Welcoming November: A Long Hello
The view from my corner of paradise as we make our way into deep fall (and a maybe overdue "just what am I doing here on Substack?" post.)
Hi readers (and movers, meditators, and mageirocophiles),
This morning, I’m pausing my regularly-scheduled posts for a somewhat-overdue introduction, having realized that the last two months on here I’ve been a little like the party guest who slips in without saying “hello.” She’s over there at 10 pm casually helping herself to chips and guacamole before you turn to a friend and say “hey, do we know her?”
I’m Havala - a West Virginia transplant, farmer, recently-former U.S. federal government employee, health coach, yoga teacher, and cook. I’ve been playing in the kitchen since I was a toddler “helping” in my parents’ bakery, and I’ve practiced yoga, in one form or another, ever since finding my mom’s old volume of Light on Yoga in the attic when I was a teenager, nearly thirty years ago now. In 2022 I finally made it “official” with yoga teacher training; this summer, finding myself with what I came to call an Unplanned Sabbatical on my hands, I added an Integrative Nutrition Health Coaching certification. What started as a cute little side-hustle has - partly by chance, partly by design, and thanks in no small measure to the support of my amazing husband - become my full-time life. Although the way I arrived here was far from what I’d planned, I wake up every morning amazed and grateful for the chance to continue journeying further up, further in.
I started this blog in September to bring some of what I offer my yoga students and coaching clients - and what supports me - to a more public-facing forum. I hope some of what I’ve learned - and continue to discover - can help others find more health, calm, ease, and nourishment in these wild and difficult times.
What you’ll find here: weekly movement practices, meditation and mindfulness prompts, and recipes, interspersed with photos from my morning walks. I find this three-times-weekly rhythm useful, but if that starts to feel like a lot of email, you can manage your notifications (and even subscribe to just one of these sections) from your Substack settings > Subscriptions.
If you’re local to me, (or looking for coaching), this is also where I now host my yoga teaching schedule and yoga/coaching private session booking. I am particularly excited, this month, to be offering a November 22nd Pranayama (breathwork) workshop at Lost River Yoga, just in time for the holiday season. I know that I may find myself in the middle of some challenging family-and-friends dinner-table conversations in the next couple of months, and it will be essential that we all Remember to Breathe.
A final note: I’ll be skipping the notification emails (and the paywalls) for this week’s posts. Instead, you can check back at the links below for the full versions, including audio, video, and recipe PDFs, of:
Monday: a confessional-mode reflection on body image and my favorite…gas station snack?!…along with a 20-minute movement practice focused on the hips
Wednesday: 10-minute yoga nidra for the sacral chakra, accompanied by a gratuitous photo of a Belizean sunrise and a note on the importance of friends as guardian angels
Friday: A single-serving curried butternut squash twice-baked potato…for those “what am I in the mood to eat?” moments
That’s all for now. Thank you for being here - and be well.
-Havala
Audio version of this post:
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