Pussy Ninja Dojo

Eleanor Roosevelt was onto something when she said, “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." Some people think talking shit is harmless, some think it’s harmful. I know for a fact that it can feel like a release, especially if you are angry. But, good God, isn’t it a waste of time? All the time you spend talking critically about your friends (or not-friends). All the time you spend thinking about how other people should be living their lives. And, if you get in really deep, and start to take it to the next level, and...

Yoni eggin’ and writing. Like peas and carrots. Four reasons why you need to do this.One: The yoni egg practice—when used as a tool for healing—has the tendency to unearth uncomfortable truth, buried deep in the subconscious mind. All forms of meditation do this, but the yoni egg practice is especially effective at uncovering these dubious treasures. This is the hard part of transformation, the part nobody really understands until they’ve gone through it. You will have a lot of questions, and you will receive a lot of answers. It’s good to write it all down. There is something about...

Newsflash: a pussy is not a word that describes someone who is weak or scared. Ladies, it is time to take this word back. If you hear someone use this word incorrectly, I hope you feel inspired to correct the offending party, and offer a gentle (or not so gentle) reminder that pussies are not weak, or scared, or feeble. Pussies are strong, and beautiful. Remind them of the realities of childbirth, and if necessary describe in detail what women voluntarily endure for the continuation of our species. I may even quote Betty White—“Why do people say "grow some balls"?...

If you don’t think that eating plants raises your vibration, then you don’t eat enough of them. Get as many plants as you can as often as you can, and notice the difference in how your body feels. Even if you don’t wanna give up meat, just eat more fruit, drink some green juice, and be stoked by how your vibe instantly changes.Good news is: the more you eat plants, the more you crave plants, and the better they taste. So, even if kale isn’t your jam, maybe you just fake ‘til you make it your jam. Your body will...

Pussy ninjas stand up straight because we know that we are queens. We are the rulers of our own worlds. We understand that we hold a position of leadership in our lives, and are an example to everyone around us. We understand that we are not powerless, that we have the power of choice, that we need not be mentally subjugated by any institution or person. We should be reflecting that in the way that we move through the world. Spine straight, look alive. And don’t smile just for the sake of smiling. Smile because you are watching shit sparkle,...

If there’s one thing you can be sure of in life, it’s that shit will hit the fan. Over, and over. And over.  Even when you meticulously plan every moment of your life, even when you try to anticipate every trip and fall. Even when you measure everything twice, still, sometimes you still have to cut more than once.  But, this universal truth doesn’t stop us from often feeling victimized by the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or seeing them as some sort of cosmic punishment. A wrathful God, the law of karma.  But, what if it’s something else?...

If y’all haven’t read “Women Who Run With The Wolves,” by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, because it feels too literary or dense for your taste, please listen to the truncated version available on Audible. It is a short, powerful recording by the buttery-voiced author herself, who delivers a concentrated dose of seriously empowering wild woman magic.   This book is about a return to being natural, and understanding our rhythms, and getting to know ourselves on a soul level, and spending as much time as possible operating from that place.   And if you happen to be raising a daughter, please...

It is imperative that you have some place in your life where you can go to silence outside voices and to focus entirely on your work. You need a place where you will be uninterrupted by intrusion, where you can create your ideas and projects without distraction. You must also carve out time, for contemplation, for creation. In doing do, you keep yourself clear-headed, centered, focused and calm. This place in time and space is like an incubator for your dreams, for creating the narrative of your life. This grounds your ideas in the material world, and gives you a...

Sometimes, the faucet’s on full blast. Inspiration ceaselessly rains, pouring down in sparkling rivulets. Energy is boundless, ideas come quickly. Problems have easy solutions. In times like this it is hard to remember that it’s not always so easy. And conversely, when the faucet is barely dripping, it’s hard to imagine it was ever any other way. The good times seem unreal and far away. But such is the cyclical nature of life. Periodic lulls of rest and recentering also have their place, and are incredibly important for your soul. If you are feeling this way, take a break. Re-collect...

A recent study found that Americans spend nearly eleven hours a day staring at and interacting with a screen. Over four of these hours is watching TV. First of all, that is totally disgusting, and second of all, I am partially included in that group. Between running an on-line business and writing a novel, I find myself in front of the screen a lot. I’ve recently started to go on a media fast, which means no Netflix. When I watch TV, I can feel my brain turn off. It’s a limp sort of escapism that leaves me wondering why it...

Shout out to all the perfectionists and recovering perfectionists out there! Y’all are near and dear to my heart. Let's be real. The ghastly weed of perfectionism is nearly impossible to eradicate once it has taken root in your psyche, despite how much you hack away at it with meditation, and yoga, and the yoni egg practice. It just keeps reemerging.  The most frustrating thing about trying to conquer perfectionism is being able to recognize that the idea of perfect itself is a slavish illusion.  What does it mean to be a perfectionist? At the most basic level, it assumes that...

When we feel the fight or flight response, say, during a heated argument with our partner, or in a squabble with an acquaintance, or in a moment of utter humiliation, sometimes the wisest thing we can do is pause, and allow ourselves time to recalibrate, get back down to planet earth BEFORE WE REACT.  Thanks to the natural impulse we all have to survive, our bodies get flooded with potent performance-enhancing drugs when we find ourselves in situations where we perceive a threat. And while these drugs are incredibly useful for outrunning wooly mammoths, or charging into battle, they tend...

Competition: an innate human quality that arises from the idea that there exists a scarcity in the world. A scarcity of resources, of love, of attention, of praise. When we want the same thing as another person, it’s easy to develop an “us or them” mentality without even realizing it, without even wanting to. You know what I’m talking about. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying that competition is unhealthy, but always using it as your primary motivator definitely is. It will alienate you from the people you have the most in common with, while propping up the illusion that...

The old adage, “Live today like you’ll die tomorrow,” isn't all its cracked up to be.  I mean, yes, of course, you should grab the bull by the horns, drink the sweet nectar of adventure, leave nothing unsaid, have no lingering unfinished business. But isn’t there more to life than all that? Doesn’t this way of being create a sense of urgency that need not exist? In full disclosure, I’ve lived my whole life by the philosophy of imminent extermination—and, don’t get me wrong…it’s been an amazing, wild ride. But at some point I think I started to believe that I...

I'd really love to describe this concept better than the genius who originally wrote it, but it's pretty much perfect already. I highly recommend reading this book if you are interested in the nature of mind, reality, and consciousness, especially if you have difficulty understanding how the law of attraction works.  A Crack in The Cosmic Egg: New Constructs of Mind and Reality “This mirroring of mind and its reality makes for a circle of feedback that confines and limits us...This circular trap of how we perceive reality is our cosmic egg, a shell of mind that both defines our...

Children are good with imagination, because they haven’t yet finished building their framework for reality. The gaps and open spaces they fill with the stuff of imagined worlds, driving curiosity, problem-solving, and learning. Inevitably, children become adults, and quickly learn about fear, pain, responsibility, loss. They learn about expectation and disappointment. And slowly—or in some cases, not so slowly—the resources of our beautiful minds are constrained to survival, stress, and the ambiguous problem of the future, and how to control the creation of it. People with high levels of anxiety have active imaginations, but tend to paint a picture of reality...

To be a divine feminist is to be creative in action, responsive rather than reactive. A divine feminist is a cultivator of relationships, a protector of the innocent. She is driven by love rather than fear or anger. A divine feminist is not a victim, but a victor. She is not merely surviving, but thriving. She understands the importance of liberating her mind from damaging social constructs through self-inquiry and self-care. Divine feminists recognize the beauty and power inherent not only in women, but men, animals, plants, and in reality, all things. A divine feminist understands that in order to...

It was my first art teacher, a beautiful, wild woman always covered in clay-dust and smelling like sage, who I confessed to.   “I want to be an artist,” the twelve year-old me said.   She hovered over the potter’s wheel, centering a wet lump of clay that would one day be my new toothbrush holder, chuckling. “Well, start getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. It will be a lot easier if you master that first.”   I’m not sure why this response was so invigorating to the pubescent me, but it ignited me in a way I’d never felt.  ...

(With your senses, of course.) The raisin meditation is a way to increase your sensitivity and awareness. Much like the yoni egg practice, this meditation asks you to place all of your focus on one solitary act, to engage your senses, and to hone your mind body connection. To do this meditation, you’ll need a raisin, although any food will do. Raisins just happen to be a classic. Hold the raisin in your hand, and examine it. Touch it with your fingers, turn it over. Explore it’s crevices and grooves, try to memorize it’s texture. Notice the way the light...

I received some really useful feedback recently. One of my customers suggested that I encourage women to practice for one minute a day instead of five. At first, I wanted to argue that it wasn’t enough, but after hearing what she had to say, I realize that the woman has got a point.   “Meditation and practicing with a yoni egg is really hard in the beginning, and really disorienting. Time seems to stretch out, and five minutes can feel like five hours. If a woman can’t meet a five minute goal for meditation, she might just decide that it’s...

We spend a lot of time avoiding criticism. Our whole lives can be built around it if we aren’t careful. We take on the expectations of those who raise us, of our culture. We censor ourselves, we silence ourselves. We don’t go after what we really want, but what we think we should want. What will people say if they know the truth about who you are? What will they do?   How easy it is to get caught in the cyclical trap of pleasing people to get their approval, of relying on their encouragement and praise for self-worth. Sometimes,...

Your outlook and vibration is the most valuable thing you have, so you need to protect it.   A positive/high vibration means you are feeling healthy, up-beat, and enthusiastic about the future. The thoughts you have nourish action and creativity. You want to interact with your environment. You are receptive to new opportunities. You feel gratitude for your reality, and believe in your ability to co-create it. Having a negative/low vibration means you are low-energy, depressed or anxious, and your thoughts are usually critical of yourself and the world around you.   One of the unexpected side effects of raising...

If you are an empath, I am talking to you.Congratulations, you are gifted.You have the ability to feel what other people are feeling. This can seem like more of a curse than a gift at times, especially when you get inside the space of someone who is abusive, aggressive, or unstable. Be careful who you allow yourself to empathize with. Make sure you are able to stay very clear and present with who you are, and how you really feel.In the effort to understand someone, we have the tendency to put ourselves in another person’s shoes. This is a good...

If there’s one thing that’s gotten in the way of success and happiness in my life, it’s the idea that I need to finish things faster.  The problem with being in a hurry is that we focus on being finished, instead of being engaged with what we’re doing. You can find pleasure in nearly anything when you give it your full attention. Basic tantra. This is the art of sensual living, of elevating the mundane, and finding intense pleasure and gratitude in simple things (because the quality of your attention allows you to experience an amplified version of them). A practice: Next...

I love this idea of embracing one’s darkness instead of denying or hiding it. Telling the truth about yourself (even if you’re just telling yourself; that is enough) is liberating. To look at your insecurities, and instead of putting them even deeper in the darkness where they cannot be seen, you shed enormous amounts of light on them. It is liberating, this celebration called the truth. I am in the process of writing a novel and I have been learning better how wield this particular sword  over the last few years. LEARNING (by no means an expert). But what I...

Growing  and flourishing into fully-developed, well-rounded human beings means understanding the stories of our lives and being able to put them into proper context. I’m not just talking about whether we had good or bad childhoods, but deeper. Look at your beliefs. Are they truly yours? If not, where did they come from? For those looking to gain a better understanding of themselves and transcend, it’s important to know your roots. And, while these stories identify you to yourself and the world, they do not determine who you will be in the future. Only you determine that.  You are the...

What does it mean to be awake? Because, the thing is- if you’ve had one spiritual awakening that was for real, you also experienced the darkness that inevitably follows after, involving not just awareness, but acceptance and forgiveness. Wakefulness is not an event, but a process, a skill. To be awake is to be aware, thinking for ourselves, the master of our own attention. What we give our attention to is what we become, what we embody. Be wary of what is distracting you, and ask yourself who benefits? Notice how good you feel when you put your attention in...

Our world is wrought with evil people doing evil things. Chaos and violence and scandal abound. How easy it is to get overwhelmed, give up, throw in the towel, before we begin to plan how we will change the world. It is easy to feel powerless. Powerlessness begins with you. When you decide not to care about something, when you don’t believe that you are able to create the reality you want, you won’t even try, and your belief becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Apathy is a disease of lethargy and defeat. It will lead to a passionless, boring, mind-numbing life....

Everyone says it’s important: Self-love. To some people, it’s second nature. To others, not so much.  For those of you who are lacking, my guess is that you get irritated and uncomfortable when people start telling you how important it is to love yourself. (I feel like I can speak on this because I am the worlds foremost expert on self-loathing) When you really, truly hate yourself, and someone tells you to recite the mantra about how lovable you are,  the only thing you feel like doing is throat-punching them. Ask yourself this question. How do you know when someone loves you?...

While guilt can be a valuable teacher, pushing us to take accountability for our bad choices (so, you know, hopefully we make better ones in the future), the emotion of shame makes us feel that there is something intrinsically wrong with us. And so, when something good comes our way, instead of feeling happy, we feel like we don’t deserve it. Or, we can't enjoy it because we are busy waiting for the other shoe to drop.As women especially, we spend a lot of time feeling shame and confusion about our bodies and our sexuality. There are a lot of conflicting...

Last night's run with the yoni egg was interesting, to say the least. I made sure that it was dark outside by the time I left, in case there happened to be any mishaps. I mean, you never know. Running can be difficult enough, much less running while you you are trying to grasp onto a heavy smooth stone with your vagina. Seriously. So, yes, I'm glad that I waited until I was under the cover of night, because I did, in fact, lose the egg after about two blocks. At first, I was feeling cocky about the run. "Ha!...

Hey Anna, I'm in a yoga funk. I have an unlimited monthly pass to an awesome studio 10 minutes from my house. They have classes at times I can definitely make (and used to!) at least 4x a week. But I'm experiencing yoga... apathy? I love the feeling I get when I go to class. I wake up and plan on going to class. I hit snooze, and tell myself that I'll go when I get home from work. I get home from work, and get wrapped up with something else, and then it turns into "I will go tomorrow",...

Above: The Black Dragon Fleet, set of three black obsidian yoni eggs. So dope! Yoni eggs really are magical. Some strange things are starting to happen, and I'm all for it. First, I feel an urge within me to be healthier. It's different than the voice that is usually there, the inner commandant that orders me to eat better, exercise more, try harder. This is more of a gentle but persistent desire that's resonating in me, simply to be better to my body. Instead of feeling forced or coerced by my inner critic, I want to do it out of...

Last night, I continued with my yoni egg practice. I had a hard time getting into a mindful, meditative state, which is usually when I do my best work. My mind was wandering, and instead of fighting it, I just layed back and enjoyed it. In truth, I was thinking about dolphins. I have the cover for a National Geographic in my head, which reads "Thinking Like A Dolphin". I saw it in line when I was looking for I don't know what at the local thrift store. To this day, when my Dad asks me what I want to be when I...