We all need help along the way. Part of what I do is help people rediscover their connection to themselves. I teach my own style of yoga, breathwork, and meditation that allows my students to spend time with themselves. We don’t just do the practice – we try to learn something about ourselves every time we step on to the mat. If I do deeper work with a client, I help them establish a set of practices that will enhance their spiritual connection. The work I help them do literally enhances every area of their lives. It is so beautiful to witness them open up and shine. I help people find their light.

I spend a lot of time in solitude, creating these practices and I’ve been on a five-month journey where I’ve gotten to test and develop my newest ones in a really beautiful way.

In 2012, I had a crisis of faith. I remember the moment it happened – I remember the tree I fell to my knees crying in front of, as I asked myself if I’ve just been imagining what some people call god. What if the magic I’d been experiencing from the universe was just a great trick of my imagination and wasn’t REAL? What if all the signs I saw were manufactured BY ME to reinforce my need to not feel alone in the universe? I broke down. I questioned the VERY FABRIC of my belief structure and once I tugged on that thread, I felt the duty to unravel it. Then I walked naked, into the darkness. I’m afraid of the dark but I needed to go there to understand. I needed to walk the walk to be able to talk the talk.

This year, I was at that same nature preserve outside of Dallas but I was walking the path on the other side of the creek. I looked across to that very tree that was the passage way into the shadow and cried tears of joy, realizing I was LITERALLY on the other side. I made it through my crisis of faith and I was in the middle of my journey, back home to the light. The light became more palpable as gratitude permeated by being.

The journey since February has taken me from coast to coast of the US. I started in New York, then from San Francisco, I’ve meandered around and back and forth, landing in New York City. I’ve used every kind of toilet you can imagine – so let’s call this The John Journey, The Train to Latrines, or Trina’s Toilet Tales. I have a weird thing with port-o-potties… I saw a tabloid when I was little that said a man was bitten and killed by a spider while he was sitting on a port-o-potty so naturally, my mind thinks my fate is the same. I feel like I am slaying a dragon each time I successfully pee (without peeing on myself) in one and there’s a sense of victory – as ceremonious as the dénouement scene in Return of the Jedi – I adorn myself with a medal because I deserve it after confronting that fear. Have you ever been in a port-o-potty (btw I think that name is really cute/funny) at a trail head? Spiders love those. It’s just shelter for them so I can’t be mad at it but I’m not a huge fan of peeing with 20-30 daddy longlegs within 10 inches of my face. And the smell. If you’ve been in one, you know the level of pungentness (that is now a word) that invades, pillaging and raping the olfactory sense.

When I land in a new city or town, I look for a nature preserve. I feel like I can really get a sense of a space by walking the land. A downtown gives an opportunity to be in the action of it all – the buying and selling of goods… the consumption… the smell of the antique store, the bakery in the morning, the Italian food joint in the evening… but nature gives me the chance to observe and feel the exchange of energy as I breathe in and out. Every moment is a discovery – a new smell that feeds my soul.

Each stop on this journey has been spontaneous as I allowed myself to be guided when to go and where to go. I didn’t have a plan other than really deeply listening and practicing faith. To craft a practice that is meaningful and impactful for people, you have to PRACTICE it yourself so I have been deeply engaged in this for five months. In this process of following the thread of the light, I fell into love and found my new favorite spot on the planet. It’s been magical.

I found connection. I found something so profound that I still cannot encapsulate it… contain it… with words… I don’t really understand it yet… But I’m trying.

In the meantime, I’m sharing some of these new practices with my students in the Custom Yoga Journey. As part of this CYJ, my students not only get one-on-one time with me to help program their internal GPS, I program a series of practices just for them from my on-demand library that arrives in their inbox at their chosen practice days and times. They also get journal prompts and inspirations to help them find that light… their connection to themselves that sparks the light. I launched this four days ago and four students are already on the CYJ. This offering has a lot of potential and I am so excited about going all in!

Find your bliss with me? Let’s do this!

This is a video diary of one stop on this journey – to a Dead and Company show at Woodstock- and this wasn’t even my favorite spot!