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Hey Reader,

One of my students shared something really powerful with me after she came to class. She told me that coming to live classes on zoom 3 times a week is better than daily meditation.

She said to me, “meditation is still too hard. I can’t get out of my head. But movement and meeting up 3 times a week for your classes is the only thing that gives me a break from constantly worrying about the world falling apart."

Yes, of course it feels good to hear that. But it’s not just my classes. It’s movement.

Of course there's more to this story. Meditation is great, but there are times that being in your head is not helpful. The state of the world currently is one of those times.

I’m not suggesting you avoid meditation.

I’m saying that if you want to be in your head, you have to go through your body first.

This leads me to my Movement Snack this week.

Movement Snack this week:

I do still sit in meditation every morning, but that’s mostly out of habit. It’s not what I go to when I am feeling stressed or when I need to clear my head.

That’s what my movement practice is for.

Sometimes it’s yoga, but actually all of my different movement practices serve different purposes for me.

My dance classes keep me anchored into joy and into my community.

I strength train 4-5 days a week, too, which makes me feel strong and confident.

Taking walks with my dog gives me the space to work through some of the stuff bouncing around in my brain.

All of this movement helps.

Do you also turn to movement for stress relief? What is your go-to practice when you need to relieve stress? Let me know when you respond to this email!

(And stay tuned to my YouTube channel because next week I’ll release a practice with my personal favorite quick movements to help relieve stress)

Want a hips-focused yoga practice to get you moving? Try this video, which I shared on my YouTube channel just this morning. It features one of my favorite ways to teach yoga flows — a building flow:

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And if you want to gather together to move, join us in MOVE. There are live classes 5 days a week, all currently at 12pm ET. Those classes are 30 and 15 minutes long, depending on the day. There's also an enormous library of recorded classes, but if you're looking for gathering and moving together, the live classes are where it's at.

If joining the studio isn't in the cards, but you want to do occasional drop-ins, my Wednesday class is the only class on my schedule that is currently open for drop-ins. To get onto that list, click through here. You'll have to add yourself in manually, but when you do, you'll be added to a group I email every Tuesday with a reminder about class the following day.

Last thing:

I created a quick survey because I am trying get a sense of how to better support you through movement. The survey is totally anonymous and has just 6 questions, most of which are multiple choice.

​Please take 2 minutes to fill it out here.

I look forward to hearing about your personal favorite movement as stress-relief and maybe even seeing you on the mat soon!

Warmly,

Naomi

Want to stay in touch during the week? Here are a 2 easy ways:

​Follow me on Bluesky, where I share daily movement practices as acts of resistance, connection, and strength.

​Follow me on substack, where I write about the intersection of movement, motherhood, and the culture that we are all moving through. Or better yet, subscribe so you have immediate access to stories like the one I posted this week about women in the military and how the elimination of DEI policies is already impacting their lives and careers.