growing up in florida & france

From tropical Miami to the French countryside in Provence, my childhood instilled: presence is precious.

I was perfectly in my element swimming in the sea, admiring lizards roaming free. Designing tree houses, skipping French cobblestone paths, reading Roald Dahl, riding horses. Illustrating animals & storybooks, picking up peacock feathers & treasures, and playing make-believe.

My most memorable moment was the day my little brother and I discovered abandoned ruins while hiking the mountain behind our home in France. We believed we found an ancient castle and the tunnel leading to Superman’s crystal cave. To this day, we’re enormously proud of the discovery :)

On my first day of 3rd grade, my life shifted. I started school at our teeny village schoolhouse, where no one spoke English. My classmates teased me anytime I spoke my native tongue, and so my confidence was crushed. This is my earliest memory of experiencing social anxiety.

The Heroine’s Journey

At 30 I finally decided to follow my lifelong dream of working abroad and traveling the world.  I realized this dream was shared by many, but feared by most, and thought to be risky by Americans.

Note: I’m still frustrated about this, because it’s a HISTORIC rite of passage called The Hero’s Journey, or heroine’s journey, and in modern terms: gap year. Our astounding privilege in the U.S. is that our dollar is the strongest currency in the world. In many countries, you can travel like a queen for $40 per day. I hope to empower anyone who wants to travel, and especially anyone during transitional periods (i.e. before/after college, in between careers, etc.) Traveling solo long-term provided me with invaluable life skills. Our country’s unacceptable norm of 2 weeks vacation per year isn’t enough to receive these lessons.

As Elizabeth Gilbert puts it best: the reason why Eat Pray Love was a blockbuster success is because: it was the first times the hero’s journey was told on screen from a female perspective.

It was critical that I do this experience, because everyone I had ever met who had traveled solo long term was nothing short of: inspiring, grounded and liberated. And I wanted to be like that too.

GROWING PAINS & NO LONGER NUMBING

After nomading I returned to NYC, smacked with startling reverse culture shock. Living far away from my closest loved ones, I began reaching out to find fellow yogis. While connecting with “wellness” leaders, I encountered personal development cults and quickly came to realize the wellness industry, like every industry, has dark shadows, isn’t always well-intentioned, and serves as a stage for many master manipulators--wounded gurus with power complexes.

The industry is big money and chock full of broke yogis, and because of this haunting disconnect I felt a deep need to recruit and cultivate a community of collaboration for kindred spirits who were grounded.

This convergence of all-at-once personal events included: reconnecting with an overmedicated loved one, who came off misdiagnosed drugs and “woke up” after 10 years. And yo-yoing through my own unexpected health problems after coming off birth control of 10 years. This made me question everything, but mostly: why didn’t I have a community support system?

Eh wala! WELLBEINGS was born.

Our intentional gatherings included immersive healing and experiential learning, serving as an urban retreat. We met up in dreamy Soho lofts home to tech startup millionaires, who, too, had just begun their journeys of inquiring within.

MUCH LOVE FOR MY TEACHERS

A big part of my journey is the teachers and elders that have moved me. In Bali my YTT instructors trained at The Yoga Institute in Mumbai, the world’s oldest organized yoga school.

They taught with unwavering knowing. I will never forget their magical eyes.

Soon after I delved into meditation and Tibetan Buddhism with Thupten Phuntsok, a former monk two teachers descended in lineage from the Dalai Lama. Phuntsok’s embodiment of unconditional love inspired me to become a meditation teacher, too.

In addition to meditation & yoga certifications, I’ve also completed trainings and self-studies with The Holistic Life Foundation (trauma-informed mindfulness for youth), Brené Brown, John Wineland, Michaela Boehm, Elizabeth Gilbert, Niki Morrissette, Anna Gannon, and the beloved Esther Perel.