I'm one of those people that likes to point to my diplomas and certifications as a way to prove my worth. Can you relate?

Last year I finished my third coaching training, on top of a master's degree and too many self development and skill building workshops to name.

And only now do I finally feel a sense of clarity in what I'm here to do, deep confidence in my abilities and enough worthiness to take action in service of the life I most want and the people who need what I have to offer.

And no it wasn't all the trainings and diplomas that's given me this gift.

It's the DEEP WORTHINESS I have cultivated in my body through the inner work I've been doing for over a year now.

See when you embody worthiness...

You take responsibility for your life and happiness

You believe in your own potential

You feel confident in your abilities

You discover what you want and learn to ask for it

Worthiness lets you know that no matter what happens, YOU WILL BE OKAY.

If you want to do big things in...

One of my superpowers as a coach is explaining why the techniques I use work, according to the latest findings in neuroscience and psychology.

And I want to apply some of this thinking to what's going on right now.

We are living through a period of immense stress. Stress gets a bad rap today but STRESS IS ESSENTIAL because without stress, we don't grow.

Because we are under immense stress, we are in a period of HEIGHTENED NEUROPLASTICITY  aka whatever we do right now will have lasting impact on our brain development.

Anyone who's dabbled in developmental psych knows that the two biggest spurts of brain development are in the first two years of life and adolescence. These two phases are also times of immense stress.

It is 100% true that we are living through a period of UNPRECEDENTED COLLECTIVE TRAUMA. But that doesn't mean we have to emerge from this period broken and disconnected.

There is another reality you can choose to adopt if you are secure in your home right now.

...

You know self-love is a thing you should be into, right? Most of us know that we’re supposed to love and accept ourselves but we don’t know how to do it. Is that something you were taught in school? I didn't think so. And yet, love is THE essential element that makes humans thrive.

When you deeply, truly love yourself you are in control of how you feel about yourself and nothing outside of you can change that. You are unstoppable!

Really deep self-love is about loving allll of the parts of us, the parts we’ve been taught to feel ashamed of, to bury deep down, to control and contain. It means loving and accepting the bitchy greedy lazy ugly parts of ourselves.

When we can stop fighting with, trying to change or control these parts of ourselves we’re left with so much more energy and freedom to choose how we actually want to live our lives.

When we try to fix ourselves from the perspective that there’s something fundamentally wrong...

Friends, I owe you an apology.

I got a little cray with my branding and business that I overlooked y'all.

I had this idea that once I clarified my vision I could just run ads and have the people who resonate with what I'm doing find me. We'll get to the problem with that in a minute, but first lemme tell you a story.

A friend replied to an email about Pleasure as Medicine to say she loved the the course and to ask if it was open to her because in the past I had said I didn't work with friends. Actually I didn't even send that email to my mailing list, just to her and few other friends I knew would be perfect for it, but how would she know that?

When I got that email, I had two reactions, first was "Yayayay I'm SO excited she wants to join because I LITERALLY MADE THIS FOR HER!!" and the second was "Shit! I've so screwed up by making my friends think that I'm not available for them. I need to clarify that!"

See when I was first learning coaching in my master's program I was cautioned...

In our culture, we as women are taught to dim our light, to censor our expression, to play small.

We’re taught to hide our brilliance, lest we outshine our partner, our parents, or our friends.

There are a million ways we hold ourselves back from being our truest, biggest, most fully expressed selves.

And psychologically it makes sense.

Many of us hold deep deep fears in our bones, from our own traumas, from our mothers’ traumas and from the culture we live in that tells us in so many ways that a woman who shines, a woman who embodies her power and her confidence is not safe.

The women who stand out, who speak up, who don’t play small are most vulnerable and likely to be knocked down emotionally or physically.

But you are strong and brave and you’re ready to remove this patriarchal residue that’s dulling your shine.

It’s time to stop hiding and playing small. It’s time to step into your power and share your skills and gifts with the world.

...

I have a confession. I was not always the bold, bright leader that I strive to be today.

For several years of my twenties after my yoga teacher training I stopped getting my hair done, gave up makeup and avoided jewelry.

I donated a lot of my pretty things and basically wore organic cotton t-shirts and leggings. I even tried to stop washing my hair and "break my addiction to lip balm" (yup, google it.)

FYI Greasy hair and chapped lips is NOT a good look on me, or anyone for that matter.

I thought that to be a good person, I had to trade wearing nice things, enjoying life and watching TV for being an ascetic mindful vegetarian, or in other words, be something other than who I am.

I'm glad to report that period of my life is OFFICIALLY OVER.

Not that there's anything wrong with those things. I think we can all swing into extremes in the name of trying to improve our selves and our lives and sometimes we just need to find center.

I believe the true juice of personal development work...

What feels scary and out of your comfort zone?

For me, being seen, sharing my voice, speaking up, asking questions, posting on social media has been a huge edge.

It's something that starting a business has pushed me to do and I'm so grateful for that.

The way we grow is by doing new things outside our comfort zone.

But it's a bit more complex than that.

Human brains evolved when we lived in groups and depended on one another for survival. Doing something against the status quo meant the possibility of being kicked out of the group, which meant certain death.

This fear is still deeply programmed in our brains. When we address it, we clear the unconscious blocks to our desires and make attaining our goals much easier.

We need to know that we will still be loved, still belong, still, be safe if we try something new.

That we'll be celebrated if we succeed and taken care of if we fail. That no matter what happens we're still worthy.

So if there's something you've been wanting to try but...

On average, women today have more freedom than ever before in recorded history and yet we are more stressed, overwhelmed and exhausted than ever. 

Along with pursuing success in demanding careers, women still do the majority of housework and emotional labor in their families. We’ve taken on more and haven’t given anything up which is leading women to face exhaustion and burnout in alarming numbers. This impact is compounded for women of color and women who otherwise fit outside of our heteronormative white culture.

 During the 7 years, I worked at Google, I was diagnosed with a digestive disorder, an autoimmune condition, and Chronic Fatigue. Studies show that these particular conditions impact women at rates rate 3 to 5 times higher than men. When I read these studies I wanted to scream and demand the world tell me WHY??? I know so many women in my community who have faced these same diagnoses and yet no one seemed to know why these illnesses tend to impact...