 Dear Friends,
I was walking along the creek the other day after a rain. The creek, of late, had been low, with rocks sticking up that I normally didn’t see. But after this rain it was running over the edges, fuller, moving faster. I don’t know about you, but this time of year I always find a fluctuating scale when I step on it. It’s colder out, the need for comfort food is strong, there are parties and gatherings, food and drink are more readily available. We can easily begin to beat ourselves up over a lack of self control when it comes to gatherings, the negative self-talk can flare up easily and quickly, the comparison to those around us can come bounding into our heads and our hearts…but how might it feel if we choose, this year, to be more compassionate and less negative towards ourselves when it comes to this issue? My dear friends…like that river, weight fluctuates for some…but something that never, ever fluctuates is your inherent worth. It doesn’t matter if you gain or lose or stay the same weight your entire life, that in no way adds to or subtracts from your worth, because your worth never, ever fluctuates. I hope, during this time of cold and celebrations, that you can be more compassionate toward yourself, that you can recognize a little more fully that your worth never, ever fluctuates, and that you can enjoy life a little more fully this season. Have an amazing week, my friends. Love Krista
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 Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.
Melody Beattie Dear Friends, Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, a day we’ve set aside to pause and recognize the things we are grateful for…and to eat, and to see family, and maybe to have tough conversations…I recognize this day, and the holiday season we are entering into is not all sunshine and roses for everyone. I’ve been thinking about this holiday, and about the practice of gratitude, and about what it might look like if we were all willing to practice gratitude on a daily basis….setting aside a day or a month is great, but what might it look like, what might it feel like if we begin to integrate that gratitude practice into our everyday lives. I do believe that gratitude is a daily practice…it’s not something that comes automatically, but is a muscle that needs to be worked, stretched and used. And, as with all muscles, when we’re willing to put in the effort and the work, it yields results, it changes us, it reshapes us. Just like muscles, gratitude makes us stronger and healthier and allows us to live fuller lives. I believe gratitude has the ability to create powerful change in our lives…but only if we are willing to put in the work, only if we’re willing to put in effort on our part. Change rarely occurs without effort, without work. My dear friends, I hope, this week, that you can find a few more spaces in your life to practice and integrate gratitude. Have an amazing week, and a wonderful holiday. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
I was thinking more about last week's blog post, and about seeing the beauty in our surroundings even when those surroundings might be hard, might not be our favorite. But here’s the thing, my friends…these past few years I’ve recognized that, equally important to seeing the beauty in our life, in our situation….equally important to that in my life personally is seeing, naming and acknowledging the hard. It doesn’t serve me to push the hard to the side, to ignore its existence, to only see the good. It doesn’t mean the hard will go away when I pretend it isn’t there. It doesn’t mean the hard will stop affecting me when I pretend it isn’t there…it just means I won’t deal with it in a healthy manner, I won’t look at it because, well, it’s hard. My dear friends, if you are in the midst of the hard, in a space we all walk through at times in our lives, I hope you can see the beauty, I really hope you can. I hope, also and equally, that you can see and acknowledge the hard, you can recognize the effect it has on you, and you can move through and process the hard in a healthy and whole manner so you can come out the other side. We can do hard things, my friends. We can do hard things. Have an amazing week, my friends. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
I was walking in the woods the other day. I’ve been trying to get out a lot lately to enjoy the fall colors and weather while we have them. This particular walk had me going on a trail that is not my favorite this time of year. It’s a pretty steep downhill at times, which is a little treacherous during “leaves on the trail” season. It’s really close to a major road, which means a lot of road noise…there’s nothing particularly wrong with the trail, it’s just not my favorite trail this time of year. And yet, there’s beauty to be found, my friends. There’s beauty to be found. I wonder how it might feel, when we’re inevitably on those trails in life that aren’t our favorite places to be, if we really looked for the beauty in our surroundings…even when it might not be our favorite spot to sit in, to move through. I wonder how life might change things if we were able to find glimpses and glimmers of delight even when the surroundings might be challenging, hard, annoying. My dear friends, if you are on a trail that isn’t your favorite right now, I hope you can find some glimpses and glimmers of beauty even in the midst of the challenge. Have an amazing week, my friend. Love Krista  Dear Friends,
I talked a lot last week about what I thought to radiate kindness wasn’t, but I didn’t talk a whole lot about what I thought radiating kindness looked like. My dear friends, I think we radiate kindness when we slow down and choose to really see and listen to those around us. I think we radiate kindness when, instead of judging, we see those around us as worthy, even if and when they have a different mode of thinking, philosophy of life, status in life then we do. We radiate kindness when we value our own self and our own worthiness in addition to those around us. We radiate kindness when we choose to interact with instead of reacting to people and things that might make us want to react poorly. My friends, we don’t need grand gestures to make a difference in the world around us…we can make a difference in small ways each and every day by putting a little more kindness, a little more light into the world. Let’s radiate a little more kindness today, and, when doing so, make our world a little more light-filled this 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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