I am as always in complete awe of you, Melissa. Your topic is very interesting to me, and one I have been thinking about a lot over the years. (Probably influenced by your teachings.) Our world is so wobbly right now, but there are signs of hope everywhere. Maybe someday we can discuss all this over a beverage or two or seven. It’s on my bucket list!! ❤️
4 months ago
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Same same -- completing a PhD! Gave a pound of flesh for that thing. What a journey ... 💪
4 months ago
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Really understanding the importance of mindfulness in my life. I also earned my Yoga Teacher Training certification this year.🧘🏽♀️
4 months ago
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Having a villain of a neighbor who has been targeting me by manipulation of some not so bright/honest people that he has doing his dirty work. My house was his goal to have possession of it seems, and after seeing his other failed businesses, I guess he's just totally fed up with all of his dishonest pipedreams not coming into fruition - the ways of the villain and the effects of Karma, I guess. This poor fool is extremely low class and a nightmare of a neighbor. A challenge to have consistent awareness of for sure. Prayers and Yoga do great things - I am grateful! 🧘
4 months ago
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That's wonderful. What is your PhD in. Were you a professor at some point?
4 months ago
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Yoga with Melissa
Eighteen years ago today, I made it through one of the most challenging parts of my life.
Have you ever been in a situation where the odds felt stacked against you, and the only way out was through?
For me, it was during my Ph.D. dissertation. It wasn’t just the grueling 10 years of study, the endless rewrites, or my advisor’s insistence that I work 10 times harder than everyone else because I was a woman and Canadian. It was all of that... plus writing my qualifying exams while eight months pregnant.
And then, mid-qualifying exams, my water broke.
I’ll never forget calling my advisor from the car on the way to the hospital to tell her I couldn’t finish the exam.
I called myself the dragon slayer.
Every rewrite, every qualifying exam, every obstacle became part of the journey to that final milestone: successfully defending my dissertation.
My research explored how consumer capitalist culture shapes our ideas, values, and beliefs, embedding itself so deeply in society that it becomes invisible, accepted as “normal” or “common sense.”
This invisible influence is something that I still weave it into my yoga teachings. Over the next couple of months in our membership community, we’ll be exploring this question: Who profits from our insecurities?
Today, I celebrate the day I became a dragon slayer, the day I successfully defended my dissertation.
What about you? What’s a major milestone in your life that you like to recognize each year?
Let me know in the comments and let's celebrate those victories together. 💬
4 months ago | [YT] | 132