READING TO EMPOWER THE HEALTHY STYLISH & BEAUTIFUL YOU
 You are at a smorgasbord plate in hand. You circle the offerings taking a little bit this and a little of that. You return to your seat with a plate full of yummy possibilities. What do you eat first?
The food that most excites you. Now take a piece a paper. Draw a circle. This is your plate. It represents a period of time - a day or a week. Within the circle write down all the things you have to do. Take a look at it. Now do the thing you want to do most in the circle. When you finish that, do the next thing you want to do most. Continue like this. Also, on your smorgasbord plate, sometimes you select things and only eat half of them before tasting something else. Or, perhaps, you decide something on the plate isn’t really for you - you leave it on the plate. Now allow yourself to move through your circle like that plate. Some things you will complete, others you will do part of and then switch to a different activity; some you will realize are not for you. I call this feminine list making. You have structure, but fluidity within the structure. I’ve been using this method and it amazes me how productive I am with it AND how much I enjoy my days. The circle feels good as a gentle boundary that I can expand and contract as I feel. The choice aspect allows we to move through the list based on what is exciting me most at the moment. By doing the thing that would give me the most joy at the moment, I use positive motivation to get things done, and build up energy throughout the day as opposed to leaking energy into "eating my frog first." With the freedom and fluidly to move in and out of tasks based on my joy, I get a lot done in a day. My circle has helped me to enjoy the rush and the activities. It feels more like water moving as opposed to digging myself out of a mountain of work. I highly recommend it!! For those with questions of how to use this in a work or school environment, for items that have a deadline or that I must produce for others, I note it, but continue to move within those expectations to where my joy is. And everything gets done, faster than you’d imagine. If you notice that a particular item is repeatedly left in the circle, it means it is something you don’t want to eat just like when you leave food on your smorgasbord plate. That’s okay. It’s time to let that item go or get creative. The smorgasbord analogy is good here. What are all the options for dealing with something that isn’t appetizing to you? Love, Julia xo  The most primary relationship we have is with ourselves. As a mother, my health, calm, and patience comes from how I nurture or mother myself. Actually, rather or not you are a mother, mothering or nurturing yourself is essential. It is the only way to cultivate the soil of your life so you are healthy, vibrant, and feel alive.
Mother's Day gives opportunity to reflect on motherhood and to introduce Aphrodite Project. Birthing and pregnancy is very dear to my heart: I spent 14 years of my life bearing children, I experienced happily water birth, hospital birth, and home birth. Each was fantastic, monumental, and taught me about myself. But, what I did not realize then, and know now, is how very lucky I was in having one healthy pregnancy and birth after another. Aphrodite Project provides women support in pregnancy and postpartum that is desperately needed. The United States is in a health crisis that few are aware of or speak of: the rate of pregnancy related death is rising in the U.S. while decreasing 44% in the rest of the world although we spend more on healthcare. We are at the bottom of the list when compared to other developed countries. Many studies are now being conducted to find out why. The general agreement in the research is echoed in a Harvard University study which asserts that the main contributing factor is the chronic stress women live under which weakens the entire body making pregnancy an extraordinary challenging environment for maternal wellness. So by dissolving stress and building wellness within the body, your chances of a healthy pregnancy and birth dramatically increases. The practices we focus on at jolie are also the recommendations for creating better maternal outcomes. Aphrodite Project takes these practices and adapts them to pregnancy to help women create better results for themselves. My request to you is to take a look at aphroditeprojectbirth.com. Even if you are not in that stage, you will find useful tools. But even more, please join me in connecting childbearing women with the site. It is a growing treasure trove of support. Love, Julia xo  Welcome to April!
The theme of awakening keeps coming to me in my own life, spring, friends, and clients. I am going to devote April to this. Before we begin, I want you to know you don’t need to do anything nor to you lack anything. Think of a seed. It is perfect - it is not better or worse than the plant. The plant is not better or worse than its flower. The fruit is not better or worse than the flower. In whatever stage you are in, you are perfect, just like a seed. And, like a seed with attention, water, food, and sunlight you naturally grow or evolve. So, awakening is going to follow that paradigm. You are perfect now as you were yesterday and will be tomorrow. How you decide or don’t decide to grow or evolve is based on how much water, attention, sun, and nourishment you have. So let’s dig in. The first practice I offer is as you awaken each morning and do not look at your phone first. Instead, take a moment to focus on your heart space. Focus your attention on the physical place where your heart is. Then ask yourself: what do you need today? How can I be of the greatest service to myself and others today? Throughout the month I will ask you to focus on your heart because it is where you give and receive love to others and yourself. The heart will tell you the truth from the perspective of love. Love, however, is not always warm and fuzzy. Sometimes love is angry or boundary pushing or self protective or found in other forms. I ask as we begin, you accept what your heart is telling you without judgement. There is no pressure for action, that will come when you are ready. But, releasing self judgement is essential. With light, Julia xo  Honoring your boundaries is a huge act of self love. It’s an action which takes attention, trust in your internal GPS, and a deep commitment to you. Realizing that your well being is more important than meeting the expectations or standards of another.
This year I want to cultivate a mindful relationship with money. Money is essentially energy. An energy that can be used for validation, control, nurturing, and expansion. My desire is to use it in ways that nourish, cultivate, and expand. As soon as you establish a boundary the universe often sends a situation to teach you more about your boundaries. My daughter’s birthday was mine - her gift expectations exceeded mine. I did not want to disappoint her and I recognize gifts are her love language, but also wanted honor myself. First, I made space for me to consider her request. I said maybe, but said I needed time and asked her if it was okay with her to receive her gift post-birthday. She said yes and did not ask about it at all. Many times during contemplation I almost said fuck it I will get the Chanel for her. It will make her happy. Each time I stopped short - it did not align with me. Then I decided I would not spend that much and asked the universe to bring the perfect gift that honored me and her. The same day I found a beautiful Roger Vivier clutch at 85% off retail. I gave it to her that evening and she was delighted. When we honor ourselves, our boundaries, the universe meets us. Not only that, but it’s a wonderful lesson and principle that your love for others does not need to come at the cost of compromising yourself. I invite you to deepen your own awareness of your boundaries. It will make you freer and happier. Love, Julia xo  Today let there be no ceiling on your joy. Think of the most exuberant person you know in real life or through a novel, movie, or show. Imitate that person today, bringing your joy up a few notches. Observe how it makes you feel.
with light, Julia xo  The New York Times published an article titled “Mind May Trump DNA in Exercise and Eating Habits,” which highlighted a study showing that when patients are told they have “a low capacity for exercise or a tendency to overeat, their bodies start to respond accordingly.”
For me, meditation is not sitting on a cushion detaching from the world. More often than not, I use meditation for myself and my clients to create greater health, weight loss, piece of mind, and healing. Using your mind to help your body heal or perform well is complementary to all other efforts with no negative side effects. Try this meditation for the next 30 days: as you drift off to sleep repeat in your mind, “I am in perfect health.” Both scientific and anecdotal evidence suggests that this type of meditation works as well as some medications with no negative side effects and zero cost. Used with other treatments, exercise, and clean eating is a winning combination. with love + light, Julia The origins of dis-ease always have many contributing factors. You don’t become depressed due to just one factor. A person does not become seriously overweight from solely making bad food choices.  Chronic disease does not stem from one cause. Our bodies and minds are multidimensional, so healing them has to be multidimensional.
When you are undertaking healing yourself from anything rather it be cancer, alcohol dependency, or anxiety - choose to work on the issue from many angles. I encourage you to choose 3 modalities of healing for starters. For example, if you are diagnosed with breast cancer you can, in addition to your medical treatment, seek to heal yourself with dietary changes, emotional release techniques, and meditation. If you have anxiety you may choose medication; however, it should be coupled with other modalities to activate your body’s healing ability such as exercise, breathwork training, and efforts to increase social connections. We are often discouraged or confused by all the information and recommendations we get. There are always more recommendations than time or energy allows. Here your gut will guide you. Do what resonates with you or the treatment you are draw to. Many modalities will heal, but the key is to find the one that resonates with you because that modality is most likely to heal you. What does it mean to be in flow? How do I get into flow?
Flow is allowing yourself and the energy or happenings around you to be cooperative. It is acknowledging everything as it is now, knowing you are empowered to handle it, and trusting that it will all work out. I use the word AFTER to remind me of the pathway to flow.
AFTER explained:
Coco Chanel always inspires me. She says, “Don’t spend time beating on a wall hoping to transform it into a door.” Flow is going to the door. with love + light, Julia  Meditation, journaling, self reflection, and all spiritual practices are much easier to do daily if you create sacred space to do so. It is the spot set apart for you to engage in deepening your spirit, centering yourself, and grounding - your clarity spot.
When the kids were little it was a struggle to find time for myself to be. However, the daily practice of sitting and reconnecting with yourself and the power beyond you is what keeps you calm, happy, and energized. At that time, I had a chair and a candle in the living room. When I lit the candle, the kids knew mom was taking a 10 minute time out. Now the kids are bigger, I enjoy more private corner of my bedroom for myself. How to Set Up Your Clarity Spot: Find a place in your home where you feel comfortable. You want to be able to unwind here, not a spot where you feel on display or your guard needs to be up. Think of the place you feel happiest or most relaxed. Add something to make it special and denote that this is a space set apart: a candle, pictures of those you love, a special book, journal, a plant or flowers. My favorite way of creating this space is looking around the house for my favorite things or meaningful items and using those for my clarity space. What you place there can change based on your mood, goals, or the time of year. Mine changes throughout the year. I try to keep it visually aligned with my goals and how I want to use the space. I may add a shell I found at the beach to remind me to relax; pretty leaves the kids collect to take me back to my favorite place, the woods; or in spring a potted daffodil welcoming change. If I am working on a big project, I may put something there that reminds me of my “why” in doing the project. I try my best to spend time in my clarity spot each day, even if it is only for a minute. Yesterday was hectic, so my time was spent there doing nothing, but taking in the love of the Universe with each breath. I thought about moving jolie for a while - probably a good year. Then one day I woke up and knew it was time. The new space was ready less than a month later. This method of decision making is how I approach life and has taught me a lot.  Decision + Universal timing = speed and ease.
Every decision has its moment. When we cannot come to a decision, or need to do something, but won’t; consider that the moment for that decision or action has not come yet. Our impulse is frequently to berate ourselves for not doing, being fearful, or doubtful. The uncertainty and indecision is merely a sign that the time has not come. When a decision reaches its moment, all the uncertainty, doubt, and fear drops. When the decision has reached its moment, we will know exactly what we need to do. The simple nugget here is that time has an enormous power of its own. When we make a decision at the right moment, it releases an energy all its own which carries it forward. Your action, then, possesses a momentum which creates speed and ease. When you find yourself at a turning point, hold the decision until its moment comes. While you do, the Universe is putting all the details in place to bring swiftness and ease to all your actions. Love, Julia xo P.S. The key is to trust yourself and the moment. When you tap into the wisdom of your body, you tap into your own GPS.
I was speaking to a colleague who recently changed her diet. In meditation, she felt the clear impression to reform her diet to focus on mainly fish, vegetables, and some fruit. She had been undergoing tests for some digestive problems and found out two weeks later that she was having gallbladder issues - her doctor advised her to focus on fish, vegetables, and fruit to help resolve the issues. Amazing! I love this testimonial because it underlines the importance of creating quiet (meditation) and listening to your intuition. Creating the quiet can be regularly attending meditation, spending time outdoors in nature, or being faithful to your own prayer/meditation practice. Once quiet, you can hear the subtle guidance of your intuition. Upon hearing, it’s up to you to follow. Oftentimes, we find we have lost touch with our intuition or we don’t trust it. This, unfortunately, is common, but not uncorrectable You can learn to listen and remove the roadblocks through jolie’s Living Well (this Thursday at 9:15) or Be Your Own Guru. You can also begin to watch for the signs your intuition is telling you something. Common signs to look for:
When you notice the signs, stop, listen, and follow. Adventure and safety await. love, julia p.s. Hone your listening in meditation and in the Thursday Living Well group. Getting your intuition back is the most valuable self development you can ever do. It is the no fail, no lie, no bullshit, truth serum. Listen to it, and it will tell you what to do.  Getting your intuition back is the most valuable self development you can ever do. It is the no fail, no lie, no bullshit, truth serum. Listen to it, and it will tell you what to do.
Childhood, for most of us, impaired our ability to access our intuition. When we listened to intuition and told grown ups, we were corrected, ridiculed, and told we were wrong. You may ask why is daddy hurting me? He isn’t hurting you, he loves you. Why is mommy crying in her bedroom. Mom’s not crying. She just got something in her eye. We accepted what they said, although internally we knew they were lies. These small betrayals to our internal compass slowly erode our confidence in our intuition. It’s essential you get your confidence back. Break the habit of doubting the voice which is quite clearly telling you what is going on. It's hard to do. You will learn to hear yourself in Be Your Own Guru, but begin by militantly being on your own side. You need to trust yourself - it’s the key to confidence and getting your intuition back. Relying solely on our rational mind - the alternative - does not nourish you. Meditation is helpful in this step. When you give space to listening you will hear intuitive hunches and create the internal space for them to percolate up. That’s valuable stuff. Love, Julia xo
Love, Julia xo You can enjoy the holiday season and any hectic time of life with bliss. Only thing you need is a little intentionality to put you in a space of ease under pressure. Here's how:  Begin each morning with meditation. Meditation will center you and give you the power to pace your day. One minute to 20 minutes of meditation is all you need. Click here for a free 6 minute meditation to begin your morning.
Eat clean whenever it isn’t a holiday or a party. Allow yourself to enjoy holiday parties, Christmas Eve and day, and New Year’s Eve. Whenever you are not celebrating, eat clean. The cleanse this coming week is a great way to begin. If interested in a future cleanse, click here. For me clean is eating vegetables and protein primarily - with two squares of chocolate and a glass of red wine every day. Move daily, even for just 20 minutes. A little counts - especially as it related to movement. Move to stay in the routine of working out, move to keep your mood up, move to burn calories. Check out my instagram for inspiration. Pretend there are only six days in the week. When making commitments, creating plans only factor in six days, this way you have a built in overflow or self care day. Take an at home spa hour. Self care is the oil that keeps you going without getting cranky, exhausted, or irritable. Self care at home for ease or schedule something for luxury. Visit jolie for some great products. Say no more often. When I am under pressure anything that isn’t hell yes, turns into a no. To enjoy the holidays, I commit to only that which really lights me up. I wish you a super fabulous holiday season!! love, julia xo Now that Irina is at NYU, she and I often have fitness dates in NYC. We take different classes, enjoy sweating together, and go for a meal - the restaurant depends on how demanding the workout was. Really sweaty = grabbing something and eating in the park. Now that Irina is at NYU, she and I often have fitness dates in NYC. We take different classes, enjoy sweating together, and go for a meal - the restaurant depends on how demanding the workout was. Really sweaty = grabbing something and eating in the park.
Our date is a miracle. I used to find working out at the bottom of my to do list everyday. But, as the number of my children grew, exercise crept up and up the list. Shocking...I got busier and found more time to exercise. It was a necessity. People ask me all the time, how do I do it. The key is extraordinary self care. Self care is not vanity, it is not indulgence, it is not optional. It is the gold in my day that gets me smiling from one day to the next and keeps me from getting sick and all stressed out. Working out is most effective and can be habit forming, IF it is not tied only to losing weight or getting stronger, BUT to feeling happier. When I finally tapped into the amazing, restorative powers of exercise, I went from rarely working out to it being a need and oftentimes something I choose to do as entertainment. The key is a workout which helps you soar and variety. I like something to challenge me, but is doable. I need a pace which allows me to check in with myself - that way it lifts my butt and my mood. The jolie row program is based on just that, and is about to get even better. In the fall we will begin ELEVATE. The program includes:
Love, Julia xo Happiness is not a place to get to or a goal to achieve. It is a state of the heart and mind which we must continuously cultivate. In that way, happiness is like a garden that we must give attention, water, feed, occasionally clear things away for it to grow.  We have peaks of happy experiences in life, but they are not generally what it means to have a happy life. They are one part of happiness which is the day to day pleasure we take in life.
Taking pleasure in the moment to moment experience of living comes with practice. Essential elements are: gratitude, mindfulness, and allowing yourself to feel the full range of emotion in you. We can support daily happiness by consciously creating pleasurable experiences for yourself. The second part of happiness is how satisfied you are with life. It means you go beyond what’s okay to what truly lights you up inside. It requires that life evolve as you dreams and goals change. It means constantly reaching outside of your comfort zone so you can grow and experience new things. Here the important concept is to create time to listen to your heart - aka meditation - and do what comes up. When you find yourself off track find your way back to happy first with gratitude and acceptance. Then send out loving energy out to others and listen to what your heart wants. Know without doubt you have the inner resources to build a happy life for yourself. I love Kasia. She is the woman who has shaped my teaching more than any other. One of her first lessons was fully inhabiting joy. She didn’t teach it, but I saw it in her. Good news she would yell in joy, raise her arms, and smile the most sincere, childlike expression of joy. Good news via text - she answered me like she was girl tween. I began to experiment - pleasure research as I call it - with joy.  As an emotion it moves up and out. It makes our chest big and full. Our arms and legs want to move, dance, jump. We get the urge to shout out.
What happens to us as adults? How did joy get reduced to a high five, to a happy contained smile? How did it become a simple thumbs up? What stops us? Do we think it’s not “grown up” to be truly joyful? Do we fear being laughed at or that something bad will follow? We stop up our joy. Robbing ourselves of joy, we rob ourselves of fully feeling alive, celebrating the triumphs - we miss fully feeling every ounce of the moment. Do some pleasure research with me? Next time you see a happy, joyful kid - study them. See what joy looks and feels like without “adulting” it. THEN, do the same thing next time something great happens! Just try it once. I guarantee you will feel soooooooooo good!! When you are in the good feeling - it will delete the negative, it youthens you, and you feel the rush of life which makes this crazy world so worth it. Love, Julia xo P.S. To get you in the mood, use this free meditation to pump up your joy! Recently, I've been feeling heavy. It is from all the end of school activities, not eating right by eating on the run, and everyday going until I hit that wall which short circuits my brain and drives me to bed. After my son's middle school graduation, I was talking with a group of moms feeling the exact same way.  So, how to feel light now that summer is here?
1. Schedule in time to do nothing. Create a buffer that allows you to partake in unexpected pleasures like having a latte outdoors with a friend, sitting at the pool with your kids, or reading a magazine. I am putting daily time at our pond club in the late afternoon. 2. Eat more raw foods. Going to the farmers' market inspires good, light summer salads with fruit and raw vegetables which fill you up and are satisfying without making you lethargic in the summer heat. 3. Take life outside. Being outdoors reminds us the world is large and limitless. It inspires and calms. Eat outside, Camp in the backyard with the kids. Swim. Hike. Garden. Bike. Let me know what you think! Love, Julia xo Sometimes it seems the fog in our brain will not lift. We have been at a deadline or a big project, and find ourselves in the Twilight Zone of thought. Stale ideas that keep coming back. Our creativity vanishes. We get tired of even thinking.  This is when you are in need of brain rest. The brain, like your muscles, needs recovery time to refresh so that it can work creatively and powerfully. Think of it as rebooting your computer -- everything closes, the computer shuts down, rest for a moment, and when it's restarted the glitch you had disappears.
5 Steps to reboot your brain:
Next time you are close to brain fatigue, whip out these tools. In just a day or two, you will find energy, productivity, and inspiration restored. with love and gratitude, Julia Workouts do more than burn calories or help you maintain your weight. The right workout rotation can also help you look younger and stay young looking for years What must you have in your routine to stay looking young and vibrant? 1. Weight Lifting. Post menopause many women experience a loss of muscle mass. This effects not only posture, but your ability to do routine tasks in life like grocery shop, care for children, and manage your home. Research shows that resistance and body weight exercises such as yoga or mat work (such as in the jolie row class) reverses aging on a molecular level.
2. Sprints. Interval sprints are essential for maintaining fast twitch muscle fibers. These are the parts of your muscle that allow you to quickly regain your balance or react quickly. Sprinting, such as we do in the jolie row workout, helps maintain those fibers. This keeps your reaction time fast helping you navigate through unexpected circumstances and avoid fails. As one ages, the ability to quickly respond and recover balance is one of the first signs of aging. Maintaining and strengthen your fast twitch fibers will keep you nimble. 3. Flexibility training. Yoga and stretch maintain flexibility. Limber muscles allow you full ranges of motion and loosen joints as you grow older. In addition, the weigh bearing nature of yoga strengthens at the same time. with love and gratitude, Julia |
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