Hey Maker!

In this week’s episode we are so excited to have Leah and Grace Nixon from Tiny and Snail!

The two sisters grew up drawing and participating in the arts alongside each other. After continuing education and venturing into different pursuits separately, in the Spring of 2016, they began talking about the option to work alongside each other, again. In 2017, they introduced their stationary company, Tiny and Snail into the world! They bring warmth and magic back to people's mailboxes with their playful and colorful greeting cards. The method to their brilliant madness? The sister’s joke that Leah is the hands to fill in for Grace’s (that suffer from carpal tunnel) and Grace is the brains! Together, they are unstoppable.

Not long after their new beginnings, however, Leah suffered a surprising accident resulting in paralyzation and an amputated leg, due to a severed spine. Immediately upon regaining her ability to communicate, Leah anxiously asked, “Can...

Hey Maker!

If you are unfamiliar, "The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs" is one of Aesop's fables. A farmer ends up getting rid of a Goose that lays Golden Eggs, because the Goose can not produce the amount of eggs that the farmer wants. It essentially teaches the lesson against short-sighted destruction of a valuable resource. 

Sometimes, this same concept can be very relatable to our own bodies. In order to keep powering through a new project or new piece we can ignore the signals and signs from our body. Our most valuable, longterm resource often becomes overlooked. Sometimes, we may not get the perfect outcome in the moment, but what if we focus on the long term? What if we decided to get up for that drink of water or go for a brief walk around the studio? If we stopped for a moment to look around and take care of ourselves. The projects will remain. The passion still persists.

Yes, there may be deadlines for these creations. But what if you...

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xo, 

Missy!

Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links and I would love if you decided to use them! Affiliate links + referrals programs help educators like me to fund the free content that we provide on our blogs & podcasts.

Hey Maker!

There are so many ages and phases of life. Sometimes it can be easy to leave these moments behind us and treat them as past lives. Did you know that your body takes all of these years with you? You are a compound of every moment in your life, they are encoded and intertwined in your mind, body and brain. 

Madeleine L'Engle so beautifully notes that we are all of the ages we have ever been. Because we were once children, you can still hold that same wonder and playful nature inside of you. Because we were once adolescent, you can still hold that same searching and questioning. It does not mean that we are trapped and fixed in these moments, we are instead fluid, complex, and full beings. 

Even consider an injury you may have experienced. How did it feel within the body in that moment? How does it feel now? The learning and work to overcome said ailment is still taking place inside of you. Your body has marked that moment in time. It does not mean you define...

Hey Maker!

I am not sure where or when I came across this quote in my lifetime, but it is one of my favorites.. and one I have been thinking about a lot lately. As I have talked about before, life can move very quickly. We can get so caught up in everything, moving from one moment to the next, that in the blink of an eye the day is done. 

Why are we rushing? In those instances, I often ask myself that exact question. Maybe it helps me clarify the "rushing" (i.e. i'm late and want to respect someone's time) but more often than not, it reminds me to slow down and savor. I know I don't want to rush through this life as a whole, so why do I rush through every moment? The small moments that make up our day, and ultimately make up our life. 

Missy often talks about repetitive movements in our studio practice and how overtime, they can lead to repetitive strain injuries if we don't pay attention. In other words, if you're doing the same movements everyday, how often do you...

Hey Maker!

Last week, we talked about Katy Bowman's definition of "casts" seen in your body. In other words, barriers and walls that limit our body's full range of motion. 

This same idea of "casts" can be seen within the internal workings of our body. We rarely think about breathing, it is something that just happens. I mean, look at ya! You're sitting here reading this, your body is breathing itself! Success! 

With that being said, our heart and lungs still benefit from being put through ranges and variations of motion, in the same way that your body parts do. There is an ancient practice in yoga that you may have heard of called "Pranayama". I like to look at this practice as bringing attention, instead of "control" to your breathing. Pranayama typically involves an array of different breathing exercises that are intended to bring variety to your typical breathing, which could include bringing length to somewhat shallow breaths! 

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xo,

Missy

Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links and I would love if you decided to use them! Affiliate links + referrals programs help educators like me to fund the free content that we provide on our blogs & podcasts.

“The paradox of the modern world is this: Not only do we do less, physically, than ever before, but we also almost never do nothing. Our bodies, deprived of large movements, are inundated with subtle-yet-continuous physical stimulation from noise, light, data, etc. This constant stream of input is a two-fold stressor, as not only is the frequency of certain environmentally induced loads extremely high, the types of input we are experiencing are unnatural.”

- Katy Bowman