 Dear Friends,
Last week I had the privilege of spending a spectacular week leading a retreat on Amorgos, a beautiful little island with a population of 2000 full-time residents, and 370 churches dotting the landscape, in the Cyclades in Greece. Throughout the week we went on various adventures on our little island, we visited a beautiful monastery, Panagia Hozoviotissa, dramatically built into a cliffside, we visited the adorable town of Chora, went on a stunning hike, explored the town of Tholaria up the hill from our hotel, learned some greek dances and culinary skills…all the while, as we adventured, I was noticing the roads on our little island. The roads on our little island home for the week were built into the landscape. Instead of barreling through the landscape, they followed the curves and the altitude…which made for some really curvy, steep roads and a slower trip to get where we were going…it also made for roads that practically disappeared into the landscape around them. Instead of fighting the landscape they had and blasting through it, the Amorgans worked with what they had to build transportation infrastructure. I was thinking about those roads in terms of our own bodies. Sometimes we get frustrated with what we have…maybe our age, our old or new injuries, our weight, the way our bodies work…all those things sometimes frustrate us, and we end up getting in our heads about it. But I wonder how it might feel if we simply accept ourselves exactly as we are, right here and now, and then work with what we’ve got. I wonder how it might feel to judge ourselves a little less, to find beauty in ourselves, to work on knowing we are just right just as we are right here, right now. I hope you have an amazing week, my friend. Love Krista
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 Dear Friends,
A while ago while I was meandering in the woods I came to a fork in the road. I could continue on the paved trail I was on, or I could walk down what was clearly the old trail. Pavement is not my favorite surface to walk on, so I opted to head down the latter path, hoping to have a little less pavement in my life. Little did I know, although had I taken a second to think about it I might have figured, the old trail was full of broken pavement and potholes and was not the greatest to walk on…surprise, surprise. As I continued on, I came across a couple of downed trees crossing my path. I scrambled over them and thought about how there was no need for the rangers to clear said trees, because this particular path was no longer in use and had no need to be cleared. There are times, in all of our lives, where it's hard to discern when it’s time to continue down a path, and when it is time to walk away from something that is no longer serving us. My dear friend, I hope you are able to trust your own discernment even in the hard. Have an amazing week. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
That walk that I talked about last week, it was on one of those hot and sweaty days. As such, it was, for sure, a slow meander through the woods…taking my time, walking my walk, enjoying practically seeing the leaves get fuller on the trees around me. I was thinking, as I walked, about how much I love walking my own walk, going at my own pace, stopping, looking, noticing without being in a hurry, without anyone else dictating how fast or slow I need to go. Several years ago I realized I had been walking at other folks' pace for years, trying to keep up with people who were naturally faster than me and I didn’t want to do that anymore. I no longer wanted to run after people who were naturally faster than me…so largely I stopped. Now, don’t get me wrong, there are times when we have no choice but to keep up with others, there are times when keeping up helps encourage us to push ourselves further and do better than we might on our own, but there are also plenty of times when we can and should choose to walk our own walk, even if it’s a different pace then those around us. My dear friend, I hope you can walk your own walk this week, knowing with confidence that your walk is your own beautiful journey. Have an amazing week. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
I had a little space in my schedule last week, so I got to take an unexpected wander through the woods in-between clients. As I wandered I was recognizing that I simply haven’t been wandering through the woods as much lately. My life has been busier, I have had less spaciousness, I haven’t been making the time in my week to wander. But those slow meanders are really good for my mind, my body, and my nervous system. They’re a super important reset in my week. As I walked I was recognizing that I need to prioritize being out in nature, on trails, in the woods a little more. Life gets busy, and unfortunately none of us have time for all the self-care we might want for ourselves…but I think noticing those details that make a sizable difference in our lives, whatever that may be for you, and prioritizing those areas, taking time for those areas as we move through our weeks can make a real difference in our minds, our bodies, our nervous systems and our lives. I hope you have an amazing week, my friend. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
I talked last week about my drive through the park and how one day all the trees were void of life, and the next, on that same drive, there were bits of bright green all around me. But they weren’t, those trees. They weren’t void of life. They might have looked that way, they might have presented as void of life…but under the surface life was moving and churning. That life might have been waiting to burst forth, but that doesn’t mean life wasn’t there, under the surface the whole time. Sure, it might look different on the outside, and throughout the colder months that life might be slower, but even in that slower state, that life is still there…moving, changing, growing. Sometimes we think we’re in a stagnant place, we feel like our growth has slowed to a halt. And perhaps we aren’t moving or growing as much as we are at other times in our lives, but that doesn’t mean life isn’t there, moving, changing, growing. My dear friend, I hope you can celebrate your journey exactly where you are right now, whether that is full of life and change, or perhaps moving at a little slower pace. Have an amazing week, my friend. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
While I was driving through the park last week, I noticed, while spring was springing all around, and blossoms were blossoming, yet, all the trees in the park were still bare and void of life. The very next day, as I drove that same road through the park, there were little dots of green all around me. One of my clients last week aptly referred to the trees at this stage as like an impressionist painting…life was springing up throughout the park in this beautiful moment of instant change. How are you feeling, my friend? I don’t know about you, but this past week the political climate we have been living through has been rough on my nervous system. I noticed a distinct feeling of exhaustion earlier this week and realized I had been holding a lot of tension, a lot of nervousness, a lot of…a lot. And there’s not a whole lot I can do about it, other than limit my consumption of the news. But I can anchor back to the good, the beauty, the life springing up around me in that moment of instant change. I can find other ways in my life to anchor back, ways that allow me to feel a semblance of control in one area even if I can’t feel that control in others. My dear friend, sometimes there’s no help to be had for the exhaustion and nervousness, but I do think if we’re willing to take some time to anchor back to the good, the beauty and the life around us we can find a little deeper breath and a little more relief. Have an amazing week. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
As I was driving to see a client at 7:40 this morning, I suddenly realized I didn’t write or set up an email to send out this week…I completely forgot, it totally slipped my mind until this morning when it was too late to schedule and send out at 8am when I normally send it. I chuckled about forgetting because, well, sometimes we just forget, right? But, as I drove, admiring the various redbuds and (my favorite) puffball cherry trees in bloom on my way, I also realized that I had recently changed my schedule, and the time that I used to have set aside for my weekly email was no longer available to me. So, after 5 ½ years of writing an email to you all faithfully every week, I changed one thing about my week and completely forgot…because I hadn’t set any time aside to write said email. I didn’t judge myself for forgetting an email, that’s life sometimes…we can’t do everything right all the time. But also, I did recognize that I, once more, need to set aside time in my week for a task that I value, that I want to accomplish…because without that time set to the side clearly that task is easy to forget. My dear friend, I hope we all can be a little more gentle with ourselves when we inevitably fail or forget a task at hand…because we all do and will. And yet, I also hope we can look at our own lives and figure out ways we can help ourselves accomplish those things we want to accomplish with a little more ease. Have an amazing week. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
Last Sunday happened to be a beautiful spring day around here…it also happened to be a day full of getting things done around my house, and checking things off the to-do list that had been on said list for way too long. Perhaps not the best use of beautiful spring weather, but important nonetheless. I was in and out of the house all day fulfilling my to-do list. The day prior, my niece and I had been looking at the weeping cherry tree in my next-door neighbors yard. It happens to be one of my favorite trees, it is just so beautiful. We were looking at the buds that were tightly closed and talking about how pretty it is when they open…I went to bed that night with the blossoms still tightly wrapped up and tucked away in their little cocoons. That next day, however, as I was in and out of the house, it was amazing to see this tree completely transform from morning to evening in one day. It went from nary a bud opened, to practically full bloom that Sunday. I could see the transformation happening in front of me as I went about my work. Sometimes transformation is a long, arduous process…but sometimes transformation happens in an instant…both roads have their challenges, their lessons and their beauty. My dear friend, I hope, during this season of transformation in the world around us, we can see and notice the beauty around us even when life has its inevitable challenges. Have an amazing week. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
My son was home on Spring Break last week. One evening during that time we were at the climbing gym, and I, like a bit of a dummy I am, decided to show off and lift heavier weights than I should have. Nothing like showing off to your 21 year old son to really put you in your place…and so it’s been a week of stretching, and icing, and rolling and elevating and resting a place I re-injured just to show off to my son. But he was impressed. Mission accomplished. Worth it. As we age and change our bodies just don’t work the way they once did, right? Perhaps you’ve noticed it in your own body. Maybe you’ve lost movement that once felt easy and fluid. Perhaps your injury is taking longer to heal than it used to. Maybe areas in your body feel a little more burdensome, a little more catchy. Perhaps movement feels less easy and second-nature. It’s real, and natural, and part of life and, as much as we don’t want to hear it, part of the aging process...and also so incredibly frustrating, this change in our physical experience as we move through life. This week I was working with a student to brainstorm ways we could modify movement so that those movements that feel inaccessible can become more accessible. Because, my friends, even when those inevitable changes occur it is still so very important in our bodies and our minds to keep moving, to keep our strength and mobility, to find ways to modify so we can both keep that integrity in our bodies, feel strong in our bodies, and find the fun and the joy when moving through life. My dear friend, I hope this week you are able to find a little more fun and joy as you move through this life…and hopefully you don’t feel a need to show off to any 21 year olds. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
This past weekend I had the privilege of taking a wonderful group of folks to the lovely Lake Anna in Virginia for a weekend retreat. It was my first time going to this little lake less than two hours from the DC area, and it was delightful. Because the weather was going to be beautiful and warm on Saturday, at the last second I arranged for a group of us to have a three hour sunset pontoon ride on the lake. It was a lovely trip exploring the lake with amazing company. Our captain was fabulous. We had some snacks and wine, some good connection time and an all-around relaxing trip…and at the end of our time we experienced a spectacular sunset to round out our trip on the water. Turns out, however, three hours on a pontoon boat without a bathroom...add in some wine...is about an hour too many. By the end of our trip I was absolutely dying. So while I enjoyed the beautiful sunset, there was an amount of enjoyment that was totally overpowered by a need to pee with nowhere to escape to. Spoiler alert, I made it back in one piece…phew…but not without telling our captain that yes, it was time to go to shore because our three hours were about to be up even though the sun hadn’t fully set. These past few weeks have been hard, scary, exhausting…right? I was thinking about that sunset, and how I couldn’t fully enjoy it because of extenuating circumstances, and I think that’s our life all the time right now…it’s hard to decouple ourselves from the hard, scary and exhausting things that are going on in our world. I don’t have any answers to give other than to keep showing up, keep being a light in this world, keep being good to those around you…and perhaps keep noticing those beautiful sunsets…even if you might be a little distracted. Have an amazing week, my friend. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
I stumbled across this tree while I was talking to my siblings the other day. I had to stop what I was doing, and totally lost my train of thought to get a picture of said tree…I did not get back to what I was saying to my siblings after that. I use an app called Marco Polo to chat with my siblings, with my bonus mom and bonus sister, and with a couple of friends on the regular. It’s basically this video message app where no one is in real time, we’re all talking and listening when we, individually, have the opportunity to listen and talk. We can have individual chats, or chats with groups of people. If we’re being honest, it’s not as nice as a phone call. It’s hard to have a real time connection when you’re basically talking to yourself, and there’s no real time reaction from the folks I’m talking to, because I’m not talking in real time to them, as they are not there with me…there is by definition less opportunity for real connection. And yet, through this app I have found greater opportunities for connection in general…stay with me here…because I know I basically contradicted myself. Life gets so busy, and it’s hard to stay connected to the people we value and want to stay connected to...add in some different time zones, and wildly different schedules and that connection becomes near impossible. This app has allowed people important to me to maintain that day to day connection, to maintain that conversation in each other’s lives across time zones, states, the whole country…and that is a joy in my life, even if it might not be the best platform for real connection. Sometimes the opportunity for real connection is abundant in our lives, and other times we take the morsels we can get, because staying connected to the people we love is important in this life we’re living, and connection, no matter how mediocre, is absolutely essential. I hope you have an amazing week, my friend. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
Earlier this week we woke up blanketed in a layer of snow. Because of the high temperatures the week prior, the snow covered everything as far as I could see…trees, cars, holly berries, bare branches...the world was briefly covered with this beautiful layer of white. I had a sudden change in schedule first thing in the morning because of said layer of snow, so I had an unexpected 30 minutes in my day that I don’t normally have. I was assuming, rightfully so, that all the snow would have disappeared from the trees by the time I was able to get out again, so I took a quick walk while I had the opportunity. The only tracks I saw for the first part of my walk were deer, and I’m pretty sure a couple of foxes as I meandered down to the creek that morning, and the world was mostly quiet during my brief 20 minute walk…and boy, was the world around me beautiful. By noon all the snow in the trees had melted away, and most of the rest of the snow was remnants. Streets were totally drivable and, unlike the last snow, said remnants didn’t cause a whole lot of disruption in the rest of the day. As I was driving a little later that day, I was thinking about how we have these brief and fleeting moments of beauty in our lives…but as brief and fleeting as they are, we can still choose to stop, pay attention, and see the beauty around us, however brief that may be. Have an amazing week, my friend. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
I’ve had “teach myself double-entry bookkeeping and find bookkeeping software that I like” on my to-do list since about April of last year. While my spreadsheet bookkeeping did me just fine…or, one might say, did me adequately for many years, it was high time to find a new way of doing things. At least once a week for the past 9 months I would bring up various software, stare at them, start free trials and inevitably do less than I should with the free trial time I had…I’d then get overwhelmed and set the task to the side and continue on my way with my merry little spreadsheets that I understood. But here’s the thing, in all that overwhelm, I never created a dedicated space and time in my week to learn something new. Bookkeeping was on my list, it was a thing I knew I needed to get done, but I didn’t create space and time to make that learning happen…and so, spoiler alert, that learning didn’t happen. At the beginning of this new year I carved out some space in my weekly schedule, put a recurring appointment for myself in that space, and lo and behold, was able to make that learning happen…and, let me tell you my friend, it feels great to have that checked off my to-do list and also to have that dedicated recurring appointment set up for a very needed part of my business. I was thinking about my dilemma in regards to our movement practice. I think many of us do that same thing when it comes to movement. We know we should get it done, we set a goal in our heads, but we don’t create a dedicated time and space to actually make it happen...and then we grow frustrated and irritated with ourselves when that movement doesn’t happen. My dear friend, if you’re feeling frustrated because you’re having a hard time showing up for your movement practice, I wonder how it might feel to set aside some dedicated time in your week for your movement practice…perhaps even putting it in your calendar as a recurring appointment, and then actually showing up for said appointment. I hope you have an amazing week, my friend. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
These past several years I’ve had a changed relationship with Valentine's day. If we’re being honest, I was always a little salty about this made up holiday…I thought it was a day meant to make folks feel bad. I just didn’t like it. It made me feel grouchy and annoyed. I didn’t want to feel that way, but it seemed like every year that was the attitude I put on. My dear friend was always the opposite of me on this day…emphasizing celebrating all of the various loves in our lives and treating the day as a joyful time without expectation, but full of love. I always admired her for it…and then went back to my grouchy ways. But these past several years I’ve tried, and largely succeeded in embracing my dear friend’s (better) attitude, I’ve really tried to put on the fact that we can celebrate all the great loves we have in our lives, we can share and spread a little more love in our own lives by showing up for those around us. Because, my friend, life is full of loves, and what a privilege that life is full of loves. Romantic love is just a small part of this life full of love we can create. So, my friend, I hope this week, even if this day isn’t your favorite day, we can all embrace and spread love a little further, to a few more folks around us…I hope we can see a little more clearly all the loves we have in our lives. I hope we can love a little more deeply and fully. Have a lovely week, my friend. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
My kids got me one of those digital picture frames a year ago for Christmas…I loved it, but like any reasonable person, I immediately put it on the shelf and didn’t set it up until my son came home a couple of months ago and set it up for me. Since that time I’ve had a great time looking through my facebook memories daily, finding old pictures and sending them to the frame, and then being delighted when I see them again. Sometimes we need distractions from the distractions, right? Of late I’ve been taking a lot of epsom salt baths. I find epsom salt baths to be super relaxing and soothing to sore muscles and overworked bodies and it’s just a nice practice to soothe and relax. But, more importantly, I put my phone in a different room, I take my old as the hills kindle with me, and I sit in the bath and read a book while soaking. It’s easy to get sucked into the anxiety of doomscrolling that we all inevitably get sucked into…and it’s hard to keep the chatter from our minds and bodies. But I think there are ways we can find purposeful and meaningful distractions from the distractions. Perhaps that’s a nice soak in an epsom salt bath. Perhaps it’s a walk with a friend where we leave our phones behind. Perhaps it's taking a class or wandering in the woods or finding old pictures to put in frames. We can’t live distractedly all the time…but I think some well-placed purposeful distractions in our lives can do us good. Have an amazing week, my friend. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
We don’t have to go far to find beauty in our lives, we can look for it, we can notice it in our every day, in our daily surroundings. Last Sunday, during the storm, my son and I got on our cross country skis, and skied down to Sligo Creek Park to go on a little mid-storm ski trip in the park. By the time we got out the sleet had started in ernest, but it didn’t bother us, and for most of our skiing, we had great conditions. Toward the very end the stickiness started up, but for most of the time we were out, conditions were perfect. It’s a good thing we got out that day, because by the next day the world was a sheet of ice, and conditions were terrible for skiing. I was thinking, as I was skiing, how often we put off noticing the beauty of the world around us until we stop, we travel, we go somewhere different, we take ourselves out of our own lives and enter a different world…but, my friends, noticing the beauty in the every day, noticing the beauty in our own world, the world that is surrounding us daily, the world we move through day after day, that’s the thing that can make the real difference in our lives. We don’t need skis, or a giant snowstorm to notice beauty. We can, every day, strive a little more to see the world around us, to breathe a little deeper, to slow down and notice, to find that beauty in the every day of our lives. I hope you have an amazing week, my friend. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
My kids, a couple of friends and I went cross country skiing a few weeks ago on an absolutely spectacular, snow filled day. There were a couple of new to skiing folks with us, so while we all had a great time, we weren’t exactly the fastest bunch out there. How are you feeling, as we near the end of January? My friend and I were on a walk earlier this week, talking about how we think we all need a little breathing space in January to come off the end of the year, the busyness, the holidays. We were talking about how goals for the new year might better be set in February or March rather than the month where we all just need to breathe and chill for a bit. In light of that, whether you chose to make goals for yourself in this new year, or whether that isn’t your thing, I hope we can all remind ourselves that it’s progress, not perfection that should be our focus. Celebrate the little milestones you reach. Celebrate the small changes. Don’t let the need for perfection prevent you from celebrating your accomplishments…or celebrating you. A couple of weeks ago we made it to the top of the mountain. It took a long time, we were pretty slow, but we made it…and we had fun and was surrounded by so much beauty on the way to the top…and you know what, if we hadn’t made it to the top that day, we would have still had fun and been surrounded by so much beauty. Have an amazing week, my friend. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
There’s this miniscule nature preserve north of the City in Virginia called Scott’s Run Nature Preserve that I discovered for the first time recently. If we're being honest, it’s nothing much to write home about, a nice little green space outside the city with some walking trails and woods, but so close to the freeway that it’s near impossible to get away from the road noise, especially this time of year with the distinct lack of leaves on the trees. However, at the bottom corner of the nature preserve, on a little creek…one could only assume Scott’s Run…there's a cute little waterfall that empties from said creek into the larger Potomac River. I was meandering through the preserve earlier this week, trying to get a little hike in before darkness caught up to me. As I meandered I was thinking about how, even in the most mediocre of times or places, we can still find beauty, we can still find wonder, if only we look for it. It’s been a rough start to this year, my friends, and I think it’s near impossible not to feel the fear, the sadness, the darkness around us for so many reasons. And yet, I hope even in the midst of the space and time we are in, we can see the good, and we can still find beauty and wonder in the world. Have an amazing week. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
Ever sit next to a creek and watch a leaf stuck in a whirlpool, spinning ‘round and ‘round, revisiting the same spaces over and over again? This year I noticed something. For the past several years, come January, I get in my head, and I get the doldrums about the same thing…over and over again, year after year. Turns out, January elicits an emotional angst in me, spinning ‘round and ‘round, revisiting this same topic. I hadn’t realized until this year that this particular topic was a yearly trend, but now that I see it, I really do think it is. This particular doldrum manifests itself by making me want to curl up by myself and push people away…and I have to actively fight against it. We all get that way, right? Those emotions that revisit us from particular triggers, or times of the year, anniversaries of events, or places. Emotions we thought we worked through, and maybe we did, but they still crop up from time to time to say hello. My dear friend, if you’re in the middle of a time of doldrum, I hope you can be gentle with yourself. I hope you can see your emotions as real and valid. And I hope you can see your beauty and worth. Have an amazing week, my friend. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
Happy 2026 my friend! As we step into this New Year my hope for you is that your year has started out filled with love, light, connection and joy…without expectations and rules around areas you want to change unless those expectations and rules also bring you joy and excitement. This is the time of year, right? The time of year where some choose to look at and try to implement shifts and changes in their lives…and while I’m convinced that the New Year really ought to happen in March when the world starts to get warmer, when mornings are lighter, when it’s simpler to get out of bed and it’s just easier to make good on those shifts and changes we want to make…rather than the dead of winter when our bodies and minds want comfort food and rest and the world is dark and cold, (and I would implement that change if I could!) I do think setting aside time to take purposeful looks at our lives and areas we would like to shift and change can be beneficial and good…so long as we can do so with less rigidity and judgment and more grace and love for ourselves if and when we stumble and fall along the way. So, my dear friend, as we step into this new year and see the days get longer and the return of the light, I hope you are able to find less rigidity and judgement for yourself and those around you…I hope you are able to find more grace and love for yourself and those around you…and if there are spaces you want to shift and change I hope you can step into those areas with the knowledge that you are beautiful, wonderful, amazing and enough even without those shifts and changes. Have a wonderful week and a very happy New Year, my friend. Love Krista |
Hi, I'm Krista!Krista Mason is a movement instructor based in the Washington DC area. She founded an online strength, yoga and movement studio, teaches group classes, hosts both local and overseas retreats, hangs out with private clients, writes weekly blogs and absolutely loves the work she gets to do. Archives
May 2026
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