A recent yoga newsletter mentioned that the wellness of each individual person in a community affected the health of the entire community, and so as yoga teachers we should think about what we're doing to help individual wellness and community wellness off and on the mat. Sounds like a good thing to do, right? It…
The fly mask sat on the table next to the door in my office, ready to go out for one of the older mares who I noticed was having a lot of trouble with flies around her eyes. It's been a crazy week with a cat emergency, which luckily turned out to be not that…
Bhakti is the practice of loving devotion designed to bring you closer to the divine. Spirituality is the connection to something larger than yourself, something outside of yourself, and doesn't necessarily have to do with religion or divinity. What do these two things have in common? Because when you put them together with tools for…
I stepped outside earlier today to open the gates after giving senior heart mare her lunch and to check and top off everyone's water. It was raining. Only it wasn't quite drizzle and it wasn't quite a steady rain, light enough that for a moment I even wondered if it was raining. It was trying…
Whether it's doing work with a therapist or trying to recover from burnout, one of the questions that's asked in a myriad of forms is how does your body feel. What is your body telling you? Where does that reside in your body? The question is often asked with the intention that a simple peek…
Meditation has been my go to in order to help regulate my nervous system and calm my overactive, neurodivergent mind. I'm not talking about spending hours sitting in lotus pose or repeating a mantra, but rather a tool that I can return to maybe for fifteen minutes at most, to bring me back to center…
I recently came across the term "hyperverbal autism" and it described me perfectly. When I shared the post on social media, many people I knew (who were also neurodivergent) said that explained them too, and the curious thing was, until now, no one had heard the term before.
What did we have in common? That…
Every day my horses tell me about the power of trust. Whether it's the rescue who lets me love on her after being standoffish and skittish for so long, or the senior heart horse who calls for lunch, knowing that I'll do whatever it takes to make sure she's cared for. The roly poly "baby"…
Last night I was reading through a novella I published back in 2019 in order to update and republish it, and as often happens when I'm reading through my older work, I thought "This is good! I can't believe I wrote this". While this is pretty common among writers, for me it made me stop.…
CW: This blog discusses fatphobia, body dysphoria, and representation.
I've been doing a lot of website updates lately and am thinking about the yoga videos I had over on Chicken Yogi, the predecessor to this site, and moving them over. I've also been thinking about holding meditation and yoga gatherings at least once a month…
On a recent podcast I heard the hosts talk about how once they stopped focusing on struggle, they stopped attracting it. And I admit, my eyebrows went up. I might have screamed a little too, because there's no such thing as attracting struggle, and we need to stop blaming people for the bad things that…
I am pleased to announce that starting May 17 I will be hosting monthly pagan pet loss grief circles on the third Sunday of each month from noon to 1:30 pm central time. These circles will be a free-will donation offering, and more information can be found on my website.
In this episode, I talk…
Spring is the time of renewal, and as I look around at the trees budding, the last remnants of my lilacs still attempt to perfume the air as I walk past, I realized it was time for renewal here at Feathermane Soul. Astute observers may note that I am now talking about Wild Spirit Storytelling(tm)…
As promised the show is back from hiatus and I wanted to announce a bit of a realignment. I've given the website a bit of a polish and wanted to take a few moments to talk to you about the change in focus that is coming to Feathermane Soul Wisdom. I'll have more announcements in…
I was listening to an equestrian podcast and a horse trainer was on talking about curiosity and getting a horse to think and engage with its world rather than shutting down. As a horse person, I found what this trainer was talking about very fascinating. First, because I've been in barns with horses who had…
It seems whenever someone starts to talk about difficult feelings like grief or anger, someone usually shuts them down with phrases like "think positive" or "don't be negative". As part of that brief conversation, a value judgment is placed upon whatever the person is feeling, and that is usually that the emotion is negative or…