I've Got Your Back, ft Claire Buchanan

Claire and I go way back to kindergarten at Mission Avenue Elementary School. We went to separate high schools and then off to college and adulthood. The universe only recently brought us back together, through yoga of course. So thankful to know this shining human and to get to reconnect with her. 

What is a recent book or article that you’ve read that has challenged your thinking, inspired you, or changed you?

I just finished Flow, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. It’s about how to achieve an experience of joy in your daily life. It’s all about setting goals and having rules to how you’re going to do any activity and how all these different elements of framework will then produce enjoyment. It can be challenging to make the everyday enjoyable, especially the repetitiveness of work.

I also recently reread A Return to Love by Marianne Williamson. It’s pretty challenging and pretty raw. I’ve read it several times. I feel like it’s a good book to read about relationships and how to really take care of yourself before you can take care of others.

Who is an influencer in your life?

My biggest influence comes from my family and my parents. They’re always challenging me and supporting me in the best, most balanced way that they can, and unconditionally loving me, which is something that I think I’m still trying to learn.

I feel really influenced by our community too. It’s so fun that I can have my scientific community and my work community and they’re challenging and inspiring me in ways. Then I come home from work and go to yoga and have that community. I look around and see that everyone there is so different, but they’re all there for the same reason and they’re all going to smile at you and greet you. And you’re all working together.

What does feminism mean to you?

I see it as strength. It sometimes has the connotation of being a whiney thing, or women having to prove themselves. But I think of it as a special strength that only we have. I think that biologically, we’re the badasses having babies and doing all of this incredible stuff with our bodies. But then also emotionally we’re compassionate and loving beings. Women tend to be that motherly figure, and you don’t have to be a mom to have those tendencies. We’re going to be like that with our friends and partners and those around them. Feminism is a special strength that we all share. And some people choose to voice it and show it more than others. I think some people may never have had the opportunity or the platform to be that strong feminist, and we’re lucky in California and America to stand up and shout out “Girl Power!”

There’s this shift from relying on men is huge. I think that women, especially in our generation, are realizing that independence is becoming one of the most attractive things about a woman.

Do you have a favorite quote or mantra that you try to live your life by?

One that is my favorite and so simple is from Henry David Thoreau. He says, “All good things are wild and free.” And it applies to me in so many ways. In my work world I try to literally keep things wild and free. I see it with my own eyes and touch it with my hands and think, man, we’ve got to keep this the way it is. Conservation of what we have is so important. And for me in my life I can’t sit still and be in one place. I’ve got to explore and enjoy the world.

What are you most passionate about?

I’m very passionate about the outdoors. I’m passionate about the relationships between environment and humans. It’s so cool to share that passion with others outside of my work. Like when I take volunteers of our program out and show them a wild trout, they have this instant aha moment of like, “this is what it’s all about.” I think it’s about enjoying the innate gifts we’ve been given. It’s beyond anything else.

How are you an agent for change and education for nature and conservation?

My ultimate dream is to be involved in decision making when it comes to environmental law and policy and the role that California will have in the future of our planet.

Right now in my position I do a lot of outreach. I’ll go in to high schools and lecture; I’ll take students into the field. I love working with our organization’s volunteers.

Finish this sentence: I am _______________.

I am enthusiastic.

Claire has your back.

xxo

River Walk

Last weekend, in our glorious break from this drab, rainy weather, I went for a walk along the American River. In fact, I ended up spending about two hours out there. I was feeling emotional and needed to feel the sun on my skin and clear the racing thoughts in my head. 

Over the last several months I've been reading The Power of Now, by Eckhart Tolle. It's been challenging me to let go of the pain of leaving and losing the kids I nannied. Although, I think I'll forever be trying to find the balance of allowing myself to grieve and be sad, with letting go of that emotion and bringing myself to the Now. 

The state of California's drought over the last few years, and now this sudden state of flooding and stress on our dams has me thinking of the way life cycles through. Sometimes we are up, sometimes we are down. There are times of joy and peace, then those of heartache and misery. It's much harder to recognize the seemingly mundane moments. And what Tolle is pointing out is that whatever season you're in, you have the power to be in the Now, to be connected with Being and to let go of things like stress, anxiety, doubt, guilt, pain...I'll share this excerpt from The Power of Now:

"It is not true that the up cycle is good and the down cycle is bad, except in the mind's judgement. Growth is usually considered positive, but nothing can grow forever. If growth, of whatever kind, were to go on and on, it would eventually become monstrous and destructive. Dissolution is needed for new growth to happen. One cannot exist without the other.

The down cycle is absolutely essential for spiritual realization. You must have failed deeply on some level or experienced some deep loss or pain to be drawn to the spiritual dimension."

As I walked along the river and saw the flooding of trails and the changed water levels, I let myself feel sad. I listened to music that digs at my heart. I held my crystals and felt their energy. All of these actions kept me present and honest. Tears came, and then they stopped. My feet kept moving. And then they stoped in moments of wonder. My heart ached, and then it softened. 

I am on a journey, unique and yet interconnected with so many others. I will do my best to show up as authentically and brave as I can. 

xxo

I've Got Your Back, ft. Allie Eklund

I met Allie first through Instagram, then on my birthday this year at her Inspire Midtown Minute Mentoring event. She was such a gracious host and encouraging of everyone there. I'm thankful we've been able to connect outside of social media because, as you'll read below, she's a pretty incredible woman...

What is a recent book or article that you’ve read that has challenged your thinking, inspired you, or changed you?

I keep going back to a podcast on NPR. The podcast series is called, How I Built This.  And the one I keep listening to is, How I Built This with Joe Gebbia of Airbnb. It’s just such an exciting story to listen to about how he built a business that, at one time, was a weird concept to basically everyone. He talks about how he believed in the concept and they strategized on how to make this relevant and sort of change the way we go overnight to places, where we stay and how we stay, and what we consider community and normalcy.

That’s inspired me because it makes me feel like I need to just keep chugging along with my passion, which is Inspire Midtown. It’s exciting to hear about the start-up phase and tweaking things, making it work, and finding the market.

I’ve seen this trend of people on social media, especially the ones that have a large following, talk about quitting their corporate jobs because they were miserable and then made it as a blogger or travel Instagram account or photographer…but it’s more realistic to see those individuals as the anomaly, not as the majority.

Watching people quit their day job with no real plan in place is often a mistake. And I do think that social media beautifies that idea. It takes a long time to get someone to pay you for what you want to be doing. And it’s so unknown.

That’s why there’s this focus on it being a “side hustle.”

Absolutely. I think it’s the people who are willing to moonlight who are able to make that transition. If you have that drive to work your day job and give time and energy to your side hustle, then you maybe transition to being able to either work less or totally leave. But in doing so you have a plan in place to take care of yourself.

I wrote an article for Girls on the Grid about five freelancing women and their journey through it all. Some had made it, some were working on making it. And a lot of them said it’s financially hard to do it alone. In fact, I think all of them had, to some degree, assistance from a significant other to pursue freelance without personally taking on 100% of the financial burden.

One really great piece of advice I got through this research and writing process was to make sure you have irons in the fire before you make the switch the fulltime freelance. Make sure you have clients lined up. Make sure you have some contracts solidified. It takes a lot of time and is a lot of work.

Who is an influencer in your life?

I think the most natural answer is my dad. While he and I maybe don’t see eye-to-eye on the things I’m passionate about with Inspire Midtown, I work with him directly one-on-one at work and he has been the best mentor for me. And it feels funny to say that my parent is also my mentor, but I just couldn’t image not being mentored by him. My experience in working with him has been wonderful, and I’ll always cherish that. He inspires me to be the best I can be at my work, and in everything I do.

What does feminism mean to you?

Feminism means that you can be exactly who you want to be. You don’t have to answer to society. And that can be hard for me. I feel like I was raised in an environment where I was told, “no, you need to conform.” And part of feminism is learning to question that need to conform. College taught me to be a feminist. And I think questioning conformity is a big part of feminism.

Most importantly, what I think I’d want everyone to know about feminism, is that it means that you want equality for all.

Do you have a favorite quote or mantra that you try to live your life by?

My photography teacher in high school was this very easy going, very balanced, relaxed teacher. Which wasn’t really normal for high school teachers. And she said something that has really been true for me. She said that life is really about balance, and that was so real for me. It has helped me come back to equilibrium in so many different areas of my life.

What are you most passionate about?

I get a fire in my belly about justice. I might not wear that on my sleeve. But those who know me intimately know that I can get really passionate or aggravated when I see injustice. It started when I was a kid. And I don’t even know what it was that made me think, “This isn’t fair!” There wasn’t that defining moment. I think it’s just one of those things that I’ve always known. I used to want to be a lawyer and fight for justice.  That puts a fire in my belly and makes me passionate.

There’s a lot of injustice that I see, not just in our community here with women’s rights, but also across the world. It affects lives and economies, on a micro and a macro level. Fighting injustice towards women, that’s my life’s calling…that is my life’s calling.

How are you an agent for justice and feminism, and those things that are important at your core?

I think I try to find a positive way to speak up about it. I learned at an early age that when you respond with fire, people often don’t listen. In fact, they disengage. So it’s important to find the right way to educate and communicate a message of injustice or inequality. That is how I will be an agent of change.

Finish this sentence: I am _______________.

I am in love with myself. There are bad days and sad days. But there’s not a day where I wish I were different. I think I really created the space in my twenties to love myself by following this calling to create Inspire Midtown and making some bold moves and taking risks. I learned to listen to my internal voice, which is something I’ve worked really hard on.

Allie's got your back.

xxo

I've Got Your Back ft. MACHU

I met Machu many years ago through Zuda yoga. She's got that laid back, cool girl vibe going on without even trying. You can find her here on Instagram and see for yourself.

What is a recent book or article that you’ve read that has challenged your thinking, inspired you, or changed you?

I recently read Sister Outsider, by Audre Lorde. Audre Lorde is a queer, black, feminist from the 60’s era who talks about inclusion in the feminist movement, and why being a woman and being a black woman is such a powerful dynamic. Because not only do you experience sexism, but you experience racism. That challenged me because I never really understood that particular struggle. Although I’ve been discriminated, I’ve never experienced it as it relates to racism. So it really made me think outside of myself.

I recently reread We Should All Be Feminists, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. That was another book that challenged my idea of feminism and where men fit in. I’ve always had a distain for masculinity and men in general. Just as being a woman and being queer, I’ve always seen men as the enemy. My father wasn’t there; both my mother’s and father’s fathers weren’t there for them. But it challenged me to see that not only do we need to raise our girls to be different, but also our boys to be different. Creating an image of masculinity that acts as a cage around boys to build a big ego that everyone should cater to…We need to change the way we socialize boys and encourage them to also be soft and emotional, not just hard and tough.

Who is an influencer in your life?

Right now my girlfriend is influencing me. Miranda is half black and half white. She’s from Philadelphia but now lives in San Francisco. I feel like she is constantly challenging me and opening my eyes to things I’ve never seen before. She’ll share with me a podcast or a book that she’s been reading. She’s definitely a powerful influence in my life, not just because she’s my girlfriend, but because I really value her thoughts and opinions on an individual level.

What does feminism mean to you?

Feminism is the equality of both genders. And for me it has to be inclusive of everyone. I often see the movement of “pussy power,” and that’s great. But I know a lot of women that have vaginas and don’t want to be identified as women, and I know a lot of women that don’t have vaginas or haven’t fully transitioned, but identify as women. I think it’s the equality of the sexes and the genders.

Do you have a favorite quote or mantra that you try to live your life by? 

Just be a nice person.

What are you most passionate about?

I really like helping people. It’s in my nature to want to sacrifice myself to be there for someone. And sometimes it’s exhausting. I’m still learning to take care of myself and not wear myself to the bone helping others. But I love when I’m walking down the street and see someone drop something-I’m right there to pick it up. Or I’ll see a frail older person at the grocery store and help them with their bags. 

Most people that are close to me and know me would say that I’m selfless because I’m always asking, “What can I do to help?”

How are you an agent for feminism and change and service to others? 

I feel like I’ll be an agent of change by constantly being the voice for those marginalized groups that are often times misunderstood or aren’t as visible. I will be there for my nieces and nephews and future generations as someone who is different than what the media tells them they should conform to be. I want to be there for my family to say, “You can be different. And that’s ok.” 

Coffee, Coffee, Coffee

It took me a while to really enjoy coffee outside of the sugary drinks like white mochas and vanilla lattes. But this morning ritual of comfort is so important to me now. I'm starting a new long-term preschool substitute teaching position this morning, and it starts at 7:15am and takes me about a half hour to get there...

I'm anxious that the earlier morning is going to disrupt these first few minutes of my day, sitting on my couch with the first cup of joe. I used to get up at 4:30am when I worked at Starbucks. But that's years ago now and my body definitely enjoys the slower mornings to be still for a few moments. 

Through reading The Power of Now I'm learning to shift my thinking, to be thankful for the things that I have (like a freaking job, even if it's not my truest passion), and to not let myself get wrapped up in anxiety and worry. Because like Eckhart Tolle says, all of those things are born out of too much future and not enough Now.

xxo