Sample Newsletter

This is a sample of my typical newsletter — general musings, updates and the occasional playlist.

To subscribe to my monthly emails, click here.

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So Hello April 2023! And Hello to whomever is reading this.

I probably know and love you.

My head and my heart are here

These days,  I am thinking about change and grief and that type of deep joy and sweetness that only grief can deliver. I'm thinking about all of this because there seems to be an uptick of change and separation in my immediate family — kids growing and leaving, aging parents, friends moving (I love you Jen Roy!) Everyone I come into contact with these days is navigating profound changes, and loss. I have been noticing how grief lives in my body (my neck and throat, primarily)I have been noticing how it changes my breath.  I have a new appreciation for my conscious breath — it soothes me and it also connects me to my grief. So strange. I see how grief alerts me  to any whiff of vulnerability and loss (23 whales washed up on the east cost…whaaaaaat? On a good day, I’ll cry at the drop of a hat. I appreciate trees more — is that a grief thing? The crying part is cathartic and its sweet and sometimes, I imagine, its off-putting to strangers I pass on the street, so I try to remember to reread this amazing poem “New York" about crying publicly by Alex Dimitrov whenever I can.

(Thank you poets everywhere, for saying things in a way that I could never.) 

 Here's what I'm doing

I've been practicing asana and qigong really gently —  lightly — and re-exploring the ways in which movement is healing and unambitious and unintellectual. I'm freshly appreciative of how moving in rooms with humans is the greatest thing ever. I've re-remembered that when I slow down, I am kinder and I can be gentler with myself and with other people. (‘Slow is the fast way' as we say in Qigong — and a shout to my precious teacher and friend Thomas Droge who up and left NYC for Colorado — speaking of change and grief) I forget all the time to slow down. I want to get a tattoo that reminds me to pause and notice. I am taking suggestions on what it  would look like and where I should put it (be nice). Honestly, though, even with the constant reminder I will still forget. Maybe I'm just looking for an excuse to get another tattoo. 

And on to business…

I'm leading a retreat with the gorgeous Marcus Berardino in April upstate. Click here for more information. There are 2 more spots at this moment in time. It’ll be all about breath of course! And we’ll eat great vegetarian food and there will be plenty of asana,  and we’ll practice some Qigong in the woods.

I'm teaching a super chill Friday Night Class at Prema Yoga once a month through May.

I teach every week — Friday mornings 9:15am at Souk. It's the yoga/ qigong hybrid I love teaching — both sweaty and subtle. There's  a great group of regulars coming together around that class. And some Souk-adjacent folks are about to add a cold plunge pool and a sauna and a tonic bar to the site, so there’s even more incentive to pop by :).

Heres where I’ll leave it for now

I've been leaning into these two, hard:

“Let yourself be gutted. Let it open you. Start here.”  - Cheryl Strayed

“Do I prefer to grow up and relate to life directly, or do I choose to live and die in fear?” - Pema Chodron

Love On ,

Annie

Oh , and here’s a playlist I’m working on: