Words From Rachel

Change your shape, to shift your mental state. The practice of yoga and all the ways we move our breath with our body can shift us from an experience of feeling limited and small to feeling connected and bright. This experience isn’t limited to yoga. It can happen any...

Who are you are becoming? In 2001 I drove myself to Scottsdale Community College for a 3 day workshop with Dr. Douglas Brooks and one of my first yoga teachers, Desiree Rumbaugh. Douglas taught a lot that weekend. He is a philosophy professor and super captivating....

My end to multitasking. I was hired for my first full-time job in April of 1998. I was 22 years old. I had an open door policy and began early on to allow my “can do” attitude to be interpreted for I “can do it right now”. As a yogi, I was flexible and wanting to...

Motivation isn't the key to long-term change. It’s unrealistic. We need to stop thinking we need more motivation to get things done. Motivation moves like a wave, with highs and lows. When I learned this, my world opened up. The trajectory of our personal health and...

Fall, snot and digestive fire. It’s the first day of Fall. The temperatures are fluctuating dramatically between night and day and have been for a few weeks. Are you or your kids feeling snotty? Do you have mucous? Does your tongue have a white coating?  You might be...

Make a shift from limiting thought patterns. Last week I shared with you my power space, my 10x10 Shakti Shed. The same day I published that post, one of my best friends from high school, Megan shared this quote by Joseph Campbell that rang so true for me.   "Your...

Your work is love made visible. -Khalil Gibran Do you ever have those days when you want to jump for joy?! Or sing from the top of your lungs? I’ve been feeling this way lately. I’ve been dancing around with excitement, grinning from ear to ear. I’ve got some super...

A deeper connection to nature. We have entered into the season of abundance at the Peters-Jannone residence.  We have been swimming in peaches and now a cornucopia of tomatoes, 3 different kinds of cucumbers, apples, zucchini, summer squash and pears line the...

Expanding and contracting... In the summer of 2000 I went to my first Anusara®yoga class. Every friday that summer, my friend and teacher Christina Sell and I would hop in a truck (we both drove old Toyota trucks at the time) and roll down the hill to Scottsdale,...

What is your relationship to time? I’ve been spending a lot of time getting clear on my priorities and my values. The outcome is 1)all my material things spark joy and 2) I have a more expansive relationship with time.  Now, we all share the same 24 hour cycle, but...

You are your best caregiver. When I give myself permission to do what's best for ME, it's best for EVERYONE. This Body: We only Get One. Do the donkey work. Making Space. Living in the Current. Some lessons we have to learn a few times before they penetrate through...

"We are spiritual beings in human bodies" I’ve been moving my body creatively and athletically since I was super young. In the process of going through my memorabilia as part of my second round (and monster project) of “tidying up”, I revisited pictures of myself. It...

Yoga is not the path of least resistance. When I was going through the process of  reflecting on my "lessons learned" around my birthday, I had a flashback of one of my first asana teachers. I started studying with Christina Sell in 1999 on Gurley Street at Kelly...

Time opens up when our SPACE is clear. When there is excess stuff in our space, we lose time. Are you impacted by your environment? Do you feel heavy? Stuck? Like you need a new perspective on life? After a few months of being pregnant with Miles it became clear I had...

Investing in YOU Today is Miles' 2nd Birthday. In February 2011 I made my first MONSTER monetary purchase that would inevitably change my life. It was the most uncomfortable purchase I had ever made. More uncomfortable than purchasing a car, a new home or fancy piece...

Here's what some Yoga Health Coaches have to share about summer travel Before leaving on my first road trip in early June, I reached out to my Yoga Health Coaching friends and colleagues to pick their brain on "best practices" for hitting the road and camping this...

Keep your cool this summer As the seasons change, it’s a good practice to anticipate how your habits and lifestyle might need to shift in order to align with nature. When we live out of sync with nature, we can start to feel out of balance, stressed, impatient, maybe...

Did you know...the amount and quality of sleep you get may have a bigger impact on your health than what you eat? Our sleep impacts our hormones, our weight, our cognitive function, and how we age (to name a few). I don't know about you, but these are important to...

Are you in a phase of investing in or withdrawing from the future YOU? Do you know what your current ROI, Return on Investment is for your health care right now? We all spend plenty of money each month on our health care and I know I'm not alone in sharing that we...

Meditation is like drawing the bow back. We draw back the bow to orient it's trajectory. We turn our awareness inward to orient our life's trajectory. The solstice was like this for me. I've spent years doing 108 surya namaskar on the solstice, ushering in the light...