Zenful Mindings LLC, Boardman, OH (2025)

09/19/2025

The Lunar Love Letter for the Harvest Moon will be sliding into inboxes on Sunday, 9/21, and this letter softly reminds us to use the transitional energy of this season to make supportive arrangements for self care over the next few months.

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09/17/2025

Last week I started going to the gym for the first time in years. It’s a wild thing for me really. I dig strength training and working out at home. I like not having to leave or worry about getting dressed a specific way. I like not having to be on a super-crunched schedule. I like the accessibility and ease of being in my own space.

But I noticed it wasn’t nourishing me in the same way anymore, and after some self-discovery work, I decided I had three choices:

1. Keep doing what I’ve been doing and grow increasingly bored, which was already affecting my motivation and consistency and would likely lead to me quitting.

2. Buy new things so I could grow my home resources, but this would add more things for me to take care of and there’s not a whole bunch of room for that, and I don’t want to spend that money.

3. Branch out and go somewhere that already has the equipment I seek.

I opted for door number 3, and to my surprise, I liked it. There are benefits I hadn’t even thought of — inadvertent body doubling (fantastic for my neurodivergent brain), a calm and quiet atmosphere (unheard of at any other gym I’ve gone to), and the additional motivation and excitement that comes with novelty (dopamine!).

I can already feel a big shift in my body because I’m providing it access to tools to grow and evolve in ways it’s really been craving. I hadn’t fully realized the extent of that craving until my first bout of muscle exhaustion. I found it invigorating — not like any other kind of exhaustion. It’s one that, for me, feels good. Useful. Grounding and earthly.

This all wouldn’t be happening if I hadn’t noticed that I wasn’t feeling as nourished my at-home workouts anymore. It was getting harder and harder to do them with the vigor I once did. I was bored and more likely to skim through things and think that was sufficient. I wasn’t up in my feels if I had to skip a day. And I didn’t feel good when I was done. I just felt like I could check it off my to do list.

Part of thriving self care is observing these things and creating change so you can evolve. We are moving beings by all definitions. We are not meant to stay in one place or practice or state of mind for all the rest of time and forever and ever.

So this week, I’m asking: When you get down into the nitty gritty, what’s leaving you undernourished? What have you outgrown (even though it’s a good practice)? And how can you pivot and support yourself better?

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09/10/2025

I’ve been spending time mulling over the rocks, pebbles, and sand analogy these past few days. If you’re not familiar, the general gist is that what we prioritize first is often what takes up the most space, so we’re best served by prioritizing what’s most important (self care, relationships, etc.).

I think this is stellar mindfulness and self care, but the reason I’ve been mulling it over isn’t the general gist, but rather why we hardly focus on taking things out or sharing the load.

In our busy lives and schedules we’re often looking for ways to shift what’s already there and find the smallest ways to fit more in. We cram our calendars until we’re exhausted, exerting much of our creative energy in playing Tetris in our dayplanners rather than other creative endeavors (imagine what we’re robbing the art world of!).

And why? And why aren’t we simplifying and seeing what we can take off our plates instead?

This has been on my mind so much because it’s a default behavior for me that I cycle through and work through and land in over and over. It comes up a lot when I’m struggling with time management and differentiating between what is best that I do, what I want to do, and what I feel like I should do.

I grew up in an environment where if I didn’t perform and hold my own, it was dangerous to my well being, and then I transitioned into jobs where companies expected more and more, and if you weren’t doing that and maxing out your capacity, you were lazy and unworthy. So my brain has a long-held and tightly wired connection between the quantity of things I do and self worth.

Over the last few years I’ve done so much work to loosen this connection and I’ve made incredible progress (toot toot! 🤘), but it’s hard when you’re wired like that so deeply. And I know many of you relate.

We live in an era that has taught us to privatize tasks and hoard them to prove we’re worthy. But in that privatization, we’re breaking our jars and straying farther from a sense of community that we desperately need.

So instead of finding the next smallest or more fluid thing to fill empty space with, let’s ditch the hyper-independence and honestly evaluate if we need to take on anything new, and if we decide to, let’s look at what we can remove from our jars to make space. What can someone help you with? What just doesn’t even need done? What’s stale and outdated and unnecessary? Full and whole-hearted permission to take those things out.

Let me know how that lands and love yourself with a little more intention.

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09/03/2025

The past few weeks I’ve spent more time with my own meditation practice than I have in quite a while. I’m currently on week 4 of Juna Bobby’s Stress Relief Down to the Cellular Level series, (which is an excellent intro to autogenic training if you’re interested – check out weeks 1-3 first on the Insight Timer).

What I’m finding most remarkable is that with all the struggles I’ve had in the past month with my own self care and resourcing, I haven’t put meditation on the backburner, which is typically one of the first things I do. And since I’ve been sticking to it and investing significant time in it, I notice that I’m using these same tools to help me fall asleep and to find a little more ease in my body throughout the day.

Meditation gets this hard, inaccessible rep, and I think a lot of us don’t understand it or how to approach it. We hold this notion that it’s supposed to be you sitting silent and perfect, with your mind not meandering anywhere else. That’s a fast way to set yourself up for a sinking sense of failure.

Case in point: I can’t just sit down to meditate. I will get antsy beyond belief and find a sudden urge to organize my cabinets instead.

Within the 8 limbs of yoga, the physical yoga practice is actually meant to help you prepare for meditation. Movement makes meditation practice more accessible (like getting your wiggles out first), and if you’re not into yoga, any kind of movement can work. It also helps to drop any expectations. Loudly. And with a thud if you can. It looks many different ways for different brains, people, settings, and time constraints. So don’t lock yourself into an image you saw in pop culture somewhere. That’s just a disappointing misuse of imagination.

Instead, think of meditation as a tool for where you’re at and however you find yourself in that moment. Dive in where you are and give it a whirl with your own flavor. And in case you need another voice besides mine to remind you how accessible and valuable it is, check out the 8/27/25 episode of On Purpose with Jay Shetty: The Step-by-Step Guide to Meditation ANYONE Can Do.

Feel free to share what you experience and help inspire others :)

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08/27/2025

This week I’d like to share a recent mantra I’ve been working with:

I deserve my time.

Repeat that to yourself.

I. Deserve. My. Time.

Repeat it again. Close your eyes and notice how it lands in your body.

Does it feel true to you?

We give our time and energy so readily to many other things that we find worthy without a second thought. Let’s learn from that. Own your worthiness and show yourself that you mean it by investing your own time and energy in you.

Start by recognizing where you’re already doing it (because I bet you are). I wake up early so I can have slow mornings with supportive practices. Maybe you do too. Or maybe you chill in the car for an extra few minutes to decompress before you get out at home. Maybe you take walks on your lunch break or dance when no one’s watching. I’m sure you have some things that could use a little more recognition as self care.

And then try building in one more intentional pocket that’s just for you. And know you deserve it.

I’m excited to hear where you recognize you’re already resourcing yourself and where you can intentionally and realistically add just a smidge more because just like in baking, a smidge makes a big difference :)

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08/22/2025

Tomorrow's new moon brings the Lunar Love Letter to your email inbox (but only if you're subscribed!).

This cycle's love letter has some juicy journal questions to help you navigate the transition between summer and harvest season. Let's harness that energy for self care and living wide :)

Use this link to subscribe ✨

08/20/2025

Last week I received a lot of feedback that many of you feel the burn out and overwhelm that happens as you’re moving about life, particularly when your own self care gets shoved onto the backburner.

This week, I’d like to encourage us to look that ugly beast right in the face: why is our first reaction usually to put ourselves last?

For me, I can tell you that I’ve been taught to be a martyr (doubly so since I’m a woman), that I must give all I have to others — whether that’s a company I’ve worked for, my daughter, my business, my community, social causes, etc etc etc. I am to leave nothing for myself because if I do, I haven’t done everything I can and that renders anything else good I’ve done useless and flawed. And how dare I? Besmirching the world with my needs as a human. Who do I think I am?

And as I write that, I feel the anger swell and my lips curl, and I want to death stare that beast straight down into the darkest oblivion. For all of us.

Can you imagine? To give everything you have to something else? To leave absolutely nothing for yourself? To not see yourself as human as everyone else?

Ludicrous. But it’s what many of us have learned is expected of us.

Mindfulness shows us a wider, bigger truth: the universal law of giving and receiving. Everything is an exchange that requires balance. You taking care of yourself keeps the universe (and the YOU-niverse) in balance.

Yes, let’s give — with wide open hearts and soft minds. AND let’s receive. From others and ourselves. When we have that balance, we can release resentment and the grodiness of feeling utilitarian. We embody our humanness and make the world shine a little brighter.

You’re just as worthy as every other human on this planet. Receive that energy. Receive support. Receive the time you give yourself to meditate, sleep in, take a hike, read a book, or find pleasure in whatever fills you up.

So this week practice noticing when your automatic response is to let your own care slink off into the passing breeze. Pause and take a breath, and choose to hold onto it.

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08/13/2025

This week’s letter comes to you from Niagara Falls, Canada, where my daughter and I are on a well-needed and much-looked-forward-to vacation 🏞️

There’s a lot of work that goes into vacations — the planning, the saving, the coordination of time and energy — and it’s sort of wild that this big self-care thing can morph into a beast that depletes you.

I tried really hard to avoid that proactively. We’re doing only so many activities a day. Only so many activities total. Taking in nature (we’re at the Falls for goodness sake). Taking it slow. Eating pretty well (minus the dessert sushi that was totally worth it!). Staying hydrated.

Despite these efforts, this morning I woke up with my body in a total wreck of a state. We’re talking headache, tight muscles, crunchy granola joints, and low energy, all resulting in a rough mood. The factors? Some wicked arctic air conditioner, a poor night’s sleep with my daughter kicking me and hogging most of the bed, walking A LOT in some pretty high heat while toting a heavier than usual bag, regulating for two, and guiding problem-solving through some low points.

But none of these things are so far out of the realm of typical that I could make sense of feeling like such a dumpster.

Until I did some yoga.

While I was moving (in small and very gentle ways), I realized that I didn’t check in with my body throughout the day and stretch like I typically do. BIG yikes.

Yesterday was the day to do those things. I put my body through a lot. And it just completely slipped my mind because I was more concerned with all the other happenings and not very present with myself.

What a price for something I normally consider small pockets of self care.

So this week, let my discomfort and body aggravation be loud enough for us all to remember: keep your small pockets of self care at the forefront because they create BIG goodness.

With kind wishes and gentle self care vibes ✨

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08/06/2025

Lately I’ve been experiencing this very big energy emanating from my heart center and my first reaction has been to be in my brain about it. I’m asking myself all kinds of questions trying to figure out the why, what, and how of it, but the more I’m in my head, the more panicked and overwhelmed I feel.

And then I remembered my work of being present in my body instead of my brain: breathe and just see what it feels like.

Much steadier. More exactly what I need. There’s no panic. In fact, the sensation seems to expand outward and not necessarily dissipate, but become sort of lovely and edgeless.

It’s easy to confuse brain business with body presence. Brain business is you trying to tangle intellectually with whatever’s happening — trying to puzzle over it, work it out, or solve it. Body presence is literally being with it — the sensation and your breath, and then whatever happens next. Not trying to exert force or mold it. It’s riding the wave with wide open inner eyes.

I’m going to let you in on a little secret — I don’t think the trick for me specifically is to “quiet my mind” like we tend to hear. TMy brain doesn’t respond well to commands like that, plus it requires a certain level of stimulus to function.

One thing that usually works for me is imagining turning up the volume on my breath or whatever I want to shift my focus to, while also turning down the volume on the other things. But I still have to let those other things run through the back and sides of my mind — they need a playground or they’ll make tire tracks all over everything. So I urge what I want to be loud forward, repeatedly, and with intentional attention.

For my neurodivergent brain, I’ve learned that quiet is something that can happen, not something I can make happen. I can create favorable conditions like with this practice above, but there’s no guarantee. And quiet is kind of inaccurate too. It’s more like quietER. And I just try. Over and over. And over.

What’s it like for you to shift from brain business to body presence? Are there any little tips and tricks that work for you? If so, send them my way, and I’m happy to share them forward (and give them a whirl myself).

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07/30/2025

I hope this week finds you feeling. Feeling good, feeling tired, feeling grief, feeling loved. Feeling something.

Because if you’re feeling something, no matter what it is, you’re not numbing. And I truly believe with all my heart that anything we can feel is better than numbing ourselves. It keeps us human and it keeps us humble.

Most of us have learned to numb because it feels easier than restorative care, but it can be really hard to notice that’s what you’re doing. So I’m inviting you to get better acquainted with your own personal numbing habits as a loving step toward breaking that pattern.

Think about it like an illness. What are your symptoms? Endless scrolling on social media? Watching reel upon reel until your eyes crack from dryness? Eating pints of ice cream? Isolating from loved ones? Maybe extreme exercising or ignoring your supportive self care practices?

When I’m in the thick of some big happenings and feelings, I lean into several of these numbing behaviors without much notice. I’m not really present, and these things seem to beckon as comfort. But the more I practice checking in with myself and noticing, the easier it is for me to see that what I’m doing is actually dragging out the dumpster feelings and compacting them so they’re harder to deal with.

I think when we actively notice and see we’re numbing, it gives us back our sense of power and choice, which is huge in times of duress. We can choose what to do differently. We can choose when to do it. We can choose whatever is within our reach. And that makes a big difference.

There’s no finite end point where we’re going to be on the upswing all the time. Life ebbs and flows, as do our feelings, so we will never not try to numb. So just take note. Ask yourself if you feel rejuvenated or more depleted. Are you rationalizing the behavior even though you know it’s not supportive? Are you hiding it from other people? These are big clues. There’s no shame in making a list to remind you or asking an accountability partner to help bring things to your attention.

Just notice. Observation holds a lot of power.

With good & gentle vibes ✨

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07/23/2025

The Lunar Love Letter for the Sturgeon Moon will be sliding into inboxes on Thursday and is only available through email.

This lunar cycle, we're diving into enjoying abundance during a time when we're told to start settling.

Sign up to be included in this special delivery 💌

Zenful Mindings LLC

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