Our favorite heroes’ stories follow a common pattern – as do our lives, really! Joseph Conrad defined 12 steps in this pattern as the Hero’s Journey, outlining how every hero starts out in a dull, not-quite-right beginning, gradually gains allies and enemies and goes through ordeals, and finally emerges changed at the end. It rings…
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Self-Care Flow: A Yoga Massage from Bottom to Top
“Honey I’ve Shifted My Perspective!” through Camera Tricks and Yoga (Plough Pose)
Seeing grasses as forest and ants as loveable steeds comes naturally to my generation. That is, it’s natural to those of us who grew up loving “Honey, I Shrunk The Kids!” the 1989 Disney movie in which two teens and their little siblings get shrunk to the size of bugs. It’s Rick Moranis being adorable…
The Neverending Story Sandwich: Interfacing with the World (in Half Monkey Pose)
The most delicious-looking sandwich I’ve ever seen on TV wasn’t in an ad for a restaurant – and in fact, it was no more than a PB&J on white. It is the sandwich eaten by Bastian in “The Neverending Story,” the 1984 fantasy movie beloved by us 80s kids. Harassed by bullies and his buzzkill…
Spring Flower Meditation
Just the Dandelion, when we all turn gray, may we also bring joy to children and vice versa and spread our wisdom far and wide. Just like the Tulip, may we all be so willing to let our big, brash, ostentatiously colorful selves perch so confidently on such a small and delicate stem. Just like…
The Cloaks (& Safe Places) of Fandom
We all need our happy, safe spaces – both mental and physical. For those who love their fandoms, those spaces might even be imagined. It’s lovely just to picture yourself in the TARDIS, on the Enterprise, or in Hogwarts. There may be no space more snug, however, than the kind that you physically can wear….
The Master Mentors of Fandom (and Being Your Own)
It’s easy to feel like Luke Skywalker, like Harry Potter, like Doctor Strange before he became a sorcerer. It’s even easy to feel like Anakin Skywalker. They are all full of intense, conflicting feelings and just the spark of potential – a spark waiting to be fanned into a flame by their sage, mysterious mentors….
Infinity Stone Flow!
When a Nosebleed Isn’t Just a Nosebleed: Becoming a Woman in Stranger Things
Let’s get down to brass tacks. Eleven in Stranger Things is learning how to let it flow. As in she’s that age, she’s full of emotion and newfound power – and when she uses it, she bleeds. Through the nose, but yeah. Ok, sure, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. But really, is a…
The Finite’s Guide to Coping with the Infinite, Part 1: Understanding It All (in Sphinx Pose)
Cats crawl into boxes and kids make cardboard forts, but we older human folk have truly perfected the art of the self-made sanctuary. Ours may or may not be figurative but are certainly no less fanciful. Fandoms of course, theater, sports, philosophies, religions, even relationships can make up the walls and ceilings of a mini-world…