkness.
We learn to find our own way.
Sometimes with help along the way.

If we do not let grief move,
we remain there in the darkness, even when the sun rises.
Time may carry us forward,
but the darkness lingers.
The path remains blurry.

~ Because the body was never allowed
to express
what it lived
what it felt.

We cannot speak ourselves free of grief.
But we can feel our way through it.

Tears must come. They purify us.
They wash us clean.
They soften our hearts.
They surrender us to the tide.
And leave us bare, open, alive.

This tide lives within us.
Moving.
Pulling.
Teaching.
We can bend, or we can break.

~ When we move through grief,
our deep end widens.
Life becomes more compassionate.
Like water, it makes room in us.
It clears the way,
so we can see more clearly,
live more gently,
and love more deeply.

We can honor this movement.
We can bless it
with our presence.

To sit with grief
is to enter the sacred.
To make of it an altar.
A living ritual,
Of our embodied truth.

❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥