I felt unseen, unheard and even more alone than before.

About 10 years ago, I cracked.

Nothing that I’d worked so hard to achieve could save me: not the awards and the opportunities, not the cute medical student who said he loved me, not even the smaller jeans I’d nearly starved myself to fit into. I had been so besieged by unrelenting stress and self-imposed pressure that I experienced a full-blown mental health crisis. It landed me smack dab in the middle of the psych ward.

I remember telling the disbelieving psychiatrist that despite how it looked, I didn’t think anything was medically wrong with me. I dug deep and confessed the truth as I knew it. I told him my soul was in pain. He pulled out his prescription pad. 

I felt unseen, unheard, and even more alone than before. 

I knew that the deepest level of my problem wasn’t located with a chemical imbalance in my brain but with an imbalanced rhythm in my life. I needed help, but the kind of help offered by the medical establishment wasn’t enough. I wanted something more than patching up so that I could go back to the same life that drove me crazy in the first place…but I had no idea where to find it.

Do you always feel you are one minor emergency away from overwhelm?

Do you feel like you’re always one minor emergency away from overwhelm?

Maybe you’re living this reality right now, or maybe it’s a state that you find yourself in a few times a year when things get particularly busy at work, or when family obligations reach a fever-pitch. Maybe you feel like you’re barely holding the tidal wave of stress at bay with Herculean efforts to get yourself to yoga class and massage appointments, but you always feel like you’re just one minor emergency away from overwhelm.

Whatever your circumstances, know this:

There is nothing wrong with you.

Your body is simply trying to get your attention. She is trying to invite you back home to yourself. She’s trying to help.

The signs that your body is calling you home are often considered symptoms of chronic stress. I prefer to think of them as signposts on the journey back to your true self. Is your body trying to get your attention?

There is light at the end of the tunnel.

If you resonate with even one of the above statements, I want you to know that you’re not alone and it’s not your fault. You’re NOT a bad person, you’re not weak, and you certainly don’t have to keep going this way. 

After I got out of the hospital, I embarked on an epic healing journey to find the answers that the medical establishment couldn’t give me. I needed tools for coping with (NOT numbing out) the intense emotions that came with the territory of being a sensitive person and I needed the kind of deeper meaning and purpose that would keep me squarely on my own path, not trying to emulate other people’s versions of success. The search took me from New York City to India, from practicing bodywork to a career in herbal medicine, and from madly-in-love to heartbroken and back again. I gave thousands of hours of bodywork to people with chronic pain, trauma histories, and dysregulated stress responses and learned the power of touch, rest, and breath to bring our bodies back from the brink. I interviewed senior citizens about their lives and created a critically-acclaimed play about it. I studied trauma theory, herbal medicine, and natural healing, ultimately building a practice that’s helped hundreds of people through bodywork & herbal medicine. 

Most of all, I applied everything I learned to my own life. I tended my wounds and learned how to fashion a life that would allow me to give the gifts that I was born to give, the ones that make a difference for others, and allow my heart to sing her own song. 

All of my studies, personal experiences, and hands-on work with clients has taught me that: 

~ I wasn’t crazy after all; and neither are many other sensitive souls who are suffering greatly under the weight of modern life. (As Krishnamurti said, “It is no sign of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”)

~ There are time-tested tools and techniques that could help me re-tune my nervous system, restore my physical and emotional balance, and help me create a life that supports my soul’s deepest longings rather than grating at them.

~ The aloneness that I felt in my pain was an illusion. There are so many others who feel as I feel, and who wanted the kind of soulful, just, wholesome, and self-expressed life that I was (nearly) dying for. All I had to do was reach out to find them. 

It took me years and years to tell my story publicly, and it still feels vulnerable to admit to the whole Internet that I was once in that highly stigmatized position of being hospitalized in a psych ward. But my fear of being judged is insignificant in the face of the greater calling that I feel to speak out, tell the truth, and invite you to join me in changing the way that we approach emotional wellbeing in our culture.

There is light at the end of the tunnel.

You’re invited on a journey to deep emotional resilience.

I have faith in your ability to find your path.

And I also know that any heroic or healing journey is made easier if you have a compassionate guide, a well-stocked medicine bag, and a map of the territory. 

So, if this letter has stirred something in you, and if you know in your bones that now is the time to embark on a new phase of your journey, I’m here ready to stand by your side.

Here’s what I propose:

That we gather together (through the magic of technology) for 4 weeks in an experience that we call, Nimble Heart, Unwavering Soul.

Here are the nuts and bolts of what’s included: 

A private, virtual “bonfire” where you can rest, rejuvenate, and share your story freely with me and all of your fellow travelers.

Our bonfire will take place on Facebook through a private group, which will allow you to post your questions, thoughts, and stories at any time that’s convenient for you. Imagine: you can write to us about your question or frustration, then you can go eat dinner, put the kids to bed, wind down from your day, get a good night’s rest, and wake up the next morning to find that while you were living your life, your companions in the group were thinking about what you wrote and offering their best suggestions. It’s kind of like magic.

Nimble Heart makes a real and lasting difference in the lives of participants. In other words, it works.

I know this because I’ve rigorously tested this course with real women — all with similar challenges and obstacles to the ones that you’re facing. Before the class started, they took an assessment to measure their stress levels, current state of emotional resilience, and the symptoms of stress manifesting in their bodies. After the 4-week course, they took the same exact assessment again — and the results speak for themselves.

These are some of the results that participants who completed Nimble Heart have received:

• Overall stress reduction by an average of 30% in just four weeks.

• Most participants listed 50% FEWER physical & emotional signs of stress at graduation. This means that they didn’t just *think* they were handling stress better. Their physical bodies told them they were.

• Rated themselves as “much more confident” in their ability to handle stressful situations after graduation.

I’m committed to your success.

Nimble Heart is an opportunity for real support, real transformation, and real, lasting relief. My commitment isn’t *just* to show up as a teacher, share the material, and then move on.

My commitment is to be here for you in a way that makes a real difference.

I want you to have a comprehensive, holistic toolkit for building the kind of emotional resilience that will soothe your soul and open the door to the life you really want to be living. After rigorous research and thorough testing, I’m convinced that this is the best program you can find on this subject.

I also want you to feel confident, excited, and wholehearted about your decision to give this program a try. You have my personal guarantee that Nimble Heart will give you new skills, build your emotional resilience, and fundamentally change the way you think about & experience stress.

My Promise:

Join Nimble Heart and participate fully. Listen and learn from two (2) whole calls. Download the recordings, summary sheets, and resource guides. Benefit from all of the support & love in our Facebook group—-dive in for two whole weeks.

At that point, if you feel that Nimble Heart hasn’t started to change the way you cope with stress (for the better!), I will meet with you personally to help you get the support you need. And if after we talk, you feel like Nimble Heart isn’t the right program for you, I will refund your tuition in full.

If you participate in the program and apply what you learn, your relationship to stress will change forever. If the program doesn’t help you, then I don’t want to keep your tuition. It’s that simple.