The first time I met Justine Ruszczyk Damond I was in the process of falling madly in love with meditation and uncovering the magic in this 3D human life.
5 Reasons Your Soul is Calling for a Retreat
I am home from a month in the jungles of Costa Rica where I was vacationing with my sweet family and teaching back-to-back transformational meditation retreats with my older sister Lacy Young. For two weeks we watched beautiful souls soften and transform on meditation cushions right across from us, their lives utterly and totally changed. I left the experience completely renewed and deeply grateful for this incredible work she and I get to do together.
Retreating is near and dear to my heart, and it's something I prioritize in my own life. In the last five years I've attended at least one week-long meditation retreat a year (some years more than one) with many other workshop weekends peppered in for good measure.
I lead retreats because I believe in it. Fiercely. And because I've seen the powerful ripples faithfully attending them has created in my own life. In fact, if it weren't for that first meditation retreat all those years ago, I wouldn't be doing the work I'm doing now.
When Your Body Doesn't Feel Beautiful
It happened again.
But this time I was 15 stories up peering out over miles and miles of shimmering blue waters in front of me. The morning sun was soft and gauzy, and the sounds of the ocean sang a soothing tune that echoed on my heart. I was flowing through yoga poses and carefully twisting my body when the sabotage began yet again.
"You fatass."
You Are More Than Enough
Today I sat in mediation with tears streaming down my face, and I saw the litany of ways flash before my eyes that I've been beating myself up lately. Big things. Tiny things. Strange little things you wouldn't even imagine.
Like the planter in my window. I tried to start cilantro from seed about a month or two ago, and while three little shoots popped up to say hello, they eventually fizzled and fell. Now the planter is sitting in the window with dried out soil and tiny little cilantro carcasses, and I didn't even realize it was making me feel bad.
7 Ways to Use Crystals in Your Everyday Life
A Girlfriend Guide to Learning About Crystals
My love affair with crystals started just two short years ago. While we flirted for almost a decade, it wasn't until I moved to Colorado in June 2015 that we began our deep, passionate romance. My husband, my daughter and I had just left our lifelong home state of Texas to travel the world (We made it as far as Colorado. But that's another story...), and I was craving a little piece of home.
In Texas I had a beloved metaphysical shop where I purchased delicate necklaces adorned with a single crystal for attuning my energy. Each necklace came with a card describing the crystal's energy, and I would wear one for months on end until it broke, when I would buy another and experiment with another energy. I didn't know much about crystals, but I knew that I loved how those necklaces made me feel.
Why I'm Hanging Out In My Comfort Zone With a Smoothie and a Smile
I'm snuggled up in a hotel bed with the covers practically to my chin. (A good hotel bed is seriously one of my happy places.) My kiddo is snoozing soundly on the roll-away at my feet, and my husband is downstairs hopefully winning a million dollars in the casino. (A girl can dream.)
For the moment, all feels peaceful.
We are on an overnight stopover making our way back to the mountains after a week at the beach. And even though it was all sun-soaked and jammed with joy, I am feeling the call of my space and the gentle pull of my nourishing routines.
My heart is full, but my body is honestly drained.
Your Go-To Guide for Releasing Negative Energy
It happens to us all. We're humming right along in life, things are a-okay, and then we wake up one day in an undeniable funk. We don't exactly remember why we feel so bad, but we know for sure that we don't feel good.
We find ourselves analyzing and judging it in our minds. We push against it, and before we know it we're owning it. We're talking about it on repeat with our friends and family, and it weaves itself right into the definition of who we are.
Five Breathing Techniques to Calm Kids (and Adults too!)
The foundation of any meditation practice is connection to the breath. Our breath not only nourishes our body through delivering vital oxygen to the blood, but it also acts as a current of energy that has the power to quickly and effectively calm our nervous system. Through slow, rhythmic breathing we can steady our heart rate, lower our blood pressure and soothe our nerves all at once.
But mindful breathing is not just reserved for meditation. It is an incredible tool that can help not only ourselves, but also the kiddos in our lives. Think about how much time children spend in the womb connected to the rhythm of the mother's heart and breath only to emerge into a world that can feel chaotic and discombobulating at times. The steady tide of the breath helps pull them back into the their natural flow and is an incredibly soothing way to re-center and reconnect.
The Joy of Mindfulness Meditation (and How You Can Do It Too)
This morning was one of those rushed sort of scenes in our household. My daughter's breakfast was still only half-eaten when we were supposed to be walking out the door, I was slapping hummus on her sandwich while barking at her to EAT, and my husband was running upstairs to take his first call for the day.
Go. Go. Go.
It wasn't until I got home from dropping her at school that I caught myself in the frenzy of the energy. All at once I noticed that I felt anxious and clenched, and I found myself instinctively taking a deep breath and reminding myself to just be here right now in this moment.
What the Full Moon Wants You to Know
There's something undeniably primal that happens during the full moon. Teachers attest to rowdy kids, doctors report more activity in labor wards and ERs, and police officers confirm a spike in strange incidents. The moon's gravitational pull yanks at our tides and tugs on our own watery composition creating a stirring in each one of us.
Yet somehow we've forgotten our indelible connection to this celestial body and the very real effect it has in our lives. The following are the truths I whisper to myself each month as I set my crystals outside to bathe in the magic of our faithful friend. They are nurturing beliefs that when acknowledged will give you chance to pause, reflect and soak up the wisdom nature is effortlessly offering to each of us.
The Simple Energetic Tool I Use to Release Negative Energy
I'm lying in a lounger with tan legs extended and small beads of sweat beginning to wistfully pool along my hairline. The sun is dangling overhead from bluebird skies, and the shimmer of water is reflecting in my sunglasses. With a cold beer in hand, tunes that swoon of summertime dancing from the speaker, and a friend of more than a decade by my side, everything feels right in the world.
Except then it doesn't.