 Dear Friends,
This past week my oldest client, Ms. Ruth, coming in at 102 years young, passed away. While I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t expected, it still makes me sad to know I won’t see her anymore. I started seeing Ms. Ruth when she was 94 years young, and, if we’re being honest, I didn’t expect our relationship to last as long as it did. But it did, and I cannot tell you how special my time with her was. Every week I looked forward to seeing her and connecting with her. Every week, after a happy accidental meeting of the foreheads one week years ago, as we said Namaste at the end of our practice, we would gently touch our foreheads together, connect, say “boom” and laugh. She was someone so very special, that Ms. Ruth. One day, years ago, she expressed trepidation over a time in the future when her body might not be able to continue to do the movements we were currently doing in our movement practice. She was worried that if she couldn’t continue to do the same movements we had been doing, we would need to stop practicing altogether. I reassured her and we talked about how, even if we needed to modify our movements or make them different, there was always movement we could do. It might look and feel different, but that doesn’t make the movement less important. And through the years her movement did shift, it did change, it looked different than it once did…and even in that change, movement helped her stay strong and capable until the very end. There are times we all get discouraged when our bodies won’t do the same thing they used to do…and I think that discouragement is, at times, the reason we might discontinue our movement practices. But my friends, even if our bodies might not move the same way they used to, even if our bodies might look and feel different, that doesn’t mean our movement practice is any less important. My dear friend, I hope, as you move through your day, that you can find gratitude for your strong and capable body, even if it might feel different then it once did. Have an amazing day. Love Krista
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 Dear Friends,
What sort of tools can we have in our back pocket when we’re faced with fear and anxiety? This past week I had a few phone calls I had to make with various IRS offices because I kept getting passed around from office to office while trying to get an answer to my question. While sometimes necessary, it wasn’t my favorite way to pass my time. After the first couple phone calls when they inevitably gave me a different number to call, I started to get irritated. As I noticed those emotions I started practicing my deep breathing and noticed my body start to calm a bit. Certainly, my deep breaths didn’t fix my problem, they didn’t get me off the phone with the IRS, but they sure did help calm me in the moment. Figuring out ways to self soothe when we’re anxious, angry, irritable, it won’t fix the issues we’re facing. And yet, those tools can make a big difference in our own lives in the moment when we’re feeling those big emotions. Perhaps it’s practicing our deep and calm breathing when we’re feeling those emotions. Maybe it’s finding a change of scenery, taking a walk or finding some movement in our bodies. Perhaps it’s taking some time to cuddle with an animal or getting a nice long hug. Maybe it’s purposefully noticing something beautiful around you. Perhaps it’s taking a bath with epsom salts to help calm and soothe. Maybe it’s meeting up with a friend. Finding ways to self soothe isn’t going to be a long-term solution to our big emotions, but it can help in the moment, it can help calm us and make us feel better in our bodies and our minds. My dear friend, if you are feeling big emotions this week, I hope you can find ways to self soothe in the midst of those emotions. Have an amazing week. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
Last Friday I unexpectedly played hooky for the day (thank you for understanding!!!) and my boys and I went to White Grass in West Virginia to play in the winter wonderland that the world had turned into. It was one of Andrew’s last few days before he went back to school, and both of my boys had plans on Saturday, so Friday was the only time a little road trip with the three of us was going to happen before Andrew headed back on Sunday. It was just a spectacular day. Yes, for sure, it was a lot of driving, but I do love a good road trip, so it didn’t bother me to driving 6 hours and change in a day. But the world, the world around us was absolutely blanketed in snow, just absolutely and utterly blanketed. Conditions were perfect, the weather was perfection, and we had an absolutely wonderful time cross country skiing. I had gotten out skiing in my neighborhood a couple of times earlier in the week with the snow storm, which was so much fun and absolutely amazing, but nothing compared to the Narnia-like world we skied through last Friday in West Virginia. Sometimes my friends, sometimes opportunities arise...and sometimes we’ve just got to take said opportunities. Funny story, I wrote practically this exact same blog post this time last year, and only realized it when I looked up my blog post heading…and yet it still holds true, even when I’m a bit repetitive…sometimes opportunities arise, and sometimes we ought to just take them. I hope you have an amazing week my friend…and if an opportunity arises, I hope you take it. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
This past week we got a big snowstorm in the DMV that shut down the area for a few days and blanketed our region with a beautiful layer of snow. I knew if the snow panned out like the weather reporters said it would, I wanted to get out cross country skiing on Monday after work…so Sunday night I traipsed to my shed and transferred my skis and my boots from the shed to the house so I could be prepped and ready to go on Monday…because while the desire for skiing was there, I also knew I wasn’t going to want to traipse to the shed after snow had fallen. Sometimes our movement practices are really hard to show up for, and it can feel near impossible to find motivation to move…but I wonder if we take a little time to prep, maybe making our space pretty and inviting, perhaps thinking about what space and place in our house feels most motivating, perhaps putting clothes out the night before, or making a plan for ourselves or with a friend the day prior for what our movement practice will look like…perhaps if we do those things we can make showing up for our movement practices a little bit easier, a little more obtainable. That being said, “the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry”, and while I do think taking some time to think about and prep for our movement practices can be helpful, I personally think practicing non-judgement towards ourselves when we inevitably miss our self-imposed mark is an even more important practice…and it is a practice, my friends. Have an amazing week, my friend. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
How are you feeling, these first few days into this new year? I have never much been a resolution person. In fact, I would say my particular personality, while not rebellious in many ways, rebels against the resolution…if I resolve to do something, there’s a good chance I will do the opposite. And so for years, because of that, resolutions were not part of my holiday practice. However, in the past several years I’ve been trying to soften around the thought of pausing, noticing, and taking stock as the old year closes and the new year begins. I do think there is real value in the practice of taking stock, so long as I can do so without judgement and with grace and love. So while I might never become a resolutions person, for the past several years I have begun to try to integrate ways of noticing, taking stock and shifting without resolving. As I took stock of last year, the thing I noticed was how fast I had to move, how full my life and my brain had to be all the time. Now, I don’t regret having a full, fast life this past year…I had many moving parts that had to be completed, and it was a space I had to be in…but as I think about this year and moving into a different space and time when I have the ability to take things a little slower, that is my intention. My intention, in this coming year, is to slow down. My dear friend, do you have any intentions this coming year? If so, I hope you can hold those intentions with grace and love and without judgement, no matter the outcome. Have an amazing week, and a very happy new year. Love Krista |
Hi, I'm Krista!Krista Mason is a movement instructor based in Washington DC. She founded an online strength, yoga and movement studio, teaches group classes, hosts both local and overseas retreats, hangs out with private clients, and absolutely loves the work she gets to do. Archives
February 2025
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