Once upon a time
There was a girl.
She believed in magic
She believed she could be anything she wanted to be.
She believed she would grow up and that all of her dreams would come true.
She believed she would have love, be love and give love.
She never doubted that belief.
She never doubted herself.
She danced.
She sang.
She played.
She dressed up.
She laughed.
She cried.
She wore her heart in her smile.
Close your eyes. 
You can hear her laughter.
You can see her joy.
You can see this girl.

Once upon a time,
There was a young lady.
She tried hard.
She did her best.
She followed the rules.
She did as she was led to believe was right.
She found love, fell in love and lost love too.
She built a wall.
She forgot.
She worked.
She fell down.
She made mistakes.
She lost her voice.
She lost herself.
She found it hard to smile.
Close your eyes.
You can feel her pain.
You know her suffering.
You know that feeling.

Once upon a time.
There was a woman.
She felt something.
She heard the call.
It took a long time
For the right words to come.
She listened to her heart.
She listened to her soul.
She listened to her intuition.
She began to trust in herself, in the future and in her story.
She started to believe again.
She started to believe that all of her dreams would come true.
She started to believe that she had the magic.
She started to remember that she was love, could have love and give love.
She started to believe in herself again.
She threw away the doubt.
She danced.
She sang.
She played.
She dressed up.
She laughed.
She cried.
She wore her heart in her smile.
Close your eyes. 
You can hear her laughter
You can see her joy
You can feel it.

It doesn’t interest me
what you do for a living.

I want to know
what you ache for
and if you dare to dream
of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me
what planets are 
squaring your moon
I want to know
if you have touched
the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened
by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know
if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.

I want to know
if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you 
to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us
to be careful
to be realistic
to remember the limitations
of being human.

It doesn’t interest me
if the story you are telling me is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.

If you can bear
the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know
if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live
or how much money you have.

I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed yourself and our child(ren).

It doesn’t interest me
who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me
where or what or with whom
you have studied.

I want to know 
what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.
I want to know
if you can be alone 
with yourself
and if you truly like
the company you keep
in the empty moments.

​Contributed by Badass Yoga Daughter JM
 
What's Really Going On? There is so much clutter. So much in the way.
 
This is why so many of us can't see underneath. I say "under" because metaphorically we comprehend layers, even though the vastness and the all encompassing truth is that our own minds have dreamed them up.
 
What is left when you peel it all away? We pack on the layers, the stuff, and all the while we think it's helping, it is only suffocating us. The vices, the distractions, the cover-ups that we so eagerly insert when the truth starts to peak through.
 
The intellect, strings of words, titles, tasks and unnecessary busy work that we hide behind when the truth is too much to submerse in.
 
The social norms, the excess, the plans, the memories, the relationships we materialize because something needs to appear like a purpose to fill the hole we think exists.
 
The hole is the truth.
The emptiness is the truth.
The everything is the truth.
The nothing is the truth.
The truth is what is BEHIND THE MASK.
The truth is what haunts you when you reach for your vice.
The truth is what makes you sad and anxious.
 
The reality is that most people aren't living their truth, and that aches in such a deep way that we will do anything and everything not to feel it.
 
We don't follow our hearts.
We don't listen to our intuition.
We don't live for our passions.
We don't give all we have.
We are guarded, we follow rules, we fester like infected wounds afraid of fresh air.
 
The truth bites you in the ass and demands the shifts necessary to re-align you to your balance. If you are willing to surrender to all of the raging fear, that comes from an insane leap of faith, then there is freedom waiting for you.
 
So long as you hide behind your layers you will just keep building higher walls. The power of the truth will bang on those walls with such vigor and ferocity it will inevitably drive you out of your stagnancy and towards change.
 
You have to choose it.
 
Why wait until you have no other option but to see it?
 
See it now.
Live it now.
It's scary. It's hard.
It's more deeply worth it than any other endeavor your life holds.
 
So cut the shit and hear the truth speaking to you.
 
Then respond and find the treasure hidden inside...your authentic self.

She’s a woman who knows everything (& nothing).

She’s a woman who knows the beauty of being alone and of being together.

She’s a woman who is hard-headed, who is not afraid to speak her mind, who can be stubborn and passionate and wants to have the occasional debate because she wants to learn how you think and how you see the world. 

She’s a woman who questions assumptions (including her own), explores ideas, breaks molds. 

She’s a woman who is naturally curious. She wants to be stretched.

She’s a woman who wants to change your mind and she wants her own mind changed.

She’s a woman who knows fear, abuse, loss and deep grieve.

She’s a woman who isn’t scared to get naked. She knows that her own beauty lies in knowing her true value (but now and then she forgets, and then you can step in to remind her).

She’s a woman who knows her way around her own heart and is not afraid to break it. She knows what it wants and she stands up for it with conviction.

She’s a woman who knows how to make real eye contact, because she values intimacy. She thrives on her capacity to build authentic relationships and surrounds herself with only this kind.

She’s a woman who knows that she loves at least one thing fiercely: her child(ren), her work, her art, her trade, her garden, her animals.

She’s a woman who knows that taking/offering space to grow can sometimes be the best kind of love that one person can offer another, even when this means saying goodbye.

She’s a woman who you are unsure of at first, not because she doesn’t seem like enough but because she scares you a little bit in her realness. Yet she continues to surprise and challenge you in this very way every time you see her.

She’s a woman who knows how to laugh at herself, who might sometimes just crack the corniest jokes but they make you smile anyway.

She’s a woman who sees as much possibility in sitting in silence as she does exploring every nook: world, body, mind and soul. She holds a quiet confidence. She walks with purpose.

She’s a woman who knows that her heart is fragile. When it becomes too melty and heavy she might tuck herself away to feel better: let her. Then drop her a note or stop by for tea to lighten her up (she will need this but might not be able to ask for it).

She’s a woman who will drop everything in a millisecond to help a friend in need.

She’s a woman who knows that love is something that comes from inside, not something that she can ‘get’ from someone else, because she knows that she is love(d).

She’s a woman who accepts herself today but (gently) pushes herself to be better the next. You will want to do the same by just being around her.

She’s woman who understands the problems with being ‘too busy.’

She’s a woman who is sure about this one thing: that we can never really be sure about anything. Because life is fluid. And each day she realizes how beautiful and scary this is, and so she humbles herself to it. She starts each every day looking to learn, experience, create, teach something new, because she knows that this is what makes life (worth living).

She’s a woman who knows art and music. She may not create it herself but she needs it to move through her because it makes her (and the world) better.

She’s a woman who understands the value of taking a risk, who is not afraid of making a mistake because she knows how to pick herself back up after she falls. She’s ready to accept your offer to help her up the next time she does.

She’s a woman, not a girl. But when the little girl in her comes out now and then (and she will), you will still love her as the woman that she is.

She's a woman who will not tolerate any BS and once she finds out that she has been deceived will take measurements that it will not happen again. She will reject you and forgive you for her heart is gentle and big enough...and then she'll move on by herself. 

So to conclude she' a woman who wants to understand herself a little better each day. She wants to understand all of you too. You may not have met this woman yet. Let me introduce her: She’s Badass Yoga Rebel, her own Happy Buddha…She’s Me.

​​We all remember that moment when we break up with someone we love and consumed with so much pain and disappointment, swear not to fall in love again. It is normal to feel this way as we feel vulnerable and want to protect ourselves. It is a fear-based reaction, a survival instinct, a way to cope with the feelings of abandonment, insecurity, despair and disappointment that we all have experienced one way or another in our lives. 

But we always have a choice, to cover it all up, run away and forget about the experience, or to look deep inside, taking responsibility for the experience we co-created and make the best out of it. 

If we go for the first option which feels like the easiest way out of our misery, life will take care of it and will keep bringing the same story over and over until we have no choice and at some point go for choice number two and decide to overcome it and learn from it. 

True healing only happens when we open our hearts again to forgive ourselves, forgive the wonderful teacher whom served as our mirror and decide to take better care of ourselves, respect, nurture and accept who we are, with our qualities and defects. It is only when we truly overstep the drama story we created and understand that it was just one more story, one more experience, one more chapter of our book called the story of my life. 

Always choose love over fear. Love is expanding, love calls for new adventures, new experiences to enrich your existence. Love keeps you alive and vibrant, unfortunately the problem here is that we attach to the subject of our love and believe that our love has two legs and can run away out of the door and we will feel empty and incomplete again. This is a fear-based believe that needs to be removed once and for all. 

Love is free, has no boundaries, therefore; does not belong to anything or anyone external from us. Love is born and is nurtured inside our hearts, we are the creators of such energy but we forget that comes from the deepest core of our being. 

The pain and suffering that comes from separating from somebody we love comes from our attachment to the person and our false believe that he/she is the owner of that love. Do yourself and him/her a favor and free your lover from that burden. 

Always remember that the love you create is only yours and yours to share, the more you share, the more it grows, the more magic you can create in your life, miracles will happen. Stop believing that you are incomplete without the subject of your love, because love must come first, and then the subject will come second. 

​By Peaceful Warrior

It will hurt for years or maybe a life time after you loose a soul you have truly loved in your life: a (ex)husband, mother, father, child, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, niece, nephew, boyfriend, animal, etc. 

A certain song suddenly triggers you, something someone says, a place you visited together, a movie you're watching, things you bought together, a photo of the two of together when everything was still good, a dream...

Everything can hit you all at once, tears start flowing and a deep sense of grieve and happiness is felt at the same time... 

But FAITH, over time, helps you to deal with these losses and will help you to slowly move on and be content and happy! 

I am at this point in my life right now.

Contributed by my BADASS SURROGATE MOM, Conny Ridgeway-Johnson

Sometimes we fall apart! And you know why? So we can pick ourselves up and stand stronger and taller. It's an opportunity to rebuild ourselves the way we wish we were all along!

The ones that matter the most are the ones who catch us with open arms. Unconditional love, pure love and the only ones who really know the strength of our love are our children. After all they are the ONLY ones who really know how our heart beats from the inside.

So when you fall, pick yourself up, laugh, continuing walking and stand proud and firm,  

Continue to Shine Bright!

Contributed by my BADASS YOGA SISTERS, Maria Pucci and Arnalda Lampe

​A big thank you from your other BADASS YOGA SISTER, sisterhood counts, PEACE, xC

It's called truth.
It's authentic. 
It's harsh.
It stings.
It is real.

All things exist only in duality. Nothing at all is without an opposite. Nothing is sunshine and rainbows all the time. Seeing the good in people, means ultimately seeing all of their pain, sorrow and discomfort as well.

Compassion is seeing all of people, and loving them anyways but also not to take any bullshit, to refuse to only show sparkly parts and to refuse to avoid to sticky subjects, the true reality of this human dilemma.

This soul work we do is deep, dark, intense and it stings equally to the sweetness. People who choose to run around these truths, to point fingers anywhere other than the mirror are simply not ready.

That's okay.

We can admit to our faults, our sore spots, our resentments, our fears and all the things that we're so fiercely working with each day of our existence. This is what makes us real, raw and open human beings.

So we wear every wound proudly as we work with them, reveal them and hopefully in sharing these truths aid others in mending and simmering as well.

Contributed by my BADASS YOGA DAUGHTER, Jessi Marino

PS. A love quote from your BADASS YOGA REBEL MOM: "Only authentic souls know who to help each other progress in life, we don't hide behind masks, we're real, raw, loving and open. We're Women Warriors! Keep on sharing your beautiful insights",

And she decided to hold up her head while going through the changes that had been coming for a while. She had been hiding from the dangers that are hidden in the bright light. "It" slipped through the fingers of her hands that used to held her up high. There is still a feeling that lingers and it overflows her cup. Her head still looks for answers that her heart already knows. She will fight the battles in her life and takes her chances, knowing that it's the final state: "I'm gonna rise".  

As she sank down into a deep trance at 5 AM. Sitting in the dark all by herself, observing and listening to the sound of her breath, she opened the channel and asked the Supreme the following questions:

What if... I don't settle? 

What if... I take my time, invest in my own self development first and make a mental list of all my wishes and wait for my twin soul who exceeds my expectations more and more each day?

What if...It was possible to have it all?

What if... There was a way to see into the future and realise that someone exists who is a reflection of all the best qualities you have to offer?

What if... Someone exists who is better than you thought possible?

What if... I feel whole on my own first?

What if... Until I wait until my heartache is healed, my identity clear, my purpose known and my life feels fulfilled as a single individual?

What if... I loved myself first?

What if... I were full of a kind of energy I desire?

What if... I could chose to be in relationship which is 
a reflection of that same abundance of love?

And the Supreme answered:
"Next time you don't settle, but you chose the one
who makes you happier every moment you get to
know more about him and instead of revealing flaws
he should reveal more layers of his authentic self and
what he has to offer?

And she answered: "Thank you Supreme for the insight. Namaste"

I feel all people must work through their woundedness to be able to love fully. All healing comes from within. I am skeptic about people who say they can help you heal, because HOW can you heal what you are not conscious of? Real healing is, in my opinion, bringing consciousness to areas of ones life that one was not aware of before. The healing of the inner child is especially important, because if you don’t heal your inner child, all the things you do as an adult will be based on the wounded inner child. It is important to try to see and understand that you did in fact choose your earth family for growth purposes.
 
You must try to heal the difficult times you have gone through in life to become your full self again. You must free yourself from the “limitations” that the interactions with your earth family can have placed on you. When we interact with other people, or people close by such as family members we tend to see ourselves through the eyes of the people that were there when we grew up. When you set the inner child free and become fully yourself, you finally leave the nest and become an adult fully in touch with yourself, listening carefully to the inner child’s wise advice to you.
 
Love is not meant to be expressed out of woundedness, but out of fullness. It is actually the woundedness that often prevents people from fully uniting, because as long as they are wounded inside, they are not free to be fully themselves. The woundedness blinds you from seeing who you really are and to be that person. The most important gift that a child and newborn baby can be given in this world is that the parents understand that the spirit and soul of this baby is an intelligent being that existed before it entered this world. This soul and spirit must be given the opportunity in the physical world to express its Self and Soul freely without limitations.
 
We are all souls, but woundedness takes a longer time to work through, and therefore healing is even more essential. Releasing Feelings, Anger, Hurt, Insecurities and Pain From Childhood to Heal and To Feel Fully. The inner child needs immediate healing. The cry of the wounded inner child and the reactions to being wounded makes people with wounded inner children reach out for outer relationships to fill the gap they feel missing inside themselves. In our world as it is today it has often been the wounded inner children that have been in relationship with each other based on wounds from their childhood that they did not heal.
 
There has been an intense mirroring between people and their wounded pasts from childhood. Therefore, although a sexual and romantic relationship has been between two physical adults, it has actually been their wounded inner children interacting in a dysfunctional relationship. People often fear their anger because in our time and age feelings have been repressed, but to heal all feelings must be felt and lived through including the anger. We attract what we are ourselves, so to be able to attract a full and complete person, we must heal inner wounds in ourselves, heal the self fully to be able to be in a relationship based on love and not based on past wounds.
 
Releasing the painful feelings need to be done in a healthy way which means that we need to have understanding of our own feelings of anger and then go to a place and cry them all out. Releasing all difficult and painful feelings will lead the soul to a place of tranquility and peace. You will finally be able to see yourself for who you are because you don’t have the repressed feelings standing in your way for being your full and complete Self. The merging with the twin soul will ”force” people to go through a deep inner healing and the twin soul relationship with two whole individuals is based on two people who have gone through a difficult inner healing process in order for them to be together.
Understanding Your Unconscious, Psychological “Make-Up”, so you can be free to be in relationship.

Unconsciously people also tend to work out emotional and tensed relationships with parents and childhood issues with partners in adult life. In order to be fully free to be with the twin soul or a soul mate and NOT bring painful issues to the relationship, people need to recognize if and when they might have been seriously wounded by their parents in some ways, because their parents could be wounded too in their upbringing. If for instance a woman did not get the attention or love she had hoped for from her father, she tends to either search for men who are like her father who give her very little attention and therefore she continues to search for the attention she didn’t get from men who are emotionally unavailable or she might search for the opposite in men and try by all means to get everybody’s attention.
 
This is was just one example. There are others and I am sure you can come up with others if you deeply examine yourself and your past relationships. Searching for attention trying to get somebody else to meet your needs is not the way to go if you want a meaningful relationship in the outer sense. You can very well understand that if you are to be in a relationship with your twin soul, you need to understand your unconscious, psychological pattern and mechanism well, so you can be free to be in the relationship, and not have past wounds you unconsciously try to work out through the relationship.
 
If you are in a relationship with your twin soul and have not faced these wounds, everything could be magnified and felt. Things could get intense and there might be a constant flow of energy back and forth between the two of you where each feels the other person’s wounds and traumas. Therefore, by getting to the heart of the matters and understanding yourself deeply you can begin to attract meaningful relationships to you that reflect WHO you are at the very level of your soul.

Getting closer to the twin soul can only happen in one way and that is working on ones own individual self and growth. When we work on healing our individual selves, healing wounds from the past, we get into alignment with our Higher Self, Creative Center, and Spiritual Power. The world is so imbalanced this day today with so much separation because people both in personal relationships and worldwide try to fix other people in the outer sense to get some kind of inner peace and balance. This will never work out, we need to hold ourselves responsible for our own inner selves and lives.
 
We will never be able to fix other people, because even in trying to do this, we do not realize that we hold other people responsible for our own misfortune and we cannot change our own personal lives as long as we focus too much on other people and their roles in our lives. A dysfunctional relationship is a relationship that is not giving to the soul. It drains you energetically and keeps you emotionally distracted from your own inner self. In facing a dysfunctional relationship you need to ask yourself why you allow another person to disrespect your boundaries and the essence of your being.
 
You need to ask yourself why you cannot be honest with yourself and why a disrespectful relationship is good enough for you? If you want to unite with your twin soul in the outer sense, you must first align with your own inner self and be able to live a satisfying and full relationship with yourself. If you don’t have a full and giving relationship with yourself where you respect your own boundaries, wishes and hopes for your life, you will draw people into your life in the outer sense in forms of dysfunctional relationships that reflect your own inner imbalance.

I'm no longer tongue tied or starry eyed
I speak my truth as I see it
I can see through the bull shit
because I'm in possession of my "self"

I'm no longer begging for crumbs from any man's table
I've a banquet of my own to attend
with guests by invitation only
because I'm in possession of my "self"

I'm no longer following the commercials
I'm creating my own fashion
Wowing the crowd with my own trends
because I'm in possession of my "self"
​
I no longer put up with manipulators
I call the shots as to how I'm treated
like a queen or goddess no less
because I'm in possession of my "self"

I no longer reject my body
I look in the mirror and see natural beauty 
My phones ringing, my skypes ringing
My social life under control and loving my true friends
because I'm in possession of my "self"

I no longer follow the rules made up by others
I can be dangerous to the status quo
I'm willing to ruffle feathers to own my own kingdom
because I'm in possession of my "self"

I no longer need your approval
I know who I am
A care giver, a healer, a preacher and a control bitch
because I'm in possession of my "self"

But don't get me wrong
I may easily be annoyed
I may be bold and critical
I may be shockingly rude
but my heart can fit the whole Universe
because I'm in possession of my"self"

Let me introduce my 'self': I am Badass Yoga Rebel

Once upon a Time there was a woman that didn't require validation from anyone anymore. She had developed herself, she become her true authentic self. For some she was the most feared individual on the planet for others she was the heroin. She will aim and shoot her arrow when wrong has been done to protect herself and others from evil and to create a world with less harmful souls. She's a hunter, a protector, she can read you without any doubt and is not afraid to stand battle or face evil, she's a woman warrior.