I think it’s first important to examine the mindset we have around aging. I personally get a little annoyed when people tell me I “don’t look my age.” What is 36 supposed to look like? I think we have a warped sense of aging and forget the huge role that overall health plays in it (not to mention the cultural assumptions we make about what people “should” be doing at certain ages, but let’s save that for later).

There are loads of older folx who make age look good, I recommend finding a few you can look up to! Michelle Obama, for example, is a rockin’ 56 yo. And a quick google search will reveal that there are folx well into their 80’s (!) that we can look to for fitness and beauty inspo. So let’s change the mindset that getting older = bad. Getting older can be fun, gorgeous, and frankly, a bit of a relief.

But, I know, we still want to look good, and I believe we don’t need surgery or injections to do so…

1. Hydrate! Drink water AND eat hydrating foods like fruits and veggies.

2. Moisturize. Kinda another form of hydration, make sure you have a good moisturizing routine everyday. Here is an awesome serum you can buy. If you prefer to DIY it: combine some base oils (almond, avocado, jojoba – you can use 1, 2, or 3) with a bit of rosehip oil (about a 70/30 ratio) and a tiny squeeze of vitamin E gel. Shake it well and apply!

3. Sunscreen! Everyday. Even when it’s cloudy.

4. Enjoy healthy fats (avocado, olive oil, walnuts, salmon). Avoid sugar and processed foods. 

5. Collagen – not the injected kind. I put it in my smoothie. There are vegan options, too. (here’s the one I use)

6. Face yoga – yes, you can do yoga for your face, too! It makes total sense that we can tone and sculpt the muscles in our face, making them stronger to, well, hold things up! I like this lady but there are loads of resources out there.

7. Jade roller. Maybe you’ve heard of this nifty little tool. Honestly, I just think it feels good, but apparently it has some solid benefits as well.

8. Exfoliate. A lot of our anti-aging is about supporting the regeneration of skin, and exfoliating does just that. Aim for 1x/week and be gentle. You can use a wet washcloth, or an exfoliating scrub. Rub in small circles, and again – be gentle!! 

9. Get upside-down. While you don’t have to stand on your head, inverting your body in some way will increase blood flow to your face and give your body a full “refresh.” Try laying on your back (this can be on your bed) and sticking your legs up in the air (you can even lean your legs up against the wall). This is also relaxing to the whole nervous system and can be good before bedtime, or any time you’re feeling anxious.

10. Go the extra mile with a DIY facial from time to time. 

The post 10 Ways to NATURALLY Anti-Age yourself appeared first on The Whiskey Lifestyle.

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While I know what is happening is devastating in so many ways, I can’t help but see a bunch of silver linings. One being that I get to connect with all of you – all over the world – through virtual yoga & meditation classes. I think now more than ever we need to find our own grounding practices and keep our bodies and minds healthy, and I’ve been getting set up to offer what I can. Here’s a few ways we can connect and stay sane together…

Meditation @ 10:30am ET everyday (free)

(which means you can also watch it later in my stories)

donation-based/free-if-you-need-it-to-be yoga

Vinyasa @ 11am EST Monday-Friday

&

Yin/Restorative @ 7pm ET Sundays

Zoom link Meeting ID: 390 047 6421

Venmo for donations ($5-15 suggested)

I’ll also be teaching for some of my regular studios on their online platforms, if you’re a member of Jewel City or Sacred, check their schedules on MBO to sign up

I know a lot of people are feeling disconnected right now, so I also wanted to be available for a conversation if you want to talk. Book a free 30-min coaching call if you’re feeling anxious, having trouble figuring out your new routine, would like to create structure to build some new healthy habits during this time, or even if you’re a fellow yoga teacher (or something similar) and could use some help getting yourself set up online, I want to help!

We’re going to get through this together, and the world will look different on the other side. Let’s make the most of it, whatever that means for you. Try not to feel like you need to get ALL THE THINGS done, give yourself as normal of a day-to-day as you can.

I put together a short list of ways to give yourself structure during this time and keep life balanced even within the confines of your home – check it out here.

Love you lots.

xo,

m.

The post Online Meditation and Yoga For The Quarantine appeared first on The Whiskey Lifestyle.

Literally just got back from a few days at the beach – an awesome few days at that. I’ve been lucky enough to take a couple weekends a summer down there, as my boyfriend’s bestie has a house. But if you think that a yoga teacher going on vaca with a bunch of bartenders was an easy fit, well you’d be wrong.

My boyfriend and I generally eat very differently – not just different foods, but on different schedules, too. As if learning to feed myself when I’m at home and in my comfort zone wasn’t hard enough, it took me a little longer to figure out how to still eat the way I want to when at his house, or on vaca with him and his friends (or even when traveling solo).

And honestly, it was a pain in the ass at first. I’d come home feeling like shit and a little resentful about it, until I took 100% responsibility for feeding myself and doing my own thing despite what everyone else was doing.

What I’ve learned is that it’s not high maintenance or even “picky” to eat the way I want to eat, but I can’t make it anyone else’s job to figure it out for me. Which is why having some go-to foods can make it all much simpler, AND it takes out that hungry-decision-making time that can lead to a total meltdown.

So whether I’m in a new city, down at the beach, or just spending a few nights at my bf’s right here in Brooklyn, here are some things I like to have around to know that I’ll have my bases covered:

Breakfast: I wake up hungry. I can’t rely on waiting for others to get up and devise a plan, I need to have something immediately available.

1. My usual go-to is smoothie stuff (banana, oat milk, nut butter, spinach, frozen blueberries, protein powder if possible).
2. Even easier than that is granola and oat milk. Maybe some berries or a banana if I can.
3. As an absolute backup, I keep some oats at my bf’s so I can whip up some oatmeal in a pinch.
4. And finally, I know that there’s a place right down the street that makes great smoothies so even if the cabinets are empty, I’m covered.

Lunch: even if we go someplace where there’s not a lot I find appetizing, I’ll always have some things back at the house to help balance things out:

1. mixed greens (drizzle with EVOO, lemon, and salt and call it a day)
2. pretzel crisps & hummus
3. apple & peanut butter
4. avocado toast (I like sourdough and I keep it in the freezer so there’s always some around)

If I’m eating lunch at home, I might have leftovers, or even a pre-planned meal like my recent go-to: tuna salad + pasta salad (like elbows in pesto with cherry tomatoes) on a bed of greens or quinoa. A store right by my bf’s place sells delicious prepared salads like this, and I’ll just mix a bit of everything together for a satisfying meal. Even better is that one package of each salad lasts 3-4 meals when mix’n’matched like this; the tuna could easily be replaced by a chickpea salad if going all plant-based.

Dinner: pretty similar to the lunch options above, it’s easy to balance things out or just have more veggies if we’re grilling out at home. But it’s possible to make yourself a vegetarian meal even at a seafood restaurant, by ordering a mix of salads and sides: a baked potato, corn on the cob, side salad, steamed broccoli. Or, this is your time to get the fried chicken if you’re feelin’ it!

My biggest rule is not to feel bad about your order – no guilt if you indulge (you’re on vaca, after all!), but also not feeling self-conscious about ordering a smattering of sides when everyone else is getting steaks and lobster tails.

Because I’m a creature of habit, I like to have tea, kombucha, and some kind of fizzy water around so I can stick with my rituals and refreshments like I’m at home. I also love nuts and goMacro bars because they’re easy to keep in your bag, bring to the beach or on a long car ride and get a boost of protein wherever you are.

Finally I think that anyplace you’re staying (even at home), it’s good to get the lay of the land. Knowing where you can easily grab something you’ll like, so you can keep it super simple when it’s time to eat. That decision fatigue is a real thing, and I’m pretty sure all decisions get 10x harder when hungry.

What are some of your go-to foods that make it easier to stay nourished when you’re out of your everyday routine?

The post How to feed yourself appeared first on The Whiskey Lifestyle.

Just over three years ago I quit my last day job to pursue coaching full time. I wasn’t teaching many yoga classes back then and never intended on teaching full time- it was just something extra I did. I dove pretty deep into the world of online coaching trying to make it work, and I was pretty quickly repulsed. I found a lot of garbage and gimmicks, and I was being sold to so much by “coaches for coaches” i.e. people who coach you to be a better coach in some way (usually how to get more clients and make more money, because obviously that’s the big seller).

After being the target of so many coaching ads, I started to question pretty much all of them and saw the “freebie” that they offer as just a ploy to get you on their newsletter list (which it is, but there’s more to it). Peeking behind that curtain ultimately made me take a big step back from coaching altogether. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to be a part of that- that I wanted to follow a “formula” for getting clients, or take a bunch of staged photographs- and I started hating on a lot of people I thought were doing just that.

So I focused on other things, which is how I became a full time yoga instructor. My coaching offering has been there the whole time, but I barely mention it. To answer the obvious question, it hasn’t been booming. I’ve been lucky to work with some awesome clients over the years and see some incredible transformation, but I would have loved to connect with more.

With my 35th birthday coming up this weekend, and one more incredible retreat in the books, and a big move happening in 1.5 months (not leaving BK don’t worry), it certainly feels like a time of shifting and a need for reflection. I’ve been doing some work around my own personal blocks and moving forward, and something hit me like a ton of bricks tonight:

you can’t hate on the thing you want to be.

A more common example would be how many of us feel about people with money. Money is something we all want more of, and yet wealthy people are stereotyped as assholes; cold, or greedy, or even heartless. So, why would we want to become that? If that is really our belief about what money does to you, wouldn’t we avoid it on some level?

We want to be fit but we hate on people we think look good. We think they’re showing off or they’re “too buff” or they must be so vain or she just looks like a bitch.

We do it to people in loving relationships, when that’s what we want for ourselves. We do it when we see people happy on instagram- getting to travel, to do work they love, to buy the big house, whatever it is, it’s easy to hate on or diminish the other person’s accomplishment in some way.

This is not just me, right?

Well something interesting happened this week. A few things, actually. I started signing up for the freebies again. They seem to be in my feed more, probably because my phone is listening to me / reading my mind at all times. I watched one video about coaching where the coach was totally different. She looked way more professional. She spoke like a doctor. She explained coaching in a way that made so much sense (“we’re the folks that specialize in helping people make change,” boom), but also helped me see coaching as way more important than I was giving it credit for; like, the shift in humanity that is needed so badly right now.

She helped me release the stigma I was carrying for the very thing I want to do myself.

The next day I was watching another one. This one was a coach that I followed way back in the day, and had since written off. I got about ten minutes in (and was still intrigued) and jumped off to chat with my good friend in Spain – who happens to be someone who has found email marketing to come super naturally for her online business and as such has been a wild success these last three years. I told her I was watching one of those freebie videos (with a heavy eye roll) and she earnestly asked: well were you getting anything out of it? And I realized my heavy bias, assuming they were all garbage, that I couldn’t actually find real value in them, that they were just one big manipulation and I was a sucker for clicking on it in the first place…

Although the truth is, I did get something out of it. And I’ve gotten a lot out of freebies online, and free calls with coaches, and even paid calls with coaches. I’ve been glad to “get stuck” on some newsletter lists, and I even hope to hire another coach for myself sometime soon. So they must not all be bad, huh?

Then how do we move past the stereotypes and the resulting limiting beliefs they strap us down with? How do we reconcile the things we fear becoming and the thing we most want to become, when we think they have to be one in the same?

Find the examples of the ones you admire. Find the ones you relate to – the mom with 3 kids who finds time to work out, the wealthy friend who is still generous and kind, the folks in a relationship that show you just how easy and fun a relationship can be. You find the people that are the shining example of where you want to go, and you learn from them. But perhaps more importantly, you find your commonalities with them until you convince yourself that you’re no different. That you can too. That you making money/getting clients/carving a 6-pack isn’t going to make you a bad person, because you’ll still be you. That one is not a direct result of the other, and you can’t hate on the very thing that you want to be.

The post Don’t hate on your dreams appeared first on The Whiskey Lifestyle.

Hey friends!

I think we all know there’s a lot of ego in yoga – it’s a big reason the studio can be intimidating to first-timers. While it’s always been there, I’ve been really noticing it lately and I think it’s one of the hardest things about being a yoga teacher- not only trying to keep people safe when they insist on doing shit they’re not ready for, but to help people get over themselves already as part of the practice. 

I often tell the folks in my classes that they are welcome to stay in child’s pose the entire time; I consistently remind them that skipping a flow is always an option, encourage them to not do everything I say, and give lots of modifications for poses that are specifically tough or beyond the normal range of motion. I mean, I also challenge them, but I want them to know that they’re making their own decisions, and that they have nothing to prove. 

Because to me, yoga is about listening to your body – finding a connection that helps you know what you truly need and moving intuitively via that connection – it’s like a conversation. And with all things in yoga, it’s not so that you’re better at yoga, it’s so that you’re better at life; you’re building that toolset so you can take it off the mat, too. It’s not about nailing the deepest possible expression of a pose or standing on your head; each shape offers it’s own challenge that goes well beyond the physical and that’s where the benefit is: how we can learn about ourselves along the way. 

But that’s just it: the along the way part is just as important as the “final” pose part. 

If you’re jamming yourself into a pose so much that you can’t breathe, you’re not really in the pose. Suffice to say, nobody’s impressed. If you’re thinking about how that pose looks more than how it feels, you’re missing the point. And I think we get caught up in the same shit in life.  

We throw around words like “advanced” in yoga, but I have my own definition of what I would call a truly “advanced” yogi – and it’s not what you think.

To me, an “advanced” yogi is the one that uses the blocks; the one that takes child’s pose and isn’t shy to drop a knee in a high lunge twist. It’s the one who finds stability before depth; who doesn’t care if they’re a few steps behind the rest of the class. It’s the one who skips a flow, who can be humble whether they’re super experienced or not. It’s the one who can be right where they are in their practice, that day. 

I posted to IG yesterday about how learning a language can be so humbling, because as my buddy says, “you have to be wiling to speak like a child before you can speak like an adult,” and I think this idea is relevant to everything. I was surprised by the reaction the post got, apparently a lot of people can relate. Because nobody wants to speak like a child; nobody wants to be a “beginner” at anything. We think there’s either doing it or not doing it, and don’t want to deal with the in between. But as long as we strive to keep growing, there will always be in between, something. 

Where are you jamming yourself into a pose thinking it looks right but maybe it doesn’t feel right? 

Where can you reach for the metaphorical blocks and give yourself that little boost – maybe something doesn’t have to be so hard? 

Where are you rushing to keep up or beating yourself up for falling behind?

Where are you losing your breath?

Where are you just teetering in a posture, with no solid foundation, temporarily holding the shape but the lightest of breezes could topple you right over…? 

Where are you avoiding a pose because it’s not your “strongest?” What if you practiced it, meeting yourself where you are right now, and made it stronger? 

My aim is sturdiness without strain. I’ve been reaching for blocks, working on building a more solid foundation, and learning from folks that know more than me in certain areas: aka asking for help. In one of those meetings today as we talked about not comparing ourselves to people who seem further along or more successful, my friend pointed out that we also must not rank ourselves as “better than” anyone who’s a few steps behind us. I think, just like in yoga, we need to recognize that we’re all on our own individual path and it’s really impossible to compare ourselves to one another at all – different bodies, different circumstances, different places we expend our energy, just different stories, period. We’re all walking our own path, we only need to hope to be moving forward; outpacing nobody but yesterday’s version of ourselves. 

xo,
m. 

SUMMER RETREAT
Aug 2-5 in the Catskills
Still a few spots – get in there now!

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Happy Thursday and almost-long-weekend for many of us. I’m gearing up for a super busy few days before I head down to the beach to kick it for a bit TBH I may not write next week, but as May is Mental Health Awareness Month, I did want to make sure I did a post about anxiety before the month was up (not that we can’t talk about it the whole rest of the year, too. In fact – we should!). 

Before we dive in, I want to make an important clarification: while I believe strongly that most anxiety can be managed through healthy lifestyle changes, I am by no means anti-drug. My coaching clients ask me this often, and while I prefer that folks try our work drug-free (to see what’s really having the impact), I always tell them to keep the prescription handy, and take it when they really need it. This was a big part of my own overcoming anxiety when it peaked about 6 years ago. I got a prescription for Xanax, took it a few times, but found that most of the time just having the pills on me was enough of a security blanket to keep the anxiety at bay. Because anxiety becomes a fear of anxiety itself – a fear of having another panic attack. If you know you have something with you to nip it in the bud, it may never get that far. For me, I used the pills in this way while I learned more and began to implement the lifestyle changes that ultimately led me to feeling better, and haven’t renewed the prescription in years.

While I don’t see medication as a long-term solution for general anxiety disorder, there are some mental health challenges that require pills to help find actual brain chemical balance. I think it’s important we make that distinction as it can be easy for folks to feel even worse – like there’s something even more “wrong” with them – when meditating all day isn’t curing their chronic depression. No pill shaming, period. 

All that said, I’ll admit I was hit with a bad bout of anxiety not too long ago; it was the first time I’d been consumed like that since 2013, and it scared the shit out of me. I’ve been there before, yes, but my mindset was worsened by the fact that this is my work and I should know better, “this shouldn’t be happening to me anymore” I told myself. I was lucky to get through it unscathed, as we usually do, and found it to be a bit of a blessing. You see, the last few years I’ve been doing this work and trying to remember what it felt like to really be in the pits of anxiety, with the aim of helping other folks who are there now. Going through it again with some new perspective allowed me to learn from it in a way I wasn’t able to years ago, and in a way that remembering also wouldn’t have accomplished. 

I realized that while I talk a lot about the healthy lifestyle changes that lead to lower anxiety levels and hopefully eliminating panic attacks altogether, I haven’t been able to address that one thing: what to do when you’re actually down the rabbit hole. And I found myself at a loss. Because it’s a real taking-over; it’s not a time to analyze why it’s happening, it’s a time to manage the symptoms, and sitting in quiet stillness can easily make it worse. So here are my thoughts… 

1. TELL PEOPLE The stigmas that keep us from sharing it with others can make us feel deserted, and while I had to work through a bit of shame and feelings of hypocrisy, I found that one of the best release valves was telling people. As I spoke about last week – I reached out and asked for help. I told trusted friends and my bf, who not only showed no judgment, but were able to come over or run errands with me so I wasn’t alone (love them!!).

2. DISTRACT YOURSELF Feeling supported by friends helped my own acceptance of it and made me feel safe, but also helped me stay distracted, which I’d say is tip #2 for getting out of a panic attack. It might seem counterintuitive since I’m usually saying to stop distracting yourself, but in the case of a panic attack your mind is taking over and you need to dangle something shiny in front of it so it forgets to keep blaring the sirens – it’s kinda like a screaming child in that way. 

3. MOVE AROUND I found that – even though it was the last thing I wanted to do – getting up and moving on with my day was best; sitting and feeling frozen was a waiting game, so I slowly started tending to my tasks for the day and got the blood flowing. Some yoga or movement may have been helpful in the moment; I made sure to physically burn off some steam later that day even though I was feeling better by then. 

4. BACK-UP PLANS Because anxiety is typically caused by feelings of dread, putting back-up plans in place can be super helpful. For example, knowing who in your office you could confide in and ask to cover you if you need to excuse yourself from a meeting, or having a friend on-call to sub your class if you’re not feeling better in a few hours; reminding yourself that the world will not crumble if you need to cancel a plan, and again, being honest with the people around you instead of trying to hide it and manage it all alone. More people than you may realize will relate to the feelings you’re having. 

5. COMPASSION Finally, I found that there was this break in the shame and judgment where I found compassion for myself. Where I stopped trying to hold it all together and let myself crack, and cry, and be vulnerable and be seen – even if just by myself! It’s like the little girl in me was crying out, and I had to stop yelling at her to get her shit together, but instead go over and hold her for a minute, and it began to subside. 

LATER ON… REFLECT It can be hard to pinpoint exactly what brings a panic attack on, but I can see now how I’d slipped on some of the things that I know make me a little shaky, and perhaps not been totally honest with myself about some nerves I was having. I’ve cut out coffee and recommitted to my meditation and self-care practices, but most of all, I’ve let myself off the hook!! I’m continuing to work on compassion and vulnerability and letting myself be seen. #workinprogress

KEEP THE CONVO GOING Sharing this is not easy – but I think it’s important we talk about it, and anything I can say that might help someone else is worth the risk. As I’m building this list of “what to do when you’re actually down the rabbit hole,” I want to hear from you, too! Whether you can simply relate to these feelings, or have found a tactic that helps in the moment, drop a line in the comments and let’s help each other out! 

xo,
m. 

The post What to do if you’re having a panic attack appeared first on The Whiskey Lifestyle.

You know how sometimes the same theme can seem to keep coming up, maybe in really different ways, over the course of a week or two? I’ve been coming back to this post I wrote a whiiiile ago about the butterfly and how – as a caterpillar not knowing it’s meant to be a butterfly or what it really takes to become one – he fights it when the change starts to happen. Like, FIGHTS. Because, like what the hell is this happening to his little mushy body? It’s breaking down and there’s new cells growing and it’s scary and confusing. Despite all the years of butterfly evolution, he’s freaked the f*ck out.

And I would be too. 

Perhaps you can relate to this feeling: growth. It’s uncomfortable, maybe even painful. It can feel like it’s moving in the wrong direction, or taking too long, or asking things of us that we’d so much rather avoid dealing with that it’s actually just a lot easier to stay right where we are and convince ourselves it’s fine (a luxury our caterpillar friend does not have: to live mid-transformation, stuck for fear of moving forward). 

Which brings me to theme #2 that’s been super present for me lately: distraction, or perhaps, stalling. I talk a lot about the smaller, every day distractions, like our phones and our tv’s and our constantly racing minds… but what about the bigger ones – the situations we unnecessarily pour our energy into? The “problems” we create for ourselves or blow out of proportion and keep poking and prodding at because as long as that’s there we won’t have to become mush in a cocoon and *just hope* that we’ll grow beautiful multi-colored wings? This is the busy work. This is the conversation you’re always having with your friends. This is the thing you keep running into over and over – and you’ll keep running into something like it until you let it go.

This is the uncomfortable thing you’ve gotten so. damn. comfortable. with. 

Don’t let that thing be your story. Take your energy back and trust that you are more than that thing; that you are capable of whatever’s behind that facade you’ve convinced even yourself is real.

Release what you can’t control, which is the majority of things. Turn that magnifying glass back on yourself. 

Don’t overthink it – probably the thing that immediately came to mind when this topic sunk in, that’s your thing. Let it go, clear the distraction, face the fear behind the curtain, risk the vulnerability and the discomfort. Think about the caterpillar – you think he goes into his cocoon like it’s a dressing room and just changes outfits? Slaps on a pair of wings? No. He turns into liquid. He gets real gross and uncomfortable. He has no choice but to let go and hope for the best, and it usually pays off pretty big.

Trust your evolution. 

xo,
m.

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