I lost my home and my studio in the Eaton Fire. This is what that season taught me about resilience, and how I now help others rebuild strength after loss.
Resilience is a body skill, not a mindset trick
People talk about resilience like it’s a decision. Just stay positive. But when everything changes overnight, your nervous system doesn’t take instructions from positive thinking. Mine didn’t. For weeks I lived with the fog, the startle, the exhaustion that so many of my Altadena neighbors know firsthand.
What helped wasn’t pushing harder. It was the same work I’d been teaching for 26 years: gentle movement, breath that reaches the nervous system, and small daily habits that tell your body, over and over, that it’s safe to rebuild.
Three things that carried me
1. Move a little, every day
Not a workout. Ten minutes of gentle core work or stretching keeps the body from hardening around stress. Movement is how the body processes what the mind can’t.
2. Let the exhale be longer than the inhale
Grief and stress live in held breath. A longer exhale is the fastest signal of safety your body understands.
3. Rebuild identity through routine
When you lose the places that held your life, small routines become anchors. Same walk, same tea, same practice. The nervous system heals on rhythm.
If you’re rebuilding too
My work has grown beyond Pilates into nervous-system and resilience coaching because so many of us are carrying more than tight shoulders. If you’re in Altadena, Pasadena, or anywhere on Zoom, and your body still feels braced, this is the work I do, and I’d be honored to do it with you.