There’s something deeply personal and vulnerable I want to share with you. For most of my life, I fixated on my body and my appearance. I lived in cycles of disordered eating, body dysmorphia, shame, and quiet self-criticism. I carried a belief that if I could just lose the weight—if my body could finally look the way it was *supposed* to—then confidence, happiness, and peace would follow. That story was convincing. But it was untrue.

This week I am being called to let go and I sense that I am not the only one. We are still in the year of the snake, shedding old patterns, identities, and attachments. I have been cleaning out my closet, organizing my space, and cleaning – creating space for the new. This is a powerful time to reflect and release. 

I hope your New Year is beginning beautifully. Something my mentor shared recently landed deeply in my body and I want to share it with you. She said:

Every beautiful beginning transpires from an intentional ending.

I felt these words reverberate through my entire being. Because it’s true — the end is never really an end. It is a threshold. And the more intentional we are with how we close a chapter, the more potent and aligned the beginning becomes.

Intention is the foundation of everything we create.

As I sit in reflection at the close of 2025, I find myself contemplating not just what happened this year—but how I saw it while I was living it. The past months have been some of the most intense of my life. In September, my mother was in and out of the hospital, on the edge of death. In October, she moved in with me, and since then I’ve been caregiving for her full-time. What initially felt like a burden slowly revealed itself as a profound blessing—one that challenged and grew us both in ways I could not have anticipated.

May this holiday season be filled with love, joy, laughter, and beauty. This Christmas has been different than any other for me — and perhaps it has been for you too. In years past, I would usually travel home to be with my mama for the holidays. This year, instead, she is here with me in my apartment in Santa Fe. As many of you know, my mama has been living with me for the past three months, and it has been one of the most dynamic, stretching, and transformative seasons of my life.

Synthetic fragrances and scents are everywhere—especially this time of year. Homes fill with candles meant to evoke nostalgia, cars hang onto artificial “freshness,” and beauty products promise alluring aromas. But beneath these seemingly harmless scents lies an industry built on unregulated chemicals, hidden ingredients, and compounds that have never been tested for long-term human safety. The rise in fragrances correlates with the rise in symptoms, chronic illness, and mystery conditions.

I’ve been feeling a deep pull to share something with you, something I’ve never fully put into words in this space, but something that has quietly shaped everything I do, everything I teach, and everything Embodied Wellness stands for. There’s a truth rising in me. A truth I can no longer soften, dilute, or tuck behind the scenes. A truth that is asking to be seen, heard, and embodied in the next era of this work.

The Holidays are a special and meaningful time of connection and cheer!

Immune Support is a foundation to heal.

Ever since I was young, I’ve been fascinated by the frequency of spaces. Not just how they look, but how they feel. I’ve always walked into a room and immediately sensed the energy. I noticed the subtle details. I felt when something was “off,” even when everything looked aesthetically perfect. I cleaned, organized, rearranged, and refined the spaces around me not just to make them beautiful, but to recalibrate the energy.

The Holiday Season is here! In this time of Thanksgiving I’ve been contemplating how often we rush through our lives without fully noticing the beauty that is here now. In the midst of doing, striving, and becoming, we sometimes forget to slow down long enough to truly feel the miracle of life that already exists. 

My path away from conventional medicine didn’t begin with frustration or rebellion, it began with love. It began with my mom and the long, painful journey we walked together trying to find answers the medical system could not give us. We spent years searching for answers, truth, and solutions. This quest resulted in dozens of appointments, referrals, specialists, and tests. Years of being told “your labs are normal” while her symptoms only progressed. Years of hearing, “there is no cure—only management.” With each blood draw her strength diminished. 

It all began with a single sentence I heard recently, one that struck me straight in the heart:

“You are not breaking, you are becoming.”

Those words landed in my body with such truth. Isn’t it interesting how the moments that feel like they’re breaking us… are often the very ones shaping us?

In February of 2024, my mama was hospitalized and nearly lost her life. She’s been living with chronic illness for years, navigating multiple autoimmune diagnoses and unexplained symptoms. During her hospitalization, I witnessed countless blood draws — vial after vial, day after day. It was through that experience that I realized something we all need to understand for the sake of our health and future.

The lymphatic system is part of both the circulatory and immune systems, and it serves as the body’s inner network of cleansing and renewal. It helps maintain fluid balance, filters toxins, and supports immune modulation. Unlike the circulatory system, the lymphatic system has no pump, like the heart, to move the lymph. This means movement, breath, lifestyle, and manual techniques are essential to support lymphatic flow and drainage. Without them, the lymph can become stagnant — and where there’s stagnation, symptoms arise.

Have you ever found it curious that we begin the week on Monday, a day ruled by the Moon; a planet that embodies softness, intuition, and receptivity? The Moon carries the essence of rest, reflection, and creation, yet we often launch into Monday as the start of the grind, pushing ourselves to “go” before we’ve truly arrived. I’ve always found it strange, it never felt right to me.

Continuing on the theme of food as medicine, I want to share a truth I’ve stayed quiet about for far too long. Over the years, I’ve read hundreds of books on food, nutrition, and medicine — and experimented with countless diets and health trends. In sorting through the misinformation, I eventually found a path to true healing. But when I first began, it felt overwhelming, conflicting, and complicated. One of the greatest misconceptions I’ve encountered in the wellness world is protein.

I have been passionate about food for as long as I can remember. It’s one of the main reasons I chose not to pursue my M.D. — because the traditional medical curriculum includes only about six hours of nutrition. Even then, it’s often taught through the lens of calories, macronutrients, and pharmaceuticals — not healing, vitality, and energy. I’ve always known food to be the foundation. It was through food that my own healing began.

September was a month full of emotion and challenge. My mama was in and out of the hospital, talking about the end of her life… We had walked this path before just over a year and a half ago. And there is a truth I want to share. They almost killed my mama. More than once. 

We’ve recently crossed the Equinox threshold, welcoming Fall here in the Northern Hemisphere. As I sit outside gazing at golden-yellow leaves against the vast New Mexico sky, my heart holds a tender mix of emotions. While I welcome the arrival of Fall with open arms, a part of me already misses the heat and fullness of Summer.