Transitions are hard AF!

Hi everyone- Estee and Leah here. As you may have noticed, we’ve taken some time off from social media and we wanted to talk about what has been going on for us!

We were recently talking about change and how difficult it can be to move through transitions. Both of us have been transitioning in different ways. Leah has been raising a toddler and Estee has been working on leaving NYC and going to Bali for 3.5 months for yoga teacher training. Both have been proving to be quite challenging in different ways.

The truth is that transition is really hard! Planning for transition can be equally as hard and draining to our nervous systems.Yet, so many of us (including Leah and myself) can go into judgement and then blame ourselves for not doing or contributing more during these periods. So, we wanted to write a post to acknowledge the change in our presence of late and to let you know we understand how hard it can be if you are in a similar state of transition.

Recently we were listening to a Tara Brach podcast called “Loving Ourselves into Healing- Part 1.” In it, Tara talks about the Buddhist concept of first arrow and second arrow. The first arrow is always our basic limbic response (often pain) and the second arrow is when we judge ourselves for feeling that pain. Often we hear in sessions, “what is wrong with me”, “why can I just make this change,” or “everyone else seems to be able to do it.”

As objective observers, it is so clear to us that our clients are already in pain, yet the natural inclination for so many of us is to judge that pain, and maybe even compare ourselves to others (leading to more pain!). This loop is SO human and also SO painful.

It is such a gift to be an objective observer in sessions. It allows us to introduce love and compassion into places where there is real constriction and difficulty. Unfortunately, no one in life is impervious to the first arrow, but what if we treated ourselves with compassion instead of piercing ourselves again?

There is so much going on in the world right now (hello pandemic!) and there is a metal health crisis taking root. Some of our nervous systems are already stretched to the max. What would it be like to treat ourselves with kindness and love and actually give ourselves the space and time we need to nourish ourselves? Being mean and berating ourselves is only depleting us more and allowing for further burnout.

Believe us when we say that we speak from experience. We are right there with you doing the work of being kind to ourselves (and loving ourselves) in a scary and sometimes overwhelming world! We just wanted to take some time to tell you that we are proud of you, we’re rooting for you, and we believe in your amazing goodness.

P.S. Now that Estee is in Indonesia- we are working to create some more regular content. Estee will also be teaching yoga classes. We can’t wait to experience it all with you!

Xoxox

So much love (amidst the grit!)

Estee and Leah