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The Dance of Breath -- Exploring Cardiorespiratory Fitness
Welcome to Part 4 of our Cultivating Organic Fitness series! Ahhhh, last week’s focus on ease was just what my heart & soul (and brain—lol) were needing. I always love coming back “home” to ease. That said—-afterward, I also lovvvvvvve diving into our next challenge/exploration. This week, we’re gonna continue our series on Cultivating Organic Fitness with an exploration into: Cardiorespiratory Fitness. What do I mean by cardiorespiratory fitness (sometimes referred to as 'ca
5 days ago6 min read


Ease & just being here now.
It’s time for an EASE week, friend... We’ve been focusing pretty intensely on sensing mobility, stability, and the interplay of the two these past few weeks, so this week we’re going to give our brains a bit of a rest. This is a focus we come back to often, and it always involves 2 parts... Part 1: Ease We’ll dance (and move as vigorously as we’d like) while inviting ease into our body. Easy does it… Part 2: Being Here Now We’ll also just be here now. As we dance, we’ll tune
Feb 11 min read


Roots & Wings: the dynamic balance of stability and mobility.
Beautiful photo thanks to Cat McCombs. Welcome to Part 3 of our Cultivating Organic Fitness series ! Hello beautiful soul! Ahhhhh, last week’s focus on stability felt sooooooo…….. well….. stabilizing. Thank you for joining me. After diving deeply into stability & mobility individually these past two weeks, this week we’ll focus on noticing how they work together as a dynamic team. We’ll root deeply with that grounded, steady inner anchor of stability. We’ll pause. We’ll slow
Jan 253 min read


Building our stability.
(Part 2 of our Cultivating Organic Fitness series) Ooh friend, I loved our exploration of mobility last week. This week, we’re gonna continue our special series of Cultivating Organic Fitness with a deep-dive into stability. Whereas mobility has to do with our move-ability, stability has to do with our stay-ability. It’s our ability to stay put, or keep one body part put, for example. A healthy, happy body has a nice balance of both mobility and stability, and they work toge
Jan 184 min read


Cultivating Organic Fitness Pt. 1: Introduction + Nourishing our Mobility.
Ooh, friend, I cannot wait to explore our next few weeks with you. The new year is here, making it an exciting time to dive into the topic of: fitness. Fitness…. it’s such an interesting word. What do you think of when you think of fitness? What comes to mind for you? When I first met my husband, I was studying exercise science, and he was studying evolutionary biology (both at UNI). I would soon learn that —really— we were both studying fitness, just from two vastly differen
Jan 116 min read


Dancing into the New Year with ease & presence.
January’s here…. and, friend, we’re just gonna eeeeeeeease on into it. We’ll move. We’ll dance. We’ll sing. We’ll play. We’ll get a great workout… Yes… But alllllll with… ease . As we dance and sense our body, we’ll simply invite ease into our dance. Ease in our shoulder joints. Ease in our face. Ease in our lower back. Ease in our toes. Ease in our hips. Ease anywhere and everywhere. With nothing to prove (and also no need to hold back), we’ll dance as big (and as dynamicall
Jan 41 min read


Saying farewell to 2025, and hello to 2026.
Wow, friend—- can you believe another year has passed? What a year it has been! Together, so far in 2025, we have: Danced 271 delicious dances. Had a glorious photo & videoshoot thanks to Cat, Jon, and Rowan. Enjoyed an incredible 3rd Perseidsfest. Raised $856.96 for the food bank with our fundraiser Zoom dance. Raised $525 for House of Hope with another beauuuuutiful Sunset Aya in the Orchard. Enjoyed our 1st Aya & Somatic Meditation in the gardens. And met so many wonderful
Dec 28, 20254 min read


Embracing spaciousness, silence, stillness, & rest.
Hello, friend! The holidays are upon us, and the end of the year is so very near. This time can be so hectic, noisy, loud, and busy-busy… But what if we could somehow gift ourselves more spaciousness? More silence? More stillness? More…. rest? Does that sound good to you too? This is what we’ll be experimenting with this week, friend. I don’t know about you, but I’ve found myself picking up my phone a LOT lately. It is soooooo easy for me to fill every spare moment or every
Dec 26, 20253 min read


Connecting with our inner light.
Ahhhhh…. last week’s focus was just what I needed. Thank you so much for joining me in letting ourselves get weird(er) . :) As we continue our way closer to the winter solstice (and the days continue to get shorter, and the temps continue to drop), this week, we’re diving into the question of: What can we do to connect with our inner light? We’ll dance & explore things like: • What lights you up? • What is it like to feel lit up? What do you sense/notice in your body? • How d
Dec 7, 20251 min read


Letting ourselves get a little weirder.
Friend, I am sooooooo ridiculously excited for this week’s focus. This week is all about getting a little weirder as we dance. I’ll explain. :) You see, Aya is all about freeing our body (and self), and yet…. sometimes I find myself making my dance look…. well…. normal. I can feel that inhibition. I want to roll around on the floor more, but I don’t want to be quite so different than everyone else. I want to let my body move freely, but I don’t want it to look too weird and
Nov 30, 20257 min read


Ease & just being here now.
Thank you so much for joining me last week for our November self-care reset. This week, we’ll revisit our monthly integration focus of ease & just being here now. Ahhhhh….. I always love coming back to this focus again and again. I hope it feels like great timing for you too. This focus always includes 2 parts: 1) Ease We’ll dance with ease. Ease in our shoulders. Ease in our hips. Ease in our spine. We’ll simply dance and connect with the sensation of ease. Nothing to prove…
Nov 9, 20251 min read


Sensing how it feels to PLAY.
It’s Halloween week, friend… and I always LOVE how dancing in a costume, seeing you all in costumes, and belting out Halloween songs together helps me lighten up and not take myself soooooooo seriously. I’m so looking forward to this week! We have 4 classes left this week — 2 of them Halloween-themed (Monday night, 5:45, at the CF Woman’s Club, and Wednesday night, 5:30, on Zoom), and 2 regular Aya classes... All will focus on the question: how does it feel to play? We can a
Oct 25, 20252 min read


Practicing listening.
Oh man, last week's focus on ease felt soooooooo great. It was just what I was needing. Thanks so much for joining me. THIS week, let's dive into a practice of listening. Listening deeply: To the music. To each other. To your body. To the sounds of life --of the moment, right here, right now-- all around you. To the silence... the space... the in-between... To your inner self, heart, knowing, spirit.... To ________________. We'll practice listening as a way to: 1) stay prese
Oct 12, 20252 min read


Ease & just being here now.
Oh. My. Goodness. We've been diving into so many delicious explorations. From the sensation of LOVEing, to savoring the moment, to...
Oct 4, 20251 min read


More things we can choose over perfection.
Wow, friend. Thank you so much for joining me in last week's focus on choosing things like courage, improvement, helpfulness, and...
Sep 28, 20255 min read


Choosing courage, improvement, helpfulness, and enjoyment over perfection.
Ooh, friend. I've been thinking about this one a lot lately. Do you ever hold back on trying something, practicing something, or helping...
Sep 21, 20256 min read


Sensing your strength.
Photo thanks to Cat McCombs Hello, friend! Thanks so much for joining me for a beautiful exploration into lightening up last week. It...
Sep 7, 20251 min read


Lightening up.
Oh my goodness, friend. The past two weeks of focusing on savoring the moment were delicious. Thank you so much for joining me! This...
Aug 30, 20253 min read


Savoring the moment.
Holy moly, babe, can you believe it is the middle of August? I don't know about you, but this summer has been FLYING by for us over here...
Aug 16, 20251 min read


The sensations of LOVE-ing.
Ooh friend, I can't wait to dive into this one with you.This week, let's explore the sensation of LOVE-ing. Different from exploring love...
Aug 3, 20252 min read
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