Recap of 2024

I wanted to personally show you the behind-the-scenes of what happens when you unlock your potential and use somatic healing to create the life you want to live. I hear from people all the time about how they can't do “XYZ” because of ______. I am here to tell you that you can have the life you dream about—read on, and I will show you how.

As we wrap up this year and prepare for the next, I always take this time to get off social media (I delete all the apps) and focus on reviewing my year.

For me, 2024 has been a deep embodiment of the practices I’ve been using for the last decade. It has been a year of really allowing myself to sit with discomfort and use my somatic practices to witness moments of discomfort, anger, and sadness—while at the same time being able to embrace deep periods of joy, happiness, and gratitude. I want you to know that both belong. You can be simultaneously scared and excited. You can be grieving while looking forward to the future.

In life, most of us work in absolutes. We need things to be one way or the other, and we get a little unsteady when we find ourselves holding more than one emotion at a time.

My husband and I started two traditions four years ago during the pandemic that have helped us envision and cherish the year ahead.

The first is a vision board that Ryan frames, and we keep it in our living room. It serves as a daily visual reminder of the life we’re striving for.

The second is a gratitude jar. Every Sunday, we sit down and write about all the cool things that happened to us during the past week. Some weeks, there’s not much to write down, while other weeks are filled with answered prayers.

At the end of the year, we open the jar and read through the notes on New Year’s Eve. It’s such a fun tradition, and I hope you give it a try because: Gratitude changes the attitude. Does that mean all the hard things in life disappear? No. I’m not about gaslighting yourself or your emotions. But gratitude helps you drop into the present moment. It helps you pause, reflect, and stay here in the 3D world.

And what do vision boards help you do?

While I could dive into the details of why vision boards are effective, I’ll keep it brief: they help you see what you want your life to look like.

For me, one of the big things on my vision board was hosting a group retreat—and now, the Sonoma Healing Retreat is here! I can confidently say that everything I’ve added to my vision board has come true. Here’s how: when you feel in your bones that you are meant to do something, and you create capacity in your nervous system for those dreams to become a reality, you become unstoppable.

There have been so many moments in my life where a picture on my vision board represented something I wanted to do, but it didn’t come true until a year later. When I realized this pattern, I felt like I’d cracked the code. I discovered that once I created capacity in my nervous system for the reality I was envisioning, nothing could hold me back.

Because your life is a reflection of your nervous system’s capacity to handle both the good and the bad.

I’ve heard from many of you about something you deeply crave to bring into your life, but you feel something is holding you back. While identifying that “thing” can be helpful, I find that even once people know what the limiting belief or developmental wound is, they can struggle to move past it because their brain is trying to keep them safe.

Your body wants to heal itself, and thus begins the dance between your brain and your body. This is one of the key reasons for burnout, which I’ve found to be at a record high over the past year.

I think so many of us feel overwhelmed by the mass communication coming at us—social media, news, emails, and more. And while I see the irony in this (as I’m writing a blog, which is part of mass communication), I deeply believe that the people who need something different will find this email.

People tell me all the time that they crave something different—something that helps them reconnect with themselves and their bodies. I get it. I’ve been there. I know how vital it is to create time for yourself, to nourish and care for your nervous system.

That’s why I’ve designed the Sonoma Healing Retreat. It’s not just another getaway; it’s an opportunity to slow down, reset your nervous system, and release what no longer serves you as we enter a new year.

During this retreat, we’ll explore somatic practices, gentle movement, breathwork, and deep reflection. We’ll also focus on reconnecting with what truly matters to you. It’s a space to reclaim balance and remember that your well-being is the foundation for everything you do.

When I reconnected with my body somatically, everything in my life shifted. I could bring my dreams into reality.

The life you dream about is available to you, too.

Hugs,
Ali