Last month, I completed a 30-day Yogalates challenge with Yoga with Kassandra, and it was one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had in my wellness journey.

I’ve practiced yoga off and on for years. Each time I’ve returned to the mat, it’s been during a challenging season of my life. Yoga has always been a sanctuary, offering structure, community, and a sense of peace when everything else felt uncertain.

A few years ago, I decided to recommit to my yoga practice. That’s when I discovered Yoga with Kassandra on YouTube. Her short evening yoga classes (just 10–15 minutes) became a nightly ritual and a calm, grounding way to end my day. That consistency helped me regain my motivation to attend in-person yoga classes again and reconnect with my local yoga community.

Why I Joined the Yogalates Challenge
When Kassandra announced her 30-day Yogalates challenge in September, I immediately signed up. Yogalates combines the strength and core focus of Pilates with the flexibility and mindfulness of yoga.

I was curious. I’d heard about Pilates for years but never really committed to trying it. Plus, I knew this challenge would be a great way to ensure I moved my body every single day, even if just for 20 minutes.

The Real Challenge: Staying Consistent
I’ll be honest; I thought completing a 30-day yoga and Pilates challenge would be easy. But life had other ideas.

One weekend, I was out of town with my daughter and didn’t want to wake her early to do my video. Then, I caught a cold and had to take a few days off.

But instead of giving up, I decided to keep showing up, imperfectly, but consistently. That’s something I remind my clients of all the time: progress isn’t about perfection. It’s about returning, even when it’s hard.

When Pilates Met Postpartum Reality
The Pilates exercises were humbling. After four C-sections, my abdominal strength is definitely a work in progress. Some of the core workouts were so tough that I found myself laughing (and sometimes groaning) through them.
But I kept going.

And by the end of the challenge, I noticed real results. When I returned to my in-person yoga classes, my range of motion, flexibility, and overall strength had noticeably improved. My body felt stronger, steadier, and more capable.

The Inner Shifts: Strength and Flexibility Beyond the Mat
The most beautiful part? The changes weren’t just physical.
As I moved through the challenge, I realized that the practice was also helping me grow in less visible ways. I became more flexible in my thinking and more grounded in how I approached everyday stress.

Kassandra often weaves affirmations into her classes, giving each day a theme to focus on, such as patience, courage, or gratitude. I found those affirmations grounding and inspiring. They reminded me that yoga is as much about mindset as it is about movement.

What the 30-Day Yogalates Challenge Taught Me
This challenge wasn’t perfect. I missed days, struggled through some workouts, and questioned my ability more than once. But I finished.
And that, I realized, is the essence of yoga: showing up, being present, and giving yourself grace.

Whether you’re a beginner or someone returning to your mat after a long break, a Yogalates challenge is an incredible way to rebuild strength, balance, and mindfulness — both physically and mentally.

The 30-day Yogalates challenge with Yoga with Kassandra reminded me that growth isn’t always graceful, but it’s always worth it. If you’re looking to reignite your practice, try something new, or simply move your body with more intention, I highly recommend giving it a go.

Every pose, every stretch, every affirmation brings you one step closer to strength, inside and out.

Horses are mirrors.

They don’t respond to what we say; they respond to what we feel.
For equestrians recovering from fear, anxiety, or trauma, that reflection can be both confronting and profoundly healing.

The Power of Presence
When fear lingers, horses sense it instantly: in shallow breathing, tense shoulders, or hesitant cues. Their bodies echo our unease, and soon, rider and horse are caught in a cycle of tension and mistrust.

But when riders begin to process their fear through IEMT (Integral Eye Movement Therapy), something shifts. Breath deepens. Muscles soften. The horse senses safety again.

And suddenly, it’s not just better riding. It’s shared healing.

Emotional Intelligence in Motion
Working with horses requires more than skill.  It calls for vulnerability, patience, and connection beyond words.

IEMT cultivates these same qualities, guiding riders to notice emotions without judgment, to release old imprints, and to find stillness in the saddle and within themselves.

One Client's Journey
She once carried invisible weight into every ride: fear that tightened her body and silenced her joy.

After a few IEMT sessions, she began to release those emotional imprints. Her breath deepened. Her seat softened. Her horse mirrored her calmness.
The transformation was unmistakable.

Healing, it turns out, isn’t something that happens to us. It flows through us, reaching everything we touch.

Riding as a Metaphor for Life
What happens in the saddle reflects what happens in life.
When we learn to trust ourselves again, we move through the world with greater confidence, compassion, and presence.

Many riders who begin IEMT to overcome fear in the saddle soon discover it changes more than just their riding. It transforms their relationships, sleep, confidence, and overall sense of peace.

Find Your Balance: In and Out of the Saddle
If you’re ready to move from tension to trust, from fear to freedom, both in the saddle and within yourself, IEMT can guide you there.

Book your IEMT session today and begin your own story of healing beyond the reins.

After a riding accident, it’s common to feel torn between two truths: You want to ride again, yet your body resists.

You may picture yourself sitting calmly in the saddle, but as you approach the mounting block, your chest tightens, your breathing shortens, and the old fear floods back in.

This conflict between logic and emotion isn’t a sign of weakness. It’s the result of how your mind and body are wired.

Why Fear Feels So Stubborn
Fear resides within the body’s memory network. Every sensory detail of a traumatic experience, the sound of the wind, the smell of hay, or even the color of your riding gear, can become linked to the brain’s danger response.

That’s why, even when you know intellectually that you’re safe, your body reacts as though you’re back in that moment. It’s not resistance; it’s a learned survival response.

How IEMT Creates Change
Integral Eye Movement Therapy (IEMT) works directly with the brain’s emotional memory patterns. Through guided eye movements while recalling elements of a distressing event, IEMT helps the brain reprocess how that memory is stored.

As the emotional charge dissolves, the body naturally adopts a calmer, more balanced response.

Unlike traditional talk therapy, IEMT doesn’t require reliving trauma in detail. Instead, it allows the mind to update and release old emotional imprints—often achieving noticeable relief more quickly.

The Shift Riders Feel
Clients often describe feeling lighter, more centered, and, perhaps most importantly, emotionally neutral about their past experiences. The memories remain, but their intensity fades.

With emotional tension released, riders rediscover focus, fluidity, and trust: the hallmarks of confident horsemanship.

From Fear to Flow
True healing isn’t just the absence of fear. It’s the restoration of connection: between rider and self, and between rider and horse.

When your body feels safe again, your horse senses it. That shared sense of safety rebuilds mutual trust, allowing confidence and joy to return to every ride.

Are you ready to retrain your nervous system and reclaim calm in the saddle?
Schedule a consultation to discover how IEMT can help you ride with renewed confidence.

If you’ve ever found yourself repeating the same mistakes or spiraling at 2 AM thinking “Why am I like this?” you are definitely not alone.

Maybe you start projects with big energy and then abandom them halfway through.
Maybe you can’t stop saying yes to things you secretly dread (or make plans and then cancel them). You might lie awake at night, replaying things that happend or thinking about what *might* happen in the future.

Whatever your flavor of “stuck” looks like, it’s not because you’re lazy, broken, or stupid. It’s because your subconscious is running an old program that no longer fits who you are now. Like an old playlist of music, it's not always relevant to your current life. 

Sometimes I refer to these patterns as  “Stuck States.”
The five most common ones I see in my clients are:

• The Self-Sabotager
• The People-Pleaser
• The Overthinker
• The Procrastinator
• The Chameleon

Each pattern all shows up a little differently, but they all share the same root cause: your subconscious mind trying to protect you from discomfort, rejection, or failure.

The good news? Once you understand your pattern, you can change it.

That’s why I created the “Wait… Why Am I Like This?” Quiz, a quick (and honestly kinda fun) way to explore which Stuck State might be running your show right now.

Take the quiz now and let’s get you unstuck.