 Dear Friends,
As you might know, cherry blossom time is upon us in the Washington DC area. I don’t know about you, but I try to get immersed in cherry blossoms several times a season…whether that’s getting down to the tidal basin, or taking a walk in the Kenwood neighborhood, or meandering through the Arboretum…I try to take some extra time in the week or two that they’re around to enjoy the beauty of those trees. I find something absolutely magical about being surrounded by these stunning trees, there’s this magnetic pull for me that I can’t fight even if I wanted to, which I don’t. Certainly, there are crowds. Oh, how there are crowds. There’s really no getting away from people no matter where you end up…some spots are less crowded, or have wider streets than others, but at the end of the day, there are throngs of people wherever you are. But for me, personally, it’s worth it. It’s worth braving those throngs of people in order to be surrounded by this beauty that is so very fleeting, this wonder that is here and gone so soon. I think there’s something pretty fantastic about purposely getting immersed in beauty. It might not be cherry blossoms for you, the crowds might add a level of anxiety that makes that experience totally and completely not worth it or even damaging, but I do think there’s something wonderful about being purposeful about finding something beautiful and intentionally spending time in that space. My dear friends, I hope this week you can purposely and intentionally find something amazing, something beautiful…and perhaps spend some time taking that beauty and wonder in. Have a beautiful week, my friends! Love Krista
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 Dear Friends,
The daffodils are out with a vengeance right now, with whole hillsides covered with these happy yellow flowers, it’s pretty magical. I was walking past a patch of daffodils the other day, thinking about how they reproduce…thinking about how they both reproduce with seed, and also with dividing their bulbs and cloning themselves over the years. You can do absolutely nothing with that daffodil bulb, and year after year, not only will that flower come back, but it will make more of itself. I was thinking of that, and thinking about our movement practices. I don’t know about you, but I think many of us struggle with starting too fast, with putting too much on ourselves when it comes to our movement practices, and then burning out and giving up when we inevitably can’t fulfill our goals. I was wondering how it might feel if, just like the daffodils, we started out with small, manageable and achievable goals…and then built from there. Maybe we started with the goal of moving our bodies 10 minutes a couple of days a week, and then when we established that, maybe we gave ourselves a bigger goal to reach. I wonder how it might feel if, as the daffodils, we gave ourselves permission to build our movement practice over time instead of all at once. My dear friends, I hope this week you can give yourself permission to start out with small and achievable goals, knowing that, with that, you can build something over time. Have an amazing week, my friends. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
Last weekend my son and I went in search of snow for one of his school assignments. As both of us love a good road trip, we excitedly hopped in the car bright and early Sunday morning to head toward West Virginia where we knew snow had fallen…it was a lovely drive for about 2 hours, and then a wrench was thrown in our plans. After about 2 hours, my car started having issues. Now, let’s be honest, I can’t say I was super surprised, this particular issue has been headed down the pipeline for a little while now, so I knew it was coming. Even so, it reared its ugly head so much so that we weren’t quite sure we were going to make it home…we gave ourselves a 23% chance as we turned around and headed toward home, and I think, in hindsight and with very little mechanical skill, that was a pretty accurate assessment. Growing up, I only ever had ridiculously old cars and a perpetual premium membership with AAA, so car trouble isn’t particularly unfamiliar territory to me, but it doesn’t matter how much experience one has, car trouble is stressful….and made for a pretty stress-filled trip home. Despite said stress, as I drove, I worked to breathe deeply, to regulate my nervous system, to find calm in the midst of anxiety…and, you know, to stay in the right lane. My friends, breathing deeply and regulating my nervous system didn’t fix my car, it didn’t solve my issues, and it didn’t get me home without breaking down. And yet, while breathing deeply didn’t do any of those things, it did, in fact, make that stressful trip home a little easier. Our movement practices won’t make the hard things in life go away, they won’t solve our problems…but our movement practices will give us a few more tools in our toolbelt when life is inevitably harder and more anxiety-filled than we expected it to be. I hope you have a stress-less week, my friends…and if you don’t, I hope you can breathe a little deeper into whatever stress you might encounter. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
I’ve been thinking a lot about last week’s blog post, and about giving ourselves permission to walk our own walk at our own pace without comparing ourselves to those around us…easier said than done, right? This week it’s been hard not to notice the beginning of spring when walking and driving in my area. The daffodils, the tulip trees, the little yellow flowers that carpet Rock Creek's ground at the beginning of spring…they’re all getting towards full bloom. It’s seemed like they all bloomed and opened in the span of a few days this past week. Flowers and blooming have been on my mind as I’ve walked around. One of my favorite things about spring is the way flowers open and bloom at different times…you have your daffodil and tulip tree time, you have your tulips and cherry blossom time, and on down the line. Spring flowers aren’t in bloom all at once, different flowers bloom and open at different times throughout spring. I wonder how it might feel in our own lives if we saw that difference, if we really saw the way flowers bloom in their own time and at their own rate, and we lived into that difference a little more in our own lives…with our kids and family, with our friends…but mostly, with our own selves. We bloom, we open, we walk, we live at our own pace. Let’s see how it feels to be a little more fully us this week. I hope you have an amazing, flower-filled week, my friends. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
Walking our own walk…sometimes it’s hard to do without comparison, without looking at those around us walking at a different pace and judging our own journey. Last week my kids and I hiked to the top of El Yunque Rain Forest in Puerto Rico. It was a beautiful day, high 70’s, rainy, misty, sunny…we had it all during our trek up and down the mountain. We hiked together to the top of the mountain, with my kids at times waiting for their slower mother to catch up to them and me, at times, waiting for them as shenanigans ensued. As we turned around to go back down, we wandered away from each other. One kid, enjoying a fast, solo trip down a mountain, walked on ahead. The other, somewhere in the middle, at times waited for me to catch up. And I, the slower one of the bunch, the more cautious around rocks and roots during the descent, the forever picture taker, I brought up the rear. Let’s be honest, they had to wait a good long while at the bottom for me…and that’s okay, my friends, that is perfectly okay. We get to walk our own walk at whatever pace that may be. It shouldn’t matter how fast or slow those around us are going, we get to walk our own walk at our own pace. If there are spaces in your life where you feel discouraged…maybe you feel like your pace isn’t fast enough or doesn’t match those around you…if you have those spaces of discouragement, I hope you can feel the validity of your own walk, your own pace a little more this week. I hope you can walk your own walk without judgment. Have an amazing week, my friends. 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
October 2024
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