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16 Nov '11

Apsara

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3-devide-lines

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I'm a New York native who left my home to explore the world slowly and thoroughly. I’m just a little obsessed with photography, scuba diving, and reading guidebooks to countries I have no immediate plans to visit.

Retreat closing circle… IYKYK 💛✨😇 One o

Retreat closing circle… IYKYK 💛✨😇

One of the best pieces of advice someone gave me when my mom passed away was to start expanding my definition of family right away.

Now I feel a sense of family often — with my incredible girlfriends that lift me up through all of life’s challenges, with my extended family friends that have been there through it all, with each little retreat where we find sisterhood in the blink of an eye.

One of my favorite family traditions growing up, which I now bring into my many variations of the word, is highlights and lowlights.

At the end of every family vacation as a child, we’d share our reflections, which is a tradition of all my @wanderwomenretreats now — and forever one of my most treasured moments of each.

I love hearing everyone’s unique takes on a shared experience. I love laughing and crying together. I love being reminded, every time, how complex and beautiful the human experience is.

Love sharing digital moments like this right here, in this little corner of the internet, with my Instagram family too 😌

Thanks for coming along on this @wanderwomenretreats recap with me ✨

I work well under pressure 🤿

Get it? 😛 It’s my dive joke of the day! But the truth is that while I work my (mermaid) tail off at @wanderwomenretreats, it’s my dream job and I sometimes have to pinch myself that it’s real!

This trip in particular was a three part party — a celebration of @paditv #womensdiveday, an applause for the @wdhof belated twentieth anniversary, and an induction of 16 new divers (all of us!) in the @coralrestorationfoundation’s coral conservation program.

Being on a dive boat in the aquarium-like @thefloridakeys filled with inspiring women committed to making a positive change in our planet — this is what it’s all about 🐠

This trip really made me pause and think about my big picture WHY. Being surrounded by so many women in their power going to bat every day for the things they believe in and being recognized by organizations like the Women Divers Hall of Fame made me think okay, what’s my legacy going to be?

Could that be me, being nominated into this incredible organization, someday? What steps do I need to take to make that happen — how can I level up to be worthy of such a thing someday far in the future?

I think in the past I would have hesitated to write something like that — I was embarrassed of how big my dreams were. I remember so distinctly my mom once telling a hairdresser that I wanted to be a blogger and get paid to travel the world. I felt a rush of shame that my mom had uttered my secret out loud; how dare I wish for something so outlandish as to live the life of my dreams. Thank goodness I had someone willing to speak them to the universe before I was.

So now, I’m turning the pressure up on myself — being accountable to all of you by sharing my big picture, big wild dreams.

Have one you’ve been holding tight? Let it OUT in the comments section, big or small, easily achievable or a long shot, so I can cheer you on too! ✨

Let’s talk about the elephant that seems to perm

Let’s talk about the elephant that seems to permanently live in any room that travel is discussed in these days: yup, the c-word (the new one, anyway 😅).

I’m grateful that in large part, travel shaming seems to have been left behind in 2020. Does it seem that way for you, too?

I spend a lot of time thinking about traveling in a way that is kind to the people and places around me — I always have. These days that means traveling vaccinated, and requiring all guests on our @wanderwomenretreats to be either vaccinated (as 98% of our 2021 guests have been) or submit negative test results before the retreat. We gift our guests cute masks from @thecraftycastaway, a woman-owned small business, to make wearing them when necessary fun, and we keep a close close eye on local guidelines and regulations and not just meet but exceed them for our group trips.

In the future we may require testing in addition to vaccinations, just to be extra cautious — we’re always evolving.

Personally, and professionally, I am feeling good about travel and good about helping others do so. I see the way our guests light up at being back to what makes life worth living for them, I see our vendors’ gratitude when we are sometimes their first income-providing customers in over a year (!) and I feel proud to be a part of that.

Personally I have two more international adventures schedules for the rest of the year, and a bunch of domestic ones. Some involve large scale gatherings like concerts or festivals so I’ll keep my eye on them, but it feels good to have things to look forward to.

Are you still planning travel, at the moment? Do you agree the travel shaming era is over?

Mother Earth is my captain 👩‍✈️♻️🌎

Mother Earth is my captain 👩‍✈️♻️🌎

Almost every @wanderwomenretreats features a cleanup walk or cleanup dive. But this was a first for us — a clean up paddle!

After our SUP yoga class, we set off through the mangroves and removed bags and bags of marine debris from this delicate ecosystem. From styrofoam cups to fishing line, it felt good to get rid of what didn’t belong.

I love including clean ups on our retreats to show that they can actually be a lot of fun — you can make walking trail clean up dates with friends, adopt a block in your city, or even help organize clean up dives or paddles if you’re lucky enough to live by a body of water!

Clean ups remind us to consume consciously, show others that a place is cared for and loved, and of course, remove pollutants from where they don’t belong! Here are a few of my tips:

♻️ keep it simple: try using buckets or mesh bags or other reusable materials for beach cleans, and use bags made of as high a recycled content as possible if you need to use plastic (this means the least amount possible of virgin oil was used to produce them.) Go for washable, reusable gloves if you don’t want to go bare handed.

♻️ keep it separate: take a beat to research local recycling facilities and keep one bag for landfill waste and another for materials that can be recycled.

♻️ keep it real: don’t be shy to post photos on social media — maybe you’ll inspire someone else to do something similar, or raise awareness about an issue some people just don’t see. If you’re doing a clean up dive, carefully reporting data to @diveagainstdebris can actually help scientific studies and groups lobbying for environmental policy change!

Thanks for going green with me! ✨

The world is our studio ✨🙌🏻 This year I h

The world is our studio ✨🙌🏻

This year I have so much stepped into my joy as a yoga teacher. As a new teacher there is so much self doubt. Am I giving my students the creative sequences, thoughtful options, mindful adjustments, moving playlists and inspiring dharma talks and class themes they deserve?

I still ask myself all those questions. But now, I ask myself another one — does this class bring my students and myself joy?

One of the top comments we get about our yoga classes at @wanderwomenretreats is appreciation for the the wide variety — of styles of yoga, of locations to practice in, and of levels of experience catered to.

Lately I’ve been having FUN planning classes — adding a cardio dance track into sweaty vinyasa classes, writing a chakra meditation that came to me in a dream, designing entire sequences around a song I hear in a cafe, or picking a peak pose based on a quote that inspires me.

These photos from the classes at our Key Largo Retreat make my heart happy! A welcome slow flow, a funky partner class, a SUP yoga sesh, and a final vinyasa flow — what a weekend!🧘🏼‍♀️☺️

Yogis, what makes a class memorable for you? Let’s hear it in the comments!

PS: Thanks @gaiam for the colorful yoga mats, blocks + straps making this retreat magical.

Just winging it ✨😇 It’s 5AM and I just wok

Just winging it ✨😇

It’s 5AM and I just woke up to answer emails, plan yoga classes, and review the plan for today’s @wanderwomenretreats.

I just kicked off my fifth out of six retreats for the year, all concentrated in the second half of 2021. I also am rebuilding my team from the ground up, a really intense but promising process. Whirlwind would be an understatement.

It’s not easy getting back into the swing of things after such a long break from running destination retreats. After all the experience I built up pre-pandemic, sometimes I feel like I’m teaching a yoga class or assisting on a dive or leading a retreat for the first time. And I admit I have wondered at certain times if I have stretched myself too thin.

But above all of that I feel something that I often felt missing from my life since early 2020 — I feel ALIVE.

I can’t tell you the intense rushes of joy I felt selling out our Martha’s Vineyard retreat, driving away from our Key Largo one, and walking down the street in Beirut pinching myself that yes indeed, we were really doing it — kicking off three weeks of back to back Middle East retreats in Lebanon and Egypt.

I’m so exited to be sharing our Florida trip here in my feed and our Egypt one live in my stories! If either makes you ache to travel with us, we have just two spots left in our Hudson Valley trip starting in just one month.

I can’t tell you how often lately I’ve closed the eyes on this exhausted body and quieted this frazzled mind, and found myself left with one thought: I am so grateful for this life.

And grateful to all of you for sharing it with me here 🙏🏻

PS: Also grateful for LOL-info at the behind-the-scenes in the last video. You my homegirl @make.it.rayna_!

A Soho House send off 🙌🏻 Okay, FINE, I’ll

Miami photo mash up 🙌🏻☀️ For my penulti

Miami photo mash up 🙌🏻☀️

For my penultimate Miami post I’m just sharing a bunch of random memories and sunny colorful scenes. This really was a super happy couple of weeks for me and I remember it just like these photos show! It was the perfect balance of work + play, friendship + romance, all the good stuff that makes life fun.

From my posts so far I can tell that Miami is a divisive city — and I’ve always known Florida is a pretty divisive state!

But, I love it here. There’s an energy, a diversity, a unique architecture, an incredible balance of urban amenities and access to nature, and more that make it one of my favorite cities in the US!

(And yes — I’ll be addressing the elephant in the room of why Florida is always in the news lately, soon.)

Gracias for the good times, Miami!

“Even if one loses here and there and even if on

“Even if one loses here and there and even if one sometimes feels a sort of decline, the point is nevertheless to revive and have courage, even though things don’t turn out as one first thought.” — Vincent Van Gogh 🌙

I recently visited @vangoghmiami for an immersive yoga class with @tifftopia and wow — it was my favorite yoga experience in a long time!

We started before the exhibit opened and with projectors streaming the main exhibit onto the walls all around us, including our mats, our bodies became part of the canvas. Between the amazing moving visuals, the music, and the creative flow, I was so moved I cried!

After, we walked through the main exhibit (having it mostly to ourselves!) and I was once again inspired — this time by the story of this incredible artist who’s work we all know so well, long after his death, but who struggled so deeply in his life, and died with no idea what an impact he would make on this world. What an amazing reminder that we all leave a mark on this earth, whether we know it or not.

Thanks for arranging, @tarainkpr! 🙏🏻#vangoghmiami #beyondvangogh

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