Tag: life

On Yoga Studio Ownership

This is not a new year’s resolution

by ErinLeave a Comment on This is not a new year’s resolution

Posting on Frozen Spaghetti on the 1st of the year comes with no proclamations of anything I am going to “try to do” or attempt in 2026. This post simply comes from my couch while Starships by Nicki Minaj is played by a marching band (via the Rose Bowl) and my husband breaks down the graveyard of Amazon boxes that have been at the foot of our steps since Christmas… you know… that holiday we celebrate the existence of divinity and everlasting peace with cardboard.

I just got home from the studio (slash yoga clubhouse) that I own here in Webster Groves, Missouri, United States. Smack dab in the middle of the continental US for my non US readers. Hi, by the way. Love that you’re here. I started the day off teaching a little bit of a butt kicker to a groovy little playlist and with gingerbread incense threaded throughout the hour. I knew all the students by name, even to where I got excited when I peeked at the roster last night: these are “my people” and I was genuinely excited to see each one of them in the new year.

Because I am all about gear shifting as little as possible, especially on holidays, I kept the studio open for an open house. We had my friend Anna up giving IV hydrations and IM shots. I got my usual IV hydration with glutathione, zinc, Vitamin C and B 12. The tri-immune glutathione, zinc and Vitamin C mix I absolutely swear by and highly recommend to all of you attempting to avoid or get over the flu.

It was about 4 or 5 of us that stayed throughout the day, working on individual creative projects, getting IVs or watching me and my friend Cindy work on “an intuitive painting”. We are turning the front room of the studio / yoga clubhouse into a dwelling space… meditation room… treatment room… quiet room and it needed art. I really truly love what we came up with but it seems a little “floaty”. The blankets I bought for the room do not go with the painting at all. And though I love a good clashing of things – I need this room to be less march to the beat of your own drum and more held by universal love and spirit. Though I could go into how those are the same, there is an aesthetic difference I am trying to reconcile in the space.

But, like all things, I know it is something I don’t actually have to think about to figure out. My mode of operation with this is to wait and listen, pay attention to the energetic quality of things, take it step by step, notice what is used, what is needed and when and what naturally comes about. This is the practice I started that I call “being consistently inconsistent”.

The afternoon ended with the painting getting cleaned up and a small group of us staying in the studio to work through the Fruits of the Spirit and their definitions and create a spectrum of our opposites as we head into the new year. It is a workshop practice I teach that I refer to as “Finding Your Positive Opposites”. I noticed this year that my opposites were getting more fine-tuned. It’s not that I feel disconnected, it’s that I feel misunderstood. I thank the work of Internal Family Systems therapy and a whole lot of yoga, philosophy, rest, stillness and listening to the things that come out of my mouth when I am feeling certain ways.

The dogs are barking asking to come in and I am ready for the next round of new year’s day… I hope that if you are reading this you have a word for 2026 in mind, better yet – maybe even a Fruit of the Spirit you are going to commune with in this first part of the year. Love? Joy? Peace? This year, I am starting with Gentleness although Self Control, Goodness, Kindness were all runners up. Faithfulness, always as a part of the practice and Patience is a must when dealing with…. these dogs barking.

On that note… Happy New Year!! Tell me your word or fruit! I would love love love love love LOVE to know!

Also – what do you think of the painting???

Words in Sentences

Thinking Back

by ErinLeave a Comment on Thinking Back

I was thinking back on some blogging I did in 2021 related to training the brother and sister dogs we adopted. Seemingly in the constant pursuit of “what I write about” or “what I share about”, I wondered back then whether or not dog training was going to end up being “my thing”.

It’s comical now, 4 years later, with dogs who absolutely go ape shit at the fence for a german shepherd (they looooove a german shepherd). The only thing that makes any of that noise easier to swallow is the fact the sister dog jumps and barks while the brother dog stands with paws on the fence. It is as comical as it is absolutely irritating to the bone.

I have been near obsessively working on my program that has, at this point, been received by over five hundred people over the course of its existence and acknowledged by many as having “changed their life”. Holy shit – I realize – my approach to dealing with my own human emotions in order to give my life some purpose and not think everything is in vain has supported other people’s ability to do the same?

“I should really do something with this”, I think, “…then I could hire a dog trainer.” lol

And the truth is – I am thinking about it. I am doing it. I am recording and I am writing and I am creating every single week – something new – something old repurposed. How does it all come together? How do I start? Oh I am already started. What do I do.

I have so much faith in all of this, honestly. But the belief in right timing is only as good as the dedication to practice and use of right energy.

To do the things you love to do. To be the places you love to be. To allow the way you love to feel. It’s nooooooot always easy when you are covered in news and buried in headlines. It’s not always the first thing you think of “I love today!I love my life” when there are so many people dying and drowning in fear. BUT. HOW will it get better if the artists don’t art?!?

How will culture evolve in the creators don’t create?!

How will justice reign if the makers don’t make and the builders don’t build and the – what else – shakers don’t shake?

lol Taylor Swift nod.

Sigh. So – here I am, with my new Buddha (that honestly looks like me and my siblings likeness), my cat and my geraniums here in the middle of October ready for everything that is next. Are you ready for what is next?

Tell me honestly. Please – are you excited about your life? Do you feel purpose in today? Why or why not. Lay it on me.

Give me something to think about. ✌🏽erin

woman cat and buddha and geraniums set out to change the world on a wednesday october morning
On Yoga Studio Ownership

A Defining Day

by ErinLeave a Comment on A Defining Day

It feels important to capture this moment in time.

It is amazing to me how hard it is to write what I am trying to write. I want to make some bold statement like “everybody is experiencing unhappiness and the elephant in the room is that it is my fault”. But in a way that clearly denotes it is actually my fault.

I think a lot about the story about how the owner of Starbucks’ father in law came to him when he was still in startup mode and told him he had to get a job. His wife was pregnant and he had not found investors yet. His wife told him “no way – keep at it” and, thanks to her, we have venti refreshers no berries.

I think about it a lot.

David and I blended families in 2020 and the past nearly 5 years have put some major wear and tear on the house…. There is dissatisfaction with the water heater, the need to fix nearly every bathroom, trim chewed up by puppies, a gap in the counter, a need for new paint and a new door and a new backyard and everything that was so beautiful and charming about my “art house” is now just kind of dingy, not that cute and in need of repair.

When you add to that the perspective that the grass is greener on the other side of all the streets and tracks, there is this thick sentiment that feels like sadness and I feel plain guilty straight up horrible that – while the past four years have been unfolding my life’s work and my life’s purpose, it’s not quite a corporate salary and great benefits situation.

Yet.

I mean – I know what I do. I know what I do well. I see the effects of my efforts. I am amazed at how quickly everything is moving and growing and changing yet it still seems so slow. In some ways, I feel like I can’t share my vision anymore because – well, it’s simply time to work.

And, even then I took a pause because I don’t want anybody reading this feeling like bad for me or like “sounds like things aren’t going well”. Things are thriving. Budding. Exciting. I am more motivated than ever. The studio turned a year old and we have 70 members and I have a ton to do to get ready to lead my inaugural training in St. Croix (which only has 3 spots left) and I understand what I do so clearly, that now it’s simply time to keep going. It’s happening.

You keep going and then, when you’ve spend too much time in flow, you stop for a day to take care of the laundry piles and vacuum and make a homemade meal to give people a break from (pretentious) hot dogs. So, there’s that… it’s definitely the marker of a chapter I am in. It’s why I want to capture this… it feels like a grab bag, an intersection, a messy bridge.

I wanted to capture it because I am headed full blast forward. We are at the beginning of a chapter that is going to be defined by my boundless creativity, love of storytelling and conversations with friends and my full faith in the practices my life has taught me that I am going to share with you. I mean – it’s already amazing, the way the studio feels is ripe and nourishing and joyful – why wouldn’t it get more so?

This post needs to exist so I can look back on this night that I made chicken in the new cast iron with a side of thai green lentil curry while reflecting on the podcast I recorded with my coach that made us both jaw drop – like, this conversation is real and good and powerful – this recording happened after cleaning the house which I completed after drafting an email to our 500+ person audience with 70% open rates which I wrote after responding to my team which I did after organizing my day which I took time to do after waking up and making a gut tonic and having a moment where I asked myself: what type of energy do I want to bring today?

The answer? Expansive.