Movement science, wellness and cultural travel, and real tips and stories behind both.
I write about what 40 years of teaching bodies and one decade of leading international retreats have actually taught me, and I skip the fluff.
Whether you're here because your back hurts, because Morocco is calling, or because someone in class told you to check this out — welcome.
Small shifts, consistently practiced, change your life.
What Is a Keystone Habit? And Why I'm Teaching Them Over the Water in Roatan
A keystone habit is one small change that sets off a chain of other changes. You start with a single habit, and it quietly makes the next good choice easier, then the one after that.
What Pilates Actually Is (And What It Isn't)
What is Pilates? A movement method built on control, breath and precision, explained by a teacher of forty years. What a class involves and who it suits.
How to Choose a Retreat With No Regrets
It is late, you have eleven tabs open, and every one of them is promising transformation. One has a woman in white linen on a clifftop. One has a schedule so full you would need a holiday to recover from it. A third is beautifully photographed and, when you look closely, tells you almost nothing about what you would be doing between breakfast and dinner.
What to Expect at Your First Moroccan Hammam
Almost everyone arrives at their first hammam with the same two questions and only asks one of them. The one they ask is how long it takes. The one they do not ask is what they are supposed to take off.
Ayurveda is More Than What’s In Your Cup
So many articles focus on the wonderful food, herbs and spices that make up part of Ayurveda. Did you know there are body treatments as well?
You Can't Stop Worrying — But You Can Switch Tracks
You know that feeling when your mind finally lets go of something it's been chewing on for hours? The thought that wouldn't unhook, the rerun of a conversation, the worry that wouldn't quit…
Preparing For A Fantastic Fall
Every September, my classes fill up. People come back from summer looking for something to anchor to as the weather turns and the school year starts and the year stops feeling endless. There’s a reason for this. September is the secret New Year for a lot of us — even if we left school decades ago, the body remembers the rhythm.
Six Pilates Movements That Prepare Your Body for Travel
These six specific movements stay in my week, every week and they also are ideal for travel prep. The point is that on day two of the trip I'm not wincing about my hips, or compensating for a sore back from a long flight, or skipping a hike because my calves are cramping. These exercises protect the investment you’ve made in your travel, so you can freely enjoy all your planned holiday has to offer.
Why a Wellness Safari Isn’t What You Think It Is
On Crescent Island in Lake Naivasha, there are no large predators. So when you walk among the giraffes, zebras, wildebeest, and eland, no one’s heart rate is up — yours included. They graze. You walk.
What Nature Naturally Does To Your Nervous System
I grew up outside a small university town in Connecticut, on a dead-end road far from any traffic. Our yard had trees, a vegetable garden, and a river running through the back. In summer the leaves were thick enough that we couldn't see the neighbors' houses — we were inside nature, not beside it. The sounds were birds and water.
I've been finding my way back to that ever since. Time present in nature is a cure — it soothes what aches in the soul. It's also prevention: real, measurable, physical change in the brain and body.
The Mental Load You're Bringing on Vacation
Since having children — and then watching them move out into their own lives — the first time I really noticed I was on vacation, it was day two…
The Breath Pilates Actually Teaches (And What Gets Lost When We Skip It)
Pilates has a complete breathing system that most students and many teachers never fully learn .Each has a distinct purpose.
Three Seated Stretches for Back Pain Relief (There's Really a Fourth One)
These four stretches target four of the areas that take the most abuse from prolonged sitting: the thoracic spine, the shoulder girdle, the spinal rotators, and the piriformis.
Your Body Is Your Best Travel Companion (Here’s How to Pack It Well)
Before you go anywhere — a two-week adventure abroad or a Saturday hike along the Patapsco — your body is already packed. It’s the one piece of luggage you can’t leave behind. Is it prepared?.
Culture Isn’t a Photo Op: What Genuine Connection Actually Looks Like
There’s a tradition in Arab culture that holds both strength and softness, that is absolutely beautiful. It’s a practice in which the whole room says: we see you, we’re with you. People’s hearts are held with both strength and softness. These things must be felt in person, and no camera can capture them.
What Luxury Wellness Is Getting Right — And Where Most of It Stops
The technology is sophisticated. The service is exceptional. The natural world immersion is genuinely exciting. So why does the feeling fade so soon after guests return to their lives?
The Muscle You Didn’t Know You Needed: Why Gluteus Medius Changes Everything
Your gluteus maximus has a smaller, lesser-known neighbor — your gluteus medius — and it plays a critical role in how you move, balance, and stabilize through almost everything you do in a day.
The People Behind Your Trip: Where Your Money Actually Goes
Shopping in Morocco is not what you think it is. You don’t walk in, browse a rack, and tap your credit card at a register. No, no, no. Shopping in Morocco is an education and a sales pitch rolled into one — a fascinating, sometimes funny, sometimes frustrating experience that my guests and I just call “the show.”
The Strength Training Rules Just Changed. What a Movement Specialist Makes of It.
On March 17th, the American College of Sports Medicine published its first major update to resistance training guidelines since 2009. Seventeen years. That’s a long time in exercise science — roughly the same span that separated the first smartphone from the one in your pocket right now.
Here’s my little summary.
Imprinting vs. Neutral Spine: What We’re Actually Doing in Class (And Why)
Every week, someone in class asks me some version of this question: “Should my lower back be flat on the mat or not?”
It’s a great question — and the answer isn’t as simple as most Pilates instructors make it sound. Because the real answer is: it depends on what we’re trying to accomplish and where you are in your practice.