 Dear Friends,
Have you ever ended a long, hot day of hiking by taking your boots off and putting your feet in a cold stream? Oh, the bliss. Seriously, I think this might be one of the best feelings in the world. My friends! Do you have any pastimes in life that are pure, unadulterated bliss? This past weekend I did something I had not done in a long time, something that brings me that pure, unadulterated bliss. I spent a whole day re-reading and re-watching my favorite scenes from this book/TV series that I’ve been a little obsessed with lately (spoiler alert, it’s not high quality reading/TV, but it is enjoyable!). I used to do this particular activity a lot as a kid, re-reading my favorite scenes from books over and over again, re-reading my favorite books from front to back over and over again…but sometime between being a kid and now, I, my environment, or the world, or some combination, convinced myself that such an endeavor was a waste of time, that I wasn’t being quite intelligent enough and should feel embarrassment and shame when I enjoyed light and mindless books and shows, that I had better things to do with my time. Now, granted, we can’t spend our lives doing only pleasurable things, it’s true. But, my friends, that thing that I, or the world, convinced me of, that was a lie. It’s not a waste of time to find and spend time in that pure, unadulterated bliss. It is not a waste of time to give ourselves permission to purposefully take time to do things that bring us great joy for no other purpose than the pleasure of it. It is not a waste of time. My dear friends, I hope, this week, that we will all be able to find a little more purposeful, unadulterated bliss in our lives, without embarrassment, without shame…I hope we can enjoy our lives a little more. Have an amazing week, my friends. Love Krista
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 Dear Friends,
Some time ago, my kids, a friend, my sister's family and my mama, who happened to be in town, were all taking a little meander through Rock Creek Park on a Sunday afternoon. It was a lovely day for a meander, the weather was absolute perfection, and the company was grand. As we walked, we found ourselves fooling around near the water under Boulder Bridge. As teenage boys do, one of my sons and his friend began picking up the largest rocks they could find and throwing them in the water, trying to see how far they could get said rocks and how loud an echo would accompany the splash as the rock hit the surface of the water under the bridge. The two of them, they picked up some pretty big rocks, my friends. As I sat there, watching them and smiling, I couldn’t help but recognize just how much bigger a rock they could pick up and throw with the two of them doing the work, instead of just one. The momentum they could get by swinging it back and forth between the two of them allowed them to move that rock so much further than either of them could have done on their own. I was thinking about that in regards to our movement practices. So many areas in our lives, including our movement practices, are simply easier when we are willing to work together, to allow others help us out. We are not meant to walk through life on our own, my friends. This week, if you need a little help from a friend, whether to move a big rock or in some other area in your life, I hope you will be a little more willing to give yourself permission to take that help, and to recognize that we all need each other to walk through life. Have an amazing week, my friends. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
I was sitting next to the creek the other week in the middle of a walk, and as I sat there I was thinking more about the post from last week, and about how there are times our movement practices bring up big emotions in our lives and in our bodies. How often we move through life without slowing down, without stopping, without allowing ourselves to just be quiet, to just be still, to just be…to think through and process those harder spots in life. I think, at times, our movement practices allow us to hold space for ourselves, and allow others to hold space for us. Our movement practices can allow us to show up in our bodies and just be there, nowhere else to be, nothing else to do, fewer distractions…just to be there with ourselves so we can begin to process and sit in those bigger emotions. Sometimes that’s a scary place to be, to just be there with ourselves, but I do think it’s so very necessary, my friends. The ability to slow down, to stop, to allow our minds to be a little quieter so we can really feel our feelings, it’s just so important. My dear friends, I hope this week we can hold a little more space for ourselves, even when that space might feel a little scary. Have an amazing week, my friends. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
I wrote this prompt a couple of years ago when I was nursing a pretty badly sprained ankle from an ill-advised, very distracted run in Rock Creek Park, but I never did anything with it until now. That ankle took an annoyingly long time to heal…but heal it did, mostly, with attention, care and love…although at times, like this morning as I was sitting in the park admiring flowers, it still reminds me that I hurt it. A few weeks ago some students and I were talking about movement and grief, and how our movement practice sometimes has an ability to bring up emotions that we have been holding on to…which, if we’re being honest, sometimes manifests itself as crying during a yoga or movement practice. I’ve done my fair share of crying during a yoga and movement practice, during a walk in my neighborhood or the woods, and I know I’m not alone in that…but sometimes that manifestation of our pain leads to embarrassment, and we end up wanting to hide from it. But here’s the thing, my friends. Our pain stays in our bodies when we choose not to look at it and work through it. It doesn’t go away because we’ve ignored it, because we’ve pushed it down, it stays with us…it manifests itself in different ways in our lives, but we don’t get over pain by ignoring it. Sitting in that pain, in that discomfort…it’s not fun, it’s not a place where many of us want to sit, but I do believe it is really important to allow ourselves to sit and to look and to work through those emotions. We may not want to, we may feel deeply uncomfortable, it might be a terrible pastime, but, my friends, it is so important. My dear friends, I hope this week we’re able to sit in the spaces where we need to sit a little more fully, knowing that even if that space is uncomfortable right now, moving through those emotions will help us be healthier and happier people in the future. 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
December 2024
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