Light a candle, close your eyes, push play, and let’s meditate together.

Wishing you all the cozy feels,

Jess

p.s. you can find the library of cozy yoga flows and meditations for your home practice right here, and past newsletters on all things holistic health right here.

Dear yogis,

Oral hygiene is a topic that has been surfacing around our house quite a bit lately.

“But whyyyy do I need to brush my teeth again?! I brushed them this morning!”

…and spin offs on that coming from my kiddos;-)

Today, I’m recapping my advice to my children when it comes to Ayurvedic oral health care, but in newsletter form for YOU!

In Ayurveda, our mouth is where digestion starts, so keeping a healthy mouth is as important as keeping a healthy gut.

The great thing about an Ayurvedic approach to a happy mouth is that it’s all really simple, intuitive stuff. And, it really works! (Just make sure that you are doing the basics of brushing twice and day and flossing daily in addition to these;-)

Below, the simple things we can do daily to keep gums happy, breath fresh, and teeth shining like the top of the Chrysler Building.

Scrape your tongue.

Before anything else happens, go into the bathroom and do a gentle tongue scrape from back to front several times. (Key word here: GENTLE.) In Ayurveda, the stuff that accumulates on the tongue overnight is associated with ama, which is “incomplete digestion”. So essentially, our tongue is telling us a story of how we processed the day before…it’s good information to have to see how we individually digest food, drinks, and situations. Plus, it’s a simple way to remove bacteria, food debris, and coating that can attribute to morning breath.

A copper or stainless steel tongue scraper works perfectly here.

p.s. I wrote an entire newsletter dedicated to tongue scraping back in 2022, if you’d like to take a look;-)

Try Oil Pulling

In Ayurveda, oil pulling is called gandusha, and is part of many people’s dinacharya, which means the daily practices that can help us meet the day feeling clean, awake, and balanced.

Place a bit of coconut or sesame oil into your mouth and swish it around for a bit. When you feel done, make sure to spit the oil into a trash can so it doesn’t clog the sink. (Websites will tell you to do this for 20 minutes at a time, but I don’t know anyone who has 20 minutes to swish in the morning. Honestly, I feel cleaner after just a minute…but you do you!;-)

Unlike many mouthwashes, oil pulling doesn’t mess with the delicate balance of our microbiome in our mouth. Same benefits, just more natural, I’d say.

After days of doing this consistently, my mouth truly does feel shinier. BUT, as I tell my kids, I think of oil pulling as a bonus. It should never replace brushing or flossing, it’s just one of those extra things you can stack on if you really want to give extra love and care to your mouth.

Make Sure To Pay Attention To Your Gums

Like our tongue, our gums are always telling us a story of our health. In addition to brushing your teeth, make sure you do a gentle brush along the gumline daily. And if you notice things like regular bleeding, swelling, sensitivities, or receding gums, definitely bring this to the attention of your dentist. This is an example of how Ayurvedic Health and modern medicine can work beautifully side by side.

Remember That Digestion Begins In The Mouth

If you take anything away from our Ayurveda lessons on this newsletter, I hope it’s this: how we eat matters.

Not just what we eat, but HOW we eat.

Slow down when it comes to this thrice daily ritual. Sit down. Chew your food to a mush so it can be properly digested from the beginning. Notice the texture, the tastes.

When we give our full attention to enjoying our food, it truly helps prepare the digestive system for what’s coming. This helps not just our oral health, but the rest of our health, too.

Keep It Simple

I think Ayurveda can get a bad rap for being a long, complex set of routines that can take forever to implement. And yes, it certainly can go that way, but I like to think that Ayurveda light has just as many benefits;-)

When it comes to your oral health care daily routine, this could be exactly plenty:

Morning: Tongue scrape, oil pull, brush

Evening: Brush and floss

There’s something pretty magical about caring for our bodies through small actions, every single day.

What are your thoughts on oral health, yogis?

Leave a comment

Ways We Can Work Together

—Come take a Palmetto Bay Yoga class with me! I’ll be teaching outdoors at Coral Reef Park (times/dates are posted on the Instagram through the above link). The intention I’m setting with these classes is: your neighborhood yoga village.

—If you’d like personalized support with your holistic health questions, upgrade to the pair tier of the newsletter. The $7 a month investment allows you to email me your holistic health questions, and I’ll get back to you with my thoughts from the lens of an Ayurveda Health Counselor (keeping it cozy, not clinical;-)

Sending light and love, always,

Jess

Dear yogis,

This week, my middle child (all of 6 years old) sat me down to have a chat.

“Mama, this school year I don’t want to wear the comfortable clothes you buy. I want to have my own style, and be more fancy.”

(Can’t make this stuff up, can you?;-)

I started my response with all the reasons my choices of clothes for her were the better choice: 100% cotton, easy to run around and play in, simple to throw in the wash to clean, comfortable for her…you get the idea.

To which she responded:

“But that’s not what’s important to me. I want to wear things that make me happy.”

Mic drop.

The wisdom from a child, right?

This got me thinking about how, even as adults, we often slide into routines, habits, choices, or lifestyles because we think we should be doing those things. We are told from society that these choices will make us happier, healthier, even more hygge…but nothing is really a one-size-fits all, right?

What if, instead of automatically doing the things we THINK we should be doing, we really sit down and write out what’s important to us, and what things will actually make us happy (even if this doesn’t go along with what tradition says?)

A Simple Exercise For Finding Out What Is Important To You

Take out a piece of paper and draw out two columns.

Column 1: “I think I should…”

Without overthinking, write down a list of 10 things that you think you should be doing. My list looks like this:

—make my kids wear practical clothes.

—eat more protein.

—eat more fiber.

—keep my kids off screens.

—strength train.

—eat out less.

—call my parents more.

—care more about the sports my kids play.

—put the kitchen to bed every night.

—make more time for creative hobbies.

Then beside each of these statements, write:

Who’s voice is this?

The voices could be coming from anywhere…something your grandparents once told you, Instagram, your mom group, your profession, your younger self, friends, or even your own deeply held values.

The point of this part of the exercise is to see how many “shoulds” don’t actually belong to you.

Now, in the second column, write:

Column 2: “If no one were watching…”

And finish these sentences:

—I’d spend Saturday mornings…

—I’d decorate my home…

—I’d dress…

—I’d feed myself/my family…

—I’d spend money on…

—I’d spend less time…

—I’d worry much less about…

—I’d make more time for…

Those answers often point towards what matters most to you.

As my wise daughter brought to my attention, your life doesn’t need to make perfect sense to anyone else. It needs to be lived in a way that brings YOU your greatest sense of happiness, health, and hygge.

Maybe that looks like spending your evenings watching reality TV instead of reading.

Maybe it means recognizing you’re not a night person, and you choose to leave the kitchen cleanup until the morning.

Maybe it’s letting your kids watch a movie so you can take an afternoon nap.

Maybe it looks like wearing glittery party dresses to school on a Tuesday.

Which, to conclude this newsletter, is exactly what my daughter will be wearing as school starts up again next week;-) We took a trip to Goodwill and I gave her free reign to pick out anything she wanted…her wardrobe is now: a green sparkly dress fit for a Christmas party, a red glittery dress ready for a Valentine’s day gala, a long floral number that definitely screams trad-wife, and a pair of neon pink Nike sneakers to balance it all out. First grade, here we come, being our complete and authentic selves;-)

Did you do this exercise? If so, what did you walk away with, yogis?

Leave a comment

p.s. I’ll be taking a small break from the newsletter to transition as the school year starts up again (this year I will have ALL THREE KIDS in school for the first time!) I look forward to seeing you back here on Friday, August 21st, 2026, with fresh and cozy content as we launch into autumn!

Ways We Can Work Together

—Come take a Palmetto Bay Yoga class with me! I’ll be teaching outdoors at Coral Reef Park (times/dates are posted on the Instagram through the above link). The intention I’m setting with these classes is: your neighborhood yoga village.

—If you’d like personalized support with your holistic health questions, upgrade to the pair tier of the newsletter. The $7 a month investment allows you to email me your holistic health questions, and I’ll get back to you with my thoughts from the lens of an Ayurveda Health Counselor (keeping it cozy, not clinical;-)

Sending light and love, always,

Jess

Light a candle, close your eyes, push play, and let’s flow together.

Wishing you all the cozy feels,

Jess

p.s. you can find the library of cozy yoga flows and meditations for your home practice right here, and past newsletters on all things holistic health right here.

Dear yogis,

The Dictionary defines bottleneck as: a point of congestion or blockage in a system or process that limits its overall capacity, efficiency, or speed.

Today we’re going to explore why we should identify our health bottleneck, and then figure out steps we can take to remove or greatly limit this thing.

First off, why do we need to identify our health bottleneck?

A bottleneck is the thing that messes up your healthy habits. The thing that pops up and seems to block all the progress that you’ve been making. And, unfortunately, the thing that happens with some level of frequency.

If we can sit down and honestly think about our life and what the one thing is that seems to congest or block the progress we’re making, then make a real effort to avoid or limit this bottleneck, our health will be so much better for it.

What My Personal Health Bottleneck Is

The revelation of my health bottleneck came to me during my most recent Function Health blood test results, and doctor’s analysis. Despite having a healthy diet at home (fruits! veg! lentils! beans! nuts! seeds! whole grains!), many of my heart markers have continued to be stagnant or even trend worse.

“How could this be?!”, I fretted.

Well, under the doctor’s list of Foods to Limit, I started to find my answer.

My top 5 foods to limit include: corn oil, palm oil, peanut oil, safflower oil, and sunflower oil. Which was weird, because the only oil I cook with at home is EVOO.

Other foods to avoid included: cakes, cookies, coffee, dairy based products, french fries, pasta, white flour, white rice, white sugar…

…and that’s when my bottleneck made itself clear. True, I rarely cook this stuff at home (minus the coffee), but eating out? ALL THE TIME.

My bottleneck is that I LOVE eating out. As in, it’s probably my most favorite social activity to do on a family outing, a date with my husband, or a hangout with friends. Nothing like breaking bread together, right?!

The problem holds itself in that, while I can control what kinds of oils I cook with at home and whether or not I choose to add sugar to my dishes and baked goods, this is usually all a mystery when it comes to restaurant eating.

Unless it’s a VERY TRANSPARENT restaurant where the menu explicitly states that dishes are cooked with EVOO, you can bet that everything is being cooked in seed oils. And added sugar and butter? They make the dishes more tasty so of course they are added!

Identifying my bottleneck put into perspective a big piece of my holistic health journey that was being jammed up, if I’m being honest, several times a week.

If I want to make real improvement with my heart numbers in the next 6 months using a holistic approach, I will need to greatly reduce the amount of times I meet this bottleneck (i.e. go out to eat.)

Making A Plan To Avoid Or Limit Your Health Bottleneck

Once you identify your bottleneck, the planning phase comes. How will you avoid or limit your health bottleneck?

For my particular situation, I know I won’t cut out restaurant eating altogether. BUT, I can greatly reduce it. Here’s my plan for how I’m going to do that.

1. Cook early in the day. A lot of times quick runs through the drive thru or takeout happen because we’re moving from school to sports and then it’s late and I have nothing cooked at home. So it’s quicker to grab something to-go than worry about cooking. To avoid this, I’m starting to cook dinner in the morning (I’m also a morning person so this is my peak energy time) so that by the time it’s pickup, healthy homemade food is packed in thermoses and ready to be eaten or heated up and eaten at home.

2. Make social plans that don’t revolve only around eating. For book club, meet at a bar or cafe for drinks and conversation rather than fried food and dessert and conversation. For playdate outings, a walk around the botanical gardens with packed food. For a friend date, a trip to the movies or a yoga class. For monthly date night, it will likely still involve eating BUT I’ll spend more time researching places that are truly exciting—meaning the food will be enjoyed to maximum capacity once a month, with zero hesitation or thought about my heart numbers.

3. Put an app on my phone to track the number of times I go out to eat/have takeout/delivery. As you’ve heard me say in this newsletter countless times over the years, we improve what we track. By keeping a log of the times I eat restaurant food, I have a realistic picture of how much this is affecting me day to day. If I notice that the number is starting to creep up, I can make an informed decision to reign myself back in. (The app I use is called Strides, and it let’s you track your streak with good habits, as well as monitor the “bad habits” you want to limit.)

4. Ultimately, remember why I’m doing this. My goal with all things Ayurveda and Holistic Health is to have my healthspan equal my lifespan. Meaning, whether I live to 80 or 102, I would love those years to be healthy ones with limited interventions or medication. In order to do this, I need to address the bottleneck head on (i.e. too much restaurant food, which is causing my heart numbers to be higher than they otherwise would be) and take charge BEFORE medical interventions become part of the conversation.

Identifying Your Own Health Bottleneck

Your health bottleneck might not be restaurant food. It could be lots of different things, such as:

—liquid calories (in the form of regular fancy coffees, juices, cocktails, and sodas)

—digital overload (which can wreck havoc on your nervous system)

—sleep debt (late nights that compile over time)

—snacks galore (getting a good chunk of your calories from snacks that lack real nutrition rather than sitting down for meals)

—nature deficit (spending most of your time indoors)

—loneliness (not spending time nurturing social connections)

—too much stimulation (this makes boredom feel really tough when it hits, and a feeling of wired but tired)

—living on autopilot (routines are good, but make sure to pepper in a bit of novelty and ritual to make life feel richer)

…or maybe it’s something else entirely.

I would love to know what your health bottleneck is and the steps you’ll take to address it. Share in the comments!

Leave a comment

Ways We Can Work Together

—Come take a Palmetto Bay Yoga class with me! I’ll be teaching outdoors at Coral Reef Park. The intention I’m setting with these classes is: your neighborhood yoga village.

—If you’d like personalized support with your holistic health questions, upgrade to the pair tier of the newsletter. The $7 a month investment allows you to email me your holistic health questions, and I’ll get back to you with my thoughts from the lens of an Ayurveda Health Counselor (keeping it cozy, not clinical;-)

Until next week, sending light and love!

Jess

Light a candle, close your eyes, push play, and let’s meditate together.

Wishing you all the cozy feels,

Jess

p.s. you can find the library of cozy yoga flows and meditations for your home practice right here, and past newsletters on all things holistic health right here.

Dear yogis,

Remember the days, not so long ago, when waiting room visits were spent flipping through old magazines? Airport lounges were spent reading the newest mass market paperback? Soccer practices were spent making small talk with other soccer parents? These days magazines, books, and small talk have been overpowered by the digital world that lives in our pockets…but maybe it doesn’t have to be that way?

What if we made a stand, and decided to take our attention back? What if we stopped turning to our screens for entertainment and instead carried curiosity in a small canvas bag?

This summer, I’ve been toting around an Analog Bag, and I 10/10 recommend you create one, too. This thing comes with me in the car, to appointments, to my kids’ sports and activities, and to the pool. Basically anywhere I would anticipate having “down time” that otherwise may be spent on my phone.

Everyone’s Analog Bag will look a little different, depending on your interests and season of life. Here’s the things that have been living in my bag this summer.

A Good Book

Note the word “good” here. I spent quite a bit of time at the beginning of the summer combing through my TBR list to find titles that I’m pretttyyyyyy sure will capture and keep my attention. I did this by reaching out to friends who have similar reading tastes as mine and asking for their top book recommendations, then I requested those books from my library (or in the case of really long wait times, went ahead and purchased them.) So far, I have not been let down!

Tip: When a book keeps our attention, we actually can’t wait to pick it up again, so these pockets of time between activities feel like real gems rather than wait time.

Sudoku

Hands down one of my favorite analog games, Sudoku is something I’ve been enjoying for years. Normally the drug store books are pretty bulky and not very conducive to fitting in my small canvas Analog Bag (ha!) so I was thrilled to discover a brand called The Sudoku. The Sudoku comes with a tiny chic clipboard and pencils with erasers, and a pad of 500 sudoku sheets you can tear off one by one (answers are on the back.) This makes it super easy to grab just a few sheets, clip them on the board, throw it in my Analog Bag, and go!

Tip: If there’s a game you really love, see if there’s a travel size version so you can easily bring it with you without the bulk.

Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza

This card game is often pulled out if I’m waiting somewhere with one or more of my kids. It’s a fast and energetic game, so you don’t need a huge chunk of time for it, but it keeps everyone entertained and on their toes!

Tip: There’s a million and one card games out there, so take time to find one you really love and make it your signature game you always have with you!

A Notebook

A notebook and pen can serve so many purposes. You can write a to-do list. Write a ta-da! list. Gratitude journal. Play tic-tac-toe. Play hangman. Compose a haiku. Begin your first novella. Get your worries out of your head. Doodle. Make note of quotes you really like, places you want to return to, restaurants you want to try, or movies you want to watch. Truly, what can’t a notebook do?;-)

Tip: I’ve been carrying around this leather refillable journal (passport size!) with three different notebooks inside it, which I use for different purposes. One is my to-do list notebook, one is a creative writing notebook, and one is my “everything else” notebook. But this makes it a little easier to find things when I’m looking for something specific I wrote down.

Beeswax or Silly Putty

Having something to do with your hands is a great addition to your Analog Bag. A small container of something shapable, such as beeswax or silly putty (we use this one!), is great fun as both a solo and together analog activity. It’s relaxing, and the perfect non-fidget fidget toy!

Tip: Often when we reach for our phone, it’s our hands instinctively just reaching for something to touch. Rather than grab for your phone next time, grab for your modeling clay and notice how soothed you feel.

Other Ideas For Your Analog Bag

Some other great things you could enjoy putting into your Analog Bag are:

—knitting supplies

—a small watercolor kit

—a crossword or word find book

—origami paper with folding instructions

—a pocket sized field guide to local birds, trees, or plants in your area

—pre-stamped and pre-addressed blank postcards

—a deck of conversation starter cards

—dominoes

—magnetic tangram puzzle

—stickers to hand out to people you meet

—friendship bracelet supplies

—tarot or affirmation cards

—a harmonica

How An Analog Bag Has Positively Shifted Things For More Happiness, Health, and Hygge

An Analog Bag won’t necessarily make you more productive…but maybe that’s the whole point? I have certainly noticed that my nervous system feels more grounded when I’m doing something with my hands rather than accumulating extra time staring into a screen, and that alone is worth its weight in gold.

Having games to play with my kids, whether cards or hangman or building things out of beeswax, helps us to connect with each other in these in-between moments, making the time feel significant and special.

So next time you’re headed out of the house, instead of asking yourself if you remembered your charger, ask instead if you remembered your Analog Bag;-)

Would love to know…what’s a favorite analog object you keep in your bag?

Leave a comment

p.s. you can obviously use any type of bag for your Analog Bag, I picked up this one from Muji for $15 a few years ago and have been loving it. Off-white canvas and super thick, super easy to wash, and has lot of pockets for smaller items. Similar to the L.L. Bean boat-and-tote with a kinder price tag.

Ways We Can Work Together

—Come take a Palmetto Bay Yoga class with me in July! I’ll be teaching outdoors at Coral Reef Park (kids are totally welcome to flow with you or play nearby!) The intention I’m setting with these classes is: your neighborhood yoga village.

—If you’d like personalized support with your holistic health questions, upgrade to the pair tier of the newsletter. The $7 a month investment allows you to email me your holistic health questions, and I’ll get back to you with my thoughts from the lens of an Ayurveda Health Counselor (keeping it cozy, not clinical;-)

Until next week, sending light and love!

Jess

Light a candle, close your eyes, push play, and let’s meditate together.

Wishing you all the cozy feels,

Jess

p.s. you can find the library of cozy yoga flows and meditations for your home practice right here, and past newsletters on all things holistic health right here.

Dear yogis,

Back in 2023, I wrote a newsletter on grab-and-go breakfast ideas, that remains one of my most clicked of all time. (I mean, you truly never know what’s going to be a hit, right?!)

A member of the Ayurveda Concierge Membership emailed me recently with a question about snacks, and since it’s a topic that applies to every human, I thought I’d share it here:

I know Ayurveda doesn’t love the idea of snacking, but I can feel my blood sugar dipping and myself getting hangry when I’m without snacks…and then I find myself reaching for whatever quick and junky item I can easily access! Is there a way I can be better prepared with healthy snack options, and what are some Ayurvedically acceptable choices?

So, first thing to clarify, she’s right: Ayurveda doesn’t traditionally love the idea of snacking. Ayurveda encourages us to sit down for three meals a day, perfectly spaced and timed to align with our digestion.

HOWEVER.

Ayurveda is a lifestyle science that was brought to light THOUSANDS of years ago, so I do think it’s smart to think through the lens of living in 2026 a bit when we’re considering this stuff.

Ayurveda, but make it cozy, not clinical, ya know?;-)

While, yes, sitting down at exact times for perfectly cooked meals would be IDEAL, it’s not always practical for everyone. Work, children, travel, and life in general often get in the way.

So I think this person is SO SMART to look for healthy snack alternatives rather than letting the hunger seep in and then making a quick (but often poor) choice of whatever food she can quickly access.

Here’s the list of tips and quick and simple snack ideas I emailed back:

The Right Tools For Snack Packing

Investing in a small cooler and reusable ice packs to keep items cool is key! (A lunch box size works perfectly here, no need to get crazy!) Also get some containers you can use over and over again, ideally glass. A thermos for holding drinks at their preferred temperature is also great to have.

Figuring Out How Many Snacks You Need And Preparing Them

As part of your morning routine, pack your daily snack bag, along with an appropriate amount of snacks. If you’ll be out of the house all day, you may know that you tend to need a snack at both 10am and 2pm—so you’ll pack two portions. If you’re just out for the afternoon, one is likely fine. And don’t forget your drinks!

Snack Ideas

When it comes to food (snacks included!), Ayurveda believes that “fresh is best”. Meaning, if you have an option to pack a whole food versus a factory made food that won’t go bad for months (or years!), always try to go for the fresh option. Some fresh options are:

—pear slices and a container of nut butter

—baby carrots (they are already small and ready for packing!) and hummus

—fruits that don’t require cutting and are simple to grab straight from the fridge, such as grapes, cherries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, mandarins, or bananas

—hard boiled eggs (these do require a little forethought but you can boil many at the beginning of the week and keep them for when you need them!)

—cheese and apple slices

—an avocado smashed up with lemon and sea salt, add some Simple Mills crackers for dipping, if you’d like

—freshly popped plain popcorn

—edamame with sea salt (you can get the frozen kind and just prepare what you need for the day)

—individual portions of plain or greek yogurt (I’ve been on a Siggi’s kick lately and loving it) or cottage cheese, drizzled with honey or maple syrup

—any variation of nuts and seeds

And for the times when you’re really in a crunch and need packaged items to grab-and-go, a few favorite brands I have on hand with minimal ingredients are:

—Solely fruit strips and gummies, Bear Fruit Rolls, and That’s It fruit bars (for when you want something with a gummy/candy texture or feel without all the added sugar)

—Simple Mills crackers (there are several variations, the farmhouse cheddar is a healthier version of Goldfish)

—Truvani Plant Based Snack Bars (less processed versions of granola bars, I’d say)

—Lesser Evil Popcorn

—HU Chocolate (the salty dark chocolate or cashew dark chocolate are fabulous)

—Spindrift (sparkling water flavored with real fruit for when you want a fizzy drink)

—Radiate Kombucha (made right here in Miami by a fellow mama friend who uses only the very best ingredients—perfect for a late afternoon happy hour feel without the alcohol)

Something to keep in mind for when you’re buying packaged products: do not be fooled with words like “all natural” or “organic”. Just because cheetos are labeled organic and gluten free doesn’t make them the best choice!;-)

Instead, spend time reading ingredient labels. Minimally processed is what we’re going for here: you want a short list of ingredients of things that you would find in your kitchen, not in a science lab.

Don’t Discount The Hydration

And of course, it goes without saying that part of your snack routine should be about hydration. You know the old saying…if you’re thirsty, you’re likely already dehydrated!;-) And this can go a long way with keeping hunger in check, too.

Keep water with you at all times. (Ayurveda votes for room temperature here, not iced cold.)

Herbal teas are fabulous, too. During the cooler months, sipping on something warm such as ginger tea works wonders. For the hotter months, I’ve been loving freshly brewed hibiscus tea (and if you prefer a little sweetness, mix some honey in there!)

Would love to know…what’s your favorite snack? And would you like more posts like this around food? Reply to this newsletter and let me know your specific requests, or leave them in the comments!

Leave a comment

Ways We Can Work Together

—Come take a Palmetto Bay Yoga class with me in July! I’ll be teaching outdoors at Coral Reef Park (kids are totally welcome to flow with you or play nearby!) The intention I’m setting with these classes is: your neighborhood yoga village.

—If you’d like personalized support with your holistic health questions, upgrade to the pair tier of the newsletter. The $7 a month investment allows you to email me your holistic health questions, and I’ll get back to you with my thoughts from the lens of an Ayurveda Health Counselor (keeping it cozy, not clinical;-)

Until next week, sending light and love!

Jess

Light a candle, close your eyes, push play, and let’s flow together.

Wishing you all the cozy feels,

Jess

p.s. you can find the library of cozy yoga flows and meditations for your home practice right here, and past newsletters on all things holistic health right here.

Dear yogis,

Seasonal bucket lists are something I’ve done my entire adult life, but there’s something extra special when it comes to a summer bucket list. Maybe it’s the longer days, or maybe it’s that special energy that comes with school being out and possibilities feeling infinite. Probably all of the above.

A summer bucket list gives you a small framework to work your season around. What is your vibe? Your priority? The thing you’d be really bummed that you didn’t get done by season’s end?

When we take time to think about how we want our season to look and feel, we can put a bucket list in place that will help manifest this. Because as we all know all too well, if we don’t prioritize things, the season will fly by in the blink of an eye and we’ll be left wondering “where did the time go?!”

This year, my bucket list is less of a “one and done” and more of a “rinse and repeat” vibe. I picked 5 things that will help shape the vibe and priorities of my summer, which will be repeated weekly from season’s beginning to end.

My summer vibe is: low effort memory making.

My summer priority is: family time that everyone legit enjoys.

Without any further adieu…

Candlelight Reading Hour

Since the days are longer (by my energy levels may not be, ha!), I’m going to institute a family candlelight reading hour at the end of the evening. After bath time, we’ll all meet in the living room with our cozy blankets, pillows, cups of tea, and books/photo albums/coloring supplies/ Yoto players/etc. and hunker down, over candlelight, for a quiet hour. This may look more like 20 minutes most nights, but the point is that we all end the day spending time together in a grounding and relaxing way, and letting bedtime be a little later since it’s summer. Instant core memories.

Pool Picnic Nights

My kids will be doing camp some weeks this summer, so I’m looking forward to packing a SUPER casual dinner for after pickup (we’re talking baguettes and fruit casual!) and heading to the community pool in the evening before calling it a night. Florida is pretty sweltering this time of year, so it will be a great way to cool off after a long day, get those last bits of energy out before returning home, and connect as a family. Plus, isn’t there something magical about a pool at sunset?!

Homemade Pops

I’m putting my kids in charge of keeping the freezer stocked with homemade popsicles this summer. We ordered fun bits and bobs (dried dragon fruit and edible glitter, to name a few!), plus I like how these will generally be more nourishing than the store bought ones. AND this rinse and repeat task gives them confidence and creativity in the kitchen, two important skills everyone should have.

Friday Night Disney Move Nights

We started the tradition of Friday Night Family Musical Nights this past year, and now we’re going to transition to Disney films for the summer, so we can watch a lot of the classics my kids haven’t yet seen. An easy way to wind down, and a great way for different ages to spend quality time together regularly.

Tiny Adventure Each Week

As a family of 5, we’ll be putting names in a hat and drawing one each week. The name drawn will pick a tiny adventure for the whole family to go on (at their ages and current interest levels, I’m anticipating requests for the trampoline park, baseball games, and matcha tea dates;-) The caveat is the whole family has to participate in the planned outing with the enthusiasm they want when it’s their time to pick!

I got a camera with instant photos so the kids could document these adventures, and put them into a Summer 2026 scrapbook.

Tips For Creating Your Own Summer Bucket List

1. Perhaps most importantly, make sure your list feels less like a productivity challenge and more like a seasonal invitation. You should genuinely be excited about the things on your list!

2. Keep it short and sweet. As you see, I only have 5 things on my list (although they are repeaters.) If your’s is more the “one and done” style, aim for no more than 10 items so it actually feels attainable and not like homework.

3. Make it seasonal. If it could happen in January, it likely doesn’t belong on a summer bucket list.

4. Choose experiences over achievements. Rather than giving yourself a specific goal of “lose 5 pounds”, you could phrase it as “take morning walks before the world wakes up this season.”

5. Ask yourself: “What do I want to remember about this summer?” Plan accordingly.

Would love to know…what’s on your summer bucket list for 2026?

Leave a comment

Ways We Can Work Together

—Come take a Palmetto Bay Yoga class with me! For June, I’ll be teaching outdoors at Coral Reef Park on June 5th and 12th at 10am (kids are totally welcome to flow with you or play nearby!) The intention I’m setting with these classes is: your neighborhood yoga village.

—If you’d like personalized support with your holistic health questions, upgrade to the pair tier of the newsletter. The $7 a month investment allows you to email me your holistic health questions, and I’ll get back to you with my thoughts from the lens of an Ayurveda Health Counselor (keeping it cozy, not clinical;-)

Until next week, sending light and love!

Jess

Light a candle, close your eyes, push play, and let’s meditate together.

Wishing you all the cozy feels,

Jess

p.s. you can find the library of cozy yoga flows and meditations for your home practice right here, and past newsletters on all things holistic health right here.

Dear yogis,

My husband texted me a blurb he read about luck and I just can’t stop thinking about it, and how greatly it relates to our ultimate health and happiness:

“A researcher named Richard Wiseman spent 10 years tracking people who described themselves as either lucky or unlucky. What he found wasn’t what most people would expect.

The biggest difference between the two groups came down to one thing: openness to experience. Basically, the lucky people moved more.

They talked to strangers.

They changed their routines.

They said yes to invitations more often.

The unlucky group?

They ate at the same restaurants.

They took the same route home from work.

They talked to the same five people.

Closed loop.

The more you look at it, luck isn’t something that happens to you. It’s more like a surface area problem. The more you expose yourself to new situations, new conversations, new environments, the more you increase your chances of something good finding you.

Of course there are other pieces to luck that are important, like being resilient and not quitting when one of those new opportunities doesn’t work out (and this will happen all the time).

And yes, the right coin flip in certain situation can help speed up the process. But it doesn’t change the fact that the more coin flips you have, the more chances you have at getting the result you want.

Movement creates collisions.

New collisions create opportunity.

Create your own luck.

HOW BRILLIANT, right? I began to think about things that felt “lucky” in my life, but actually just happened because I opened loops. Some key things that could be viewed as luck (but really happened because I opened a new loop) are:

—moving to NYC as a 21 year old with a hope and a dream (truly, not much else!;-), knowing not a soul in the city. I visited the public library everyday to search for jobs (while living off of $0.07 Ramen Noodles and New York tap water), and that’s how I ended up with a teaching position in the South Bronx, living in a city with a life I absolutely loved. LUCK!

—meeting my future husband at 3am in a dance club in the middle of NYC, jammed with thousands of people. I almost didn’t go out that night, but my girlfriend was visiting from out of town and we decided to go somewhere we’d never been. LUCK!

—starting a book club on Meetup.com, and committing to meet monthly with whoever showed up (it’s been going strong for 11 year now.) This has not only gotten fantastic books in my hands, but also led me to meet a wonderful group of women who I feel so fortunate to call friends. LUCK!

—listening to another new mama rave about a school that met in the park, rain or shine, and had their little students churn butter and eat bread and sip tea, and thinking, this sounds interesting. After touring different schools took a huge leap of faith and decided to put my kids into this very different educational model that doesn’t even teach letters or numbers until age 7. It’s been the biggest pivot in parenting I’ve ever made, but I attribute my kids’ childhood magic largely to this pivot. LUCK!

—taking a big risk and leaving a city we loved for a city where we knew nobody and nothing about (hi, Miami!), and finding out that as much as we love NYC, Miami is an even better fit for our family right now. LUCK!

As you can see, the “luck” only followed once I took a big risk, or went somewhere I’ve never been, or put myself out there, or followed my gut over society, or imagined a bigger life…and took the steps to arrive there.

If you’re looking to open the loop for luck, here’s a few simple things to get you started:

1. Go somewhere 15 minutes earlier than usual and linger rather than rushing. Think: your yoga class, school drop off, meeting a friend for lunch. Use these 15 minutes to look for ways to connect…maybe with someone new, or maybe to go deeper with someone you already know.

2. Say “yes” each month to something you’d normally classify as “not my thing.”

3. Become a regular somewhere, and get to know the people. The magic doesn’t pop up the first time you show up, but by the fifth, you’ll start to see the sparkle.

4. Rather than trying to “meet people”, join a recurring ecosystem of something that meets regularly. This is what my book clubs provide to me, but for you this could look like a pickle ball team, volunteering for a cause you’re passionate about, an improv troupe, a language exchange, or a church choir. So many options to find your people and expand that loop!

5. Expand your surface area. When we expand out of our given networks, we create more connections and opportunities and, dare I say, luck. Easy ways to expand are: inviting someone in your neighborhood you don’t know well (but who seems interesting!) for tea, posting on the school chat to see if anyone wants to take a walk after drop off, or reach out to another book club in town to see if they want to collaborate with YOUR book club for a discussion one month.

6. Be open to following a light curiosity. This is not the side hustle or your one true passion, but something that sparks a tiny flame of interest outside what you spend most of your time doing. Maybe you’ve always thought Irish folk dancing is pretty spiffy, and then you find there’s an Irish Cultural group that meets in your town, and you reach out to attend one of their gatherings, and then one of the members invites you to take a dance class with her, and voila! A new friend, new community, and Irish folk dancing. You’ve just gotten lucky!

7. Signal send often. Signal sending is when you send little signals out to the universe. Sending an email to an author of a book that greatly changed your life, asking a board member of a cause you care deeply about how you can share your talents, or doing the thing before you feel ready. Yes, there’s a chance nothing comes back, BUT there’s also a chance your signal will be received and reciprocated!

Would love to know…what are your feelings about luck?

Leave a comment

Ways We Can Work Together

—Come take a Palmetto Bay Yoga class with me! For May, I’ll be teaching outdoors at Coral Reef Park, Fridays at 10am (kids are totally welcome to flow with you or play nearby!) The intention I’m setting with these classes is: your neighborhood yoga village.

—If you’d like personalized support with your holistic health questions, upgrade to the pair tier of the newsletter. The $7 a month investment allows you to email me your holistic health questions, and I’ll get back to you with my thoughts from the lens of an Ayurveda Health Counselor (keeping it cozy, not clinical;-)

Until next week, sending light and love!

Jess

Light a candle, close your eyes, push play, and let’s flow together.

Wishing you all the cozy feels,

Jess

p.s. you can find the library of cozy yoga flows and meditations for your home practice right here, and past newsletters on all things holistic health right here.

Dear yogis,

Recently, my kids’ school hosted an All Community Work Day. This is a day that all parents come onto campus on a weekend and are assigned a task to help make the school more functional or beautiful.

My task this year was to rake leaves. Now, you may be thinking, “leaves in Florida in the spring? how many could there actually be?”

WELL.

Let’s just say I was at it from 9am to 3pm, blisters forming, blisters popping, and still…it felt like I hardly made a dent. About 10 minutes into this exercise of beautification (and patience) I wondered to myself…“wouldn’t this be so much more efficient with a leaf blower!?”

(The answer is, absolutely, yes, 100% it would be, for those of you curious;-)

However, it got me thinking about posing this question on specific areas of our health we are focusing on. Are we wasting unnecessary time and energy on areas of our health that we could easily optimize?

I suppose optimizing for our health, in many cases, means throwing a bit of money at the problem. But when I think of the case of the rake versus the leaf blower, my mind works like this:

—for the price of between $50 and $350 (depending on quality, I suppose), the school could invest in a battery powered leaf blower which could be used throughout the year(s) to easily (and quickly) keep the campus free of leaves.

—if the school didn’t want to invest the money in this, could we ask families to donate a few dollars to pool together for the tool?

—at the end of the All Community Work Day, what is going to yield the best results? one mama with a rake or one mama with a leaf blower?

I think we all know the answer to that question;-)

With this example in mind, I encourage you to think of your own wellness journey, and identify one big thing you are in the midst of working on right now. Then go down a bit of a rabbit hole and see if there’s some way you could be helping yourself along in this area by investing in a tool?

Ten examples that came to mind are:

1. Wanting to take up running? Invest in good shoes.

2. Noticing that you’re slumped over a bit too much in all the photos you see of yourself? Invest in a posture trainer and tracker.

3. Have no idea how sedentary or active you are day to day? Invest in a wearable to track your daily steps.

4. Your doctor flagged you as pre-diabetic but you feel like your diet is not terrible? Invest in a continuous glucose monitor to see what foods are making your sugar rise.

5. Stressed out, all day, everyday? Invest in a monthly massage, a gym membership with a sauna, or an at home foot massager (basically whatever would help you feel relaxed.)

6. Want to eat healthier but no time to cook? Invest in a healthy meal delivery service, or hire someone local to make homemade meals for you.

7. Want to pick up a new sport or activity that will help you to become more active and social? Invest in lessons to grow your confidence.

8. Notice you’re not spending enough time outdoors and want to change that? Invest in a bike and commit to commuting on it a few times a week.

9. Want to make time to connect with your friends or partner on a more frequent basis? Invest in a babysitter.

10. Feel like something is off but not even sure where to start? Invest in functional medicine testing to identify the problem.

These are just a handful of examples, but I’m sure we could list countless more. At the end of the day, is it a luxury to spend time and money on these things? Of COURSE.

But also…health is wealth. And as anyone knows who has ever been unwell, when we don’t feel well, nothing else matters so much. And as I say to everyone in the Ayurveda Concierge Membership…YOU will always be the biggest advocate for your health. Not your doctor, not your partner, not your kids, not your friends. At the end of the day, we are the ones responsible for making changes to feel our best. And if a tool could help us and it’s within our budget, maybe we should consider it?

Would love to know…is there a health related issue you’re having right now that could perhaps be helped along with an investment in a tool?

Leave a comment

Ways We Can Work Together

—Come take a Palmetto Bay Yoga class with me! For May, I’ll be teaching outdoors at Coral Reef Park, Fridays at 10am (kids are totally welcome to flow with you or play nearby!) The intention I’m setting with these classes is: your neighborhood yoga village.

—If you’d like personalized support with your holistic health questions, upgrade to the pair tier of the newsletter. The $7 a month investment allows you to email me your holistic health questions, and I’ll get back to you with my thoughts from the lens of an Ayurveda Health Counselor (keeping it cozy, not clinical;-)

Until next week, sending light and love!

Jess

Light a candle, close your eyes, push play, and let’s meditate together.

Wishing you all the cozy feels,

Jess

p.s. you can find the library of cozy yoga flows and meditations for your home practice right here, and past newsletters on all things holistic health right here.

Dear yogis,

For months, my girls’ ballet shoes have been causing me a tremendous amount of annoyance. You see, the girls attend ballet twice a week, and twice a week, two pairs of ballet shoes would be missing.

Now, most of our shoes land right on our front porch before we go inside, meaning we know where they are at all times when they are not on our feet. The ballet shoes are a bit more delicate than our slides and flip flops, though, and could not withstand the Florida elements of heat, humidity, and monsoons. They needed to be inside. So they would follow the girls into the house after class, and mysteriously disappear.

Of course, I wouldn’t know that they disappeared until the next ballet class, when we were hustling to get into tights and leotards and slicked back buns and out the door to class in the 30 minutes between school and ballet. In these frantic 30 minutes, I would be running around the house in a frenzy, looking for those slippers.

“Girls, have you checked the closets?! The bathroom?! Under the beds?! How about between the couch cushions?!”

With each ticking minute, my blood pressure would be rising, perspiration would be gathering on my brow, and my tolerance for after school activities would be plummeting wildly.

Of course, in the nick of time, one of my daughters would ultimately find the slippers caught up in the pair of tights that were crumbled at the bottom of the laundry basket, and we would make it to class with seconds to spare.

As you can see, this (quite small, quite first world) problem was causing an unusual amount of stress for both myself and my daughters. After WAY too long (I’m talking like a year of lost ballet slippers), I decided to take Gretchen Rubin’s advice and “identify the problem”.

The problem: the ballet shoes would enter the house with no set place to be and would get lost, causing stress before the next ballet class while we hunted for them.

I’ll take this one step further and say that we should also try to identify a solution that works for us.

The solution: The solution I landed on for this particular problem is having the girls take off their ballet shoes in the car before going into the house, physically handing both pairs to me, and then I stick them in a special shoebox I have in my car’s trunk until the next class.

This solution is nothing grand or earth shattering, but the amount of stress it has saved since implementing it absolutely is.

How You Can Implement This Into Your Own Life

Hence, my advice for you today is to identify a problem in your life (it can be as small as ballet shoes or as big as something that keeps you up at night), and then brainstorm as many different solutions as you can.

Not ALL solutions will be sustainable for your particular problem (for example, with the ballet shoes we first tried keeping them in my girls’ closet, but they would inevitably get pushed around and lost by the next class, so that didn’t work.) But write down anything that comes to you, and then identify the solution that you are most likely to stick with.

If that solution doesn’t work, you can always pick another one. The key is, by actively flagging that something is a problem, you are actively thinking of ways you can solve it.

A few other simple examples of how I’ve used this in my life are:

—Problem: Veggies would be going bad in the crisper drawer before we could eat them, but they weren’t getting eaten because they weren’t chopped up. Solution: I created a Veggie Box which I labeled and keep in our fridge that always has cut up veg in it.

—Problem: The back of my car was beginning to look like a frat house after-party with snacks, wrappers, crumbs, and water bottles. Solution: I keep an empty trash bag in my car now, and the kids have to put any trash directly into the bag before getting out of the car.

—Problem: My morning routine was feeling rushed, and this wasn’t the best start to my day. Solution: I set my alarm 20 minutes earlier so I can enjoy my slow and quiet mornings without requests for breakfast or help.

Would love to know…are there any pressing problems in your own life right now that could perhaps benefit from this?

Leave a comment

Ways We Can Work Together

—Come take a Palmetto Bay Yoga class with me! For April, I’ll be teaching outdoors at Coral Reef Park, Fridays at 10am (kids are totally welcome to flow with you or play nearby!) The intention I’m setting with these classes is: your neighborhood yoga village.

—If you’d like personalized support with your holistic health questions, upgrade to the pair tier of the newsletter. The $7 a month investment allows you to email me your holistic health questions, and I’ll get back to you with my thoughts from the lens of an Ayurveda Health Counselor (keeping it cozy, not clinical;-)

Until next week, sending light and love!

Jess

Light a candle, close your eyes, push play, and let’s flow together.

Wishing you all the cozy feels,

Jess

p.s. you can find the library of cozy yoga flows and meditations for your home practice right here, and past newsletters on all things holistic health right here.

Dear yogis,

The little choices we make everyday ultimately make up the lives we live. I’d say that these little choices also make up a big part of how well we feel while we are living our lives.

On any given day, we have so many choices:

Drive through fast food or homemade food for lunch?

Answer the triggering email quickly or take time to cool off?

Binge a few more episodes or get 8 hours of sleep?

…and the list goes on and on and on.

I think that the more we take charge of pushing these little decisions in the direction we want (rather than leaving it up to chance), the better we end up feeling—mentally, physically, and emotionally.

Today, I’m sharing 5 small but powerful things I do to push the needle in the direction of making better-for-me health decisions.

Have a veggie box in the fridge.

This is a small glass container that I fill with a cut veggie. Then, before lunch and dinner, I can just grab a handful of the veggie and eat it with my meal. When the container is empty, I take a few minutes (max) and cut up some new veggies. This has me eating SO much more veg than when I was prepping it for each individual meal. Highly recommend.

Drink a glass of lemon water before consuming anything else in the morning.

As a coffee drinker, this simple habit ensures I’m getting a good dose of hydration before my morning cup of joe. And as Ayurveda teaches us, the sour/bitter taste from the lemon can help stimulate our digestive flow, which is a great way to start the day.

Pack healthy snacks before leaving the house.

My kids taught me it’s a terrible idea to leave the house without a snack. Someone is bound to get hangry, and if we don’t have a healthy option in hand, we go into panic mode and make crazy choices (no fun for anyone.) The things I normally have are small mandarins (easy to throw in your bag and peel on the go, without getting mushy), containers of nuts, or bags of popcorn.

Shoes off before coming into the house.

Yes, our front porch looks like the shoe department of Dick’s Sporting Goods which I don’t love, but the amount of dirt, grime, sand, bacteria, and other gunk that this keeps out of our house is priceless. Both for our health and my sanity. Truth be told, I used to feel awkward about asking guests to take off shoes before coming in, but now it’s just a non-negotiable for “health reasons”.

Park really far away from the destination (and when possible, walk).

This can look like taking the last spot of the parking lot during a Target run, parking on the far end of the park and getting a little stroll in before a playground visit, or walking with the kids around the neighborhood after dinner.

Living in a city with a big car culture, I credit this hack with helping me hit my 10K steps a day goal. And for the rest that isn’t achieved throughout the day, I have a treadmill walking pad that I use to make up for any gaps (I’ve been using this one since November and it’s been fantastic). The ten thousand steps isn’t a magic number by itself, but it does signify to me that I have been active that day and moved my body a healthy-for-me amount.

Would love to know the little things you’ve implemented into your days to help make healthy choices easy?

Leave a comment

Ways We Can Work Together

—Come take a Palmetto Bay Yoga class with me! For April, I’ll be teaching outdoors at Coral Reef Park, Fridays at 10am (kids are totally welcome to flow with you or play nearby!) The intention I’m setting with these classes is: your neighborhood yoga village.

—If you’d like personalized support with your holistic health questions, upgrade to the pair tier of the newsletter. The $7 a month investment allows you to email me your holistic health questions, and I’ll get back to you with my thoughts from the lens of an Ayurveda Health Counselor (keeping it cozy, not clinical;-)

Until next week, sending light and love!

Jess

Light a candle, close your eyes, push play, and let’s meditate together.

Wishing you all the cozy feels,

Jess