my story
When I think of the summer of 2025, I look back with disbelief. How did I get to that point?
I meditated and exercised daily. I walked the dog through the park twice a day. Ate well. Quit drinking for a couple years while maintaining an active social life. All that ‘taking care of myself’ while working my ‘dream job’ and falling in love with my partner. On paper, I was the healthiest I’d ever been, and should have been just as happy.
But something had shifted. It wasn’t overnight; there wasn’t one life-changing moment I can point to. It was slow - gradually heating for who knows how long (months? years?) until it finally boiled over.
Burnout. It’s having a moment right now, and for good reason… most of us are, in fact, burnt out. How we get to that extreme, and what that looks or feels like is different for everyone.
For me? An overflowing concoction of self-imposed expectation and incessant thought loops, spiraling from an endless to-do list, the repercussions of that list not being done yesterday, what this person or that person thinks about me (as a colleague, friend, family member, yogi, or simply as a person), and then the cherry on top: a constant negative self-worth narrative.
That led to chronic anxiety and eventually physiological health problems. Suddenly I had three patches of hives on my face, woke up in night sweats, and an overarching sense of debilitating overwhelm… even at the thought of laundry.
But the worst part was the hopelessness. I couldn’t come to grips with the idea that my tools (the yoga and meditation and chakra pranayama and nidra and qi gong I had spent 15 years studying) weren’t working. What do you do when everything you know should work doesn’t? Where do you turn when you have all the maps, but still feel lost in the woods?
What I’ve come to know now after a year dedicated to deep study of the nervous system and the interconnectedness of our physiology is that the tools were working. They brought me out of panic and back to baseline… but baseline was also a problem. I existed in a state of chronic sympathetic dominance. Constant fight / flight / freeze mode with no reprieve.
When I took some time to reset, I developed a toolkit (with my therapist’s supervision) to help my mind and body heal. The medley of practices remained dynamic and protocol changes came from deep listening to my body and trust in my training and intuition. Slowly my body started to respond: the hives disappeared, the acne started to clear, the muscles loosened their incessant gripping, and rest finally became restful.
It wasn’t long before I understood the divine path laid in front of me. I was gifted this emergency state to feel what so many spend their lives feeling, and the awareness to understand it on a visceral level. I knew in my heart that offering these practices to others was what I’ve been practicing, training, and studying for for fifteen years.
A certified meditation instructor of ten years, now yoga teacher, and clinical integrated health coach, it is my deepest honor to support others by way of a method that helped heal me in my darkest hour.
Light Body Somatics is my love letter to the human condition engulfed in a world that thrives on an always-on mandate.
Ancient practices, scientifically-backed, catered to the individual, evolving alongside life.
May I be of service.