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What the heck is going on?

Note: A version of this post published in the Huffington Post on 9/26/12: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephanie-armstrong/bulimia_b_1914788.html In the past week, Katie Couric spoke about her past battle with bulimia in an interview with young star and current center of the eating disorder conversation, Demi Lovato, and Lady Gaga has engaged conversation about her struggle with anorexia and…

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Yoga: A Love Story
(that began as a very bad first “date”)

I did not grow up wanting to be a yoga teacher.  Lawyer, yes; doctor, maybe; journalist, hopefully…yoga teacher?, not so much.  Aside from the fact that I didn’t know what yoga was until I was almost 20, if my first class was any indication, yoga and I did not mix. During that memorable first experience…

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Excavation

If you’ve ever thought that “choosing love” is a stupid idea, this post is for you. What follows is an account of the trip I mentioned in my last post and the learning it inspired.  Through a muckiness that entertained “I choose love” as being one of my dumbest ideas yet, I have come out…

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Thin-spiration, Body Love & Beauty

In the past three days, I have seen two pictures circulating on Pintrest and Facebook from “pro-ana” sites. Unsuspecting dieters are liking and sharing these images (one at 50 likes/hr!) that display clear indicators of starving intentions: references to “pro-ana” tubmlr sites in their bottom right corners.* If you are not familiar with them, “pro-ana”…

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The Power of Our Words

Our words have power.  We create through our language.  Our thoughts create our words which in turn create our actions, character, and lives.  I have heard many different variations of the idea that our words have power, and never before have I understood this concept more than I do now. I teach yoga, and I’ve…

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Celebrating Single Life

Do you daydream about the grass being greener?  At times, I do.  One trigger is the common question, “Why aren’t you married?”  So glad you asked. Let’s cut to the chase.  Would I like to be married now?  Sure, my perfectly designed plan included meeting prince charming years ago and our happily-ever-after with two brilliant…

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Cultivate Your Creative [Populist]

Are you willing to be the deviant? I was happy to make Carl Nordgren’s lecture at my school yesterday.  The visiting professor of creative entrepreneurship at Duke University and self-proclaimed “Creative Populist” caught my attention. Nordren encouraged “kaleidoscopic thinking” – being willing to look at problems from every angle and explore relationships between pieces from…

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Eating in the Light of the Moon

Eating in the Light of the Moon by Anita Johnston “When we go to the deepest, darkest part of ourselves, many of us encounter the pain and suffering we have tried to disown. Our patriarchal culture demands that we bear our pain stoically, keep it hidden from view. We have been reprimanded time and time…

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The Road Less Traveled

The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck “Love is not a feeling. Love is an action, an activity…Genuine love implies commitment and the exercise of wisdom. Love is the will to extend one’s self for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another’s spiritual growth…Love is as love does. Love is an act of…

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You Are Magnificent

The origin of the word encourage is “en-” “courage,” which means: “to cause (a person) to be in” [his] “heart.” Encouragement speaks through the outer and goes straight to the heart.  It is seeing that spark of truth within another that he does not – that perhaps has never been recognized or acknowledged.  When we…

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