Sunday Letters

Health & Fitness, Massage Therapy, Meditation, Uncategorized

On Getting a New Perspective

I’ve written before about Balance and how the theme of balance keeps surfacing in the ocean of my experience – the need for balance in thoughts and opinions, balance in work and fun, balance in movement practices. Eventually everything needs to wobble back to center – it’s just that we don’t know the timescale!

I took a manual therapy training class recently that is helping me embody more balance in how I think about manual therapy and in how I practice hands-on work.

I was trained in a school of thought that was very much posturally focused. We were taught how to analyze someone’s posture and note where the patient was twisting or shearing or in some other way moving out of “neutral.” These deviations from neutral provided clues to what muscles or organs or systems needed some attention.

It was/is a useful analysis, and many people WAY smarter than me are using it every day to literally change people’s lives. But, the more I read and learned about other modalities, the more I realized that posture is only part of the story. And in my own personal practice, I noted that many of my clients were feeling much better after seeing me, yet their posture remained essentially unchanged. How to reconcile this??

To further confound myself, I worked on an article for Tune Up Fitness on the importance of posture. I had the privilege of talking to several experts in the field of human performance and well-being, and most of them stated the same thing – posture is just a piece of the puzzle of pain. Oh. And the research says there really is no “perfect” posture. The really important thing is being able to move through a variety of postures depending on your need in the moment.

This whole exploration of the importance of posture helped me practice the skill of believing almost mutually exclusive things to be simultaneously true. Is posture important? Yes. And also No.

So to further develop the skill of becoming comfortable with uncertainty, I took Walt Fritz’s class, Foundations in Manual Therapy. Walt also comes from a therapy lineage that focuses on posture as a primary indicator of pain. However, after taking several classes in several different modalities (that all worked), he realized that while they all worked, their explanations were often not founded on scientific literature. YET THEY ALL WORK!! Why??

Essentially, his answer is, because of the Therapeutic Alliance – that connection between the client and the therapist – the exchange of energy and attention and intention – that communication between two nervous systems – that is really where the magic of therapy happens. It’s not that the therapist released a trigger point or freed up a restricted nerve, or unstuck some fascia. It’s that the therapist jibed with the client.

The core of his approach, “Rather than using a protocol or trusting your knowledge and experience, you’ll instead listen to your patient.”

I so love this.

I am ever grateful for what I learned at the Center for Neurosomatic Studies. But, man, the human body is all sorts of complex, and when my brain starts trying to follow the twists and turns and flexes and extensions found in a body, my insides start to get all wound up too, and my brain gears start overheating. And guess what happens then? I get all up in my brain instead of my in my body, present and accounted for with my client.

BUT

When I have scientific “permission” to focus instead on what the human being in front of me is telling me with their voice, their eyes, their body language, and I can focus on that instead of solving a puzzle, wow – then I can be present, aware, and open to possibilities that the client/therapist partnership can open up. And there is so much beauty and freedom in that.

So that is what I am experimenting with – taking all I know, all I don’t know (SO MUCH), all of what the client needs and wants and expects – and putting all that together into an experience for the client that helps them find more space, freedom, and ease. And, oh yeah, trying to have fun in the process. 🙂

Come join me on the exploration, if you want to see what opportunities for healing we can discover together!

Health & Fitness

On Toughening Up!

Back in, I don’t know, February-ish, I got a wild hair and texted my brothers and asked if they would want to do a siblings-only hike.  I figured that the time was right – due to COVID, work schedules were more flexible, and I needed some incentive to actually do something besides eat, drink, and re-watch all of my favorite sitcoms.

Nate, my older (very adventurous) brother immediately said yes. I don’t recall if Benny (my younger, more cautious (Heather-like) brother) ever explicitly agreed, but by then, the seed of the idea was planted.  It was done.  We were going on a hike.

We did some preliminary (aka half-ass) research and decided on a beautiful 30 mile trail in North Carolina, The Art Loeb Trail. Nate sent us a list of gear we would need to procure.

I balked.

OMG.  Hiking gear is EXPENSIVE.

I tried to back out. 

Nathan pscyhotherapized me, reducing my objections to dust.

I bought all the gear.

ALLLLL the while hoping, praying, hoping that something would happen, and I would not, in fact, have to walk 30 miles with a 40 lb pack on my back up 8,257 feet of elevation.

While hoping it would all come to nothing by the grace of God, I still continued buying gear and even starting training!  Despite our best intentions to do practice hikes of 10-12 miles fully loaded with gear, the best we did was an 8 mile hike with 797 feet of elevation.

And Lo!  The week of the hike approached.

By some weird twist of fate, Russian hackers did a ransomware attack on the fuel pipeline servicing North Carolina.  This happened 2 days before we were scheduled to DRIVE to NC! 

We quickly convened a Sibling Zoom and discussed options.  Should we cancel?  Postpone?  Find an alternate?  Nate was coming from NYC, and we were coming from Iowa.  We decided that there is no time like the present, so we decided to “pivot” (the theme for 2020/2021) and meet up in PA instead, to do the 30 mile Tioga West Rim Trail.  At 4,356 feet of elevation, it was still no joke, but it seemed more doable (both physically and from a gas-supply perspective) than the Art Loeb Trail.  So we headed out, only one day later than planned.

I am sitting here, about a week after completing the hike, and I am SO HAPPY that the Universe did not grant my silent wish and put the kibosh on the hike. 

Living outside, with all that you need carried on your back, helped me feel more strong, resilient, and weathered.  Over the past year life has shrunk a bit. I have retreated back into a cozy, comfortable home cocoon, and in the process got raw, pink, and sensitive.  Hiking 30 miles helped me realize what I am capable of (to quote Glennon Doyle, “I can do hard things!”). 

It also helped me see how much my body and mind thrived when disconnected from modern life.  My eyes saw trees, hills, rivers.  My ears heard babbling brooks, the sounds of my brothers’ voices, and the occasional inexplicable noise in the woods.  My feet felt the earth, the roots, the slope beneath me.  My skin welcomed the sun and the wind.  I need more OUTSIDE time in my life!!

I also have some practical insights to share, for other first time hikers:

  1. REI has load of super helpful videos. 
    1. I was very concerned about the logistics of pooping in the woods and was seriously considering just holding it for 3 days (soooo not possible when one is eating a diet of beef jerky, nuts, seeds, bars, and freeze dried food).  But I ran across this video, and it answered all my questions!
    1. Here’s another video about how to pack a backpack – so many good insights!! 
    1. And this one, also from Miranda, had some good insights for beginner back packers.
  2. My shoulders were KILLING ME within 20 minutes on the trail.  I have very prominent, bony clavicles, and it felt as if the pack was resting right on the bone and also pinching all the nerves exiting my neck.  I was sure I was going to have permanent nerve damage from the pack.  Nate noticed my pack should ride a bit higher on my hips, so I shortened up the back, and then Benny suggested putting some padding under the shoulder straps.  I pulled out a pair of super cushy SmartWool socks (LOVE THEM) and tucked them under my straps.  It may have looked weird, but it made ALL the difference!!!
  3. BRING A PAPER MAP!  We all had AllTrails Pro on our phones, but we couldn’t tell where the campsites were located, so we just had to keep hiking until we found a suitable spot.  Also , the AllTrails map did not track to the real Tioga West Rim Trail; it utilizes a shortcut (Siemens loop) to cut a few miles off the trail.  We missed the loop (by accident), but then got really confused when our GPS showed us way off the trail, but the blazes showed that we were in the right spot.
  4. If you are doing a Thru Hike, make sure you have all the keys and wallets you need with you in your pack.  We left one car at the Northern end, and then drove another car to the South Terminus.  We were about 15 minutes down the trail when Nate remembered that his keys were still in the car.  Benny ran back and got them – crisis averted!!  Until we got to the Northern end and realized that Nate’s car only had 1/8 of a tank of gas, and all of our wallets were safely stashed in Benny’s car at the South end, about 45 minutes away.  We actually had enough gas to get back to Benny’s car, but the anxiety of potentially running out of fuel in the mountains took about 3 years off of Benny & I’s lives. Nathan was nonplussed, however!
  5. Do take the threat of bears seriously.  We got a bear canister and hung up whatever didn’t fit in it several feet outside of camp.  WE didn’t have any run-ins with bears, but we ran into some other hikers who, the previous night, had a bear come into their campsite at 3AM.  They eventually scared it off, but they didn’t sleep a wink the rest of the night, and they still had about 7 miles to hike to finish the trail!!
  6. Share your plans with people at home.  On Saturday night we could not get a cell signal, so our families went several hours without hearing from us.  My husband was all set to drive out to PA on Sunday morning to rescue us.  But he didn’t even know if we started at the North or South end, so if he really DID need to find us, it would have been tough.
  7. I was using my Garmin Forerunner 35 to track our hike.  But it died mid-way through Day 2.  I think if I had remembered to turn off the heart rate monitor function, it would have lasted the full hike.  I’m not sure how accurate its tracking was in the mountains, but at least it gave us some idea of how far we were.

This post is already miles long, so I’ll stop there.  If you have any questions about the gear we used, what we liked and didn’t like, or any other questions about the Trail itself, hit me up in the comments.

Happy Hiking!!

Health & Fitness, Massage Therapy, Meditation, Yoga

On The Power of the Pause

Life is moving fast. Even in COVID times. I hear many people say that this has been a year to reflect, to slow down, to Be instead of Do. I have no doubt that was/is true for a lot of people, but I think that peoples’ experiences of 2020 are as varied as the shells on a beach. Tim and I were blessed in that neither of us lost our jobs; we actually have had the opposite experience – we have been super busy with work and multiple jobs. Busy to the extent that we have felt as if we have no time to slow down!

But, as I continue my dive into learning about what makes a Human Being thrive (not just survive), it’s become abundantly clear how important it is to Pause.

To Pause between the exhale and the inhale.

To Pause after moving your body in a new way to see what has shifted.

To Pause to appreciate THIS moment – this moment that will never Be again.

To Pause to notice the progress we have made and to appreciate the process and not get fixated by the destination.

To Pause and let your feet actually sink into the ground beneath your feet instead of skimming across the surface.

To Pause and notice before responding.

To Pause and notice that what you are thinking might not be true.

To Pause and widen your gaze, hear the leaves rustle, feel the breeze play with your hair, smell the wet earth.

To Pause and see what it’s really like to live from within a Human Body, not above it it or in front of it, but from within it.

Health & Fitness, Massage Therapy, Meditation, Uncategorized, Yoga

On The Importance of Opposites

I recently started a 5-month certification program, called Yoga for The Mind. I’m doing the course with my teacher, Dr. Betsy Rippentrop (Heartland Yoga Studio in Iowa City, Iowa), so I can learn how to use yoga to improve mental health.

The class is ALL about the importance of the mind/body connection. And the more I learn about this topic, the more frustrated I am by the term “mind/body connection” because THERE IS NO SEPARATION BETWEEN THE MIND AND BODY. They are the SAME thing. It’s like talking about the “connection” of the front and back side of a coin.

But, while they are ONE, they are also DUAL. Much like how we as humans are Me but also We.

And so this concept of balance, tension of opposites, grounding down and lengthening up keeps coming up.

In Thursday’s class we talked about the Masculine and Feminine sides of the body. Energetically, the right side of the body is more masculine – more focused on doing, being disciplined, achieving, other-soothing (so interesting!!). The left side of the body is more feminine – more receptive, nurturing, trusting, self-soothing.

It’s interesting to note, “What side of the body do I have more issues?”

In neurosomatic therapy, we often observe that people have more injuries, more pain, more tension on one side versus the other. One explanation could be that one side of the body is longer than the other (a lower limb length inequality), resulting in a sacrum that’s tilted, which can cause imbalances in muscles, fascia, nerves. Another explanation could be the existence of a pelvic obliquity, where one ilium (hip bone) is flared in while the other is flared out – again causing imbalances in the form of a spiral that travels all throughout the body, often leading to one-sided pain.

But (or maybe AND), could another explanation be, that there is an imbalance in energies in the body – one side is more dominant, and we need to focus awareness on developing qualities of the opposite side?

Whether we are talking about structure (bones/tissue/fluids) or subtle energies, the solution seems to be the same – WORK WITH THE OPPOSITES.

If one side of your torso is compressed – stretch it! If you always turn your head to the left to look at your left monitor, put your email on your right monitor, so you start looking to the right more! If you are always going, going, doing, doing, thinking, thinking. TAKE A BREAK. Get out of your Head and into your Body. Spend some time doing restorative yoga. Use the urge to grab your phone and look at Facebook as a reminder to settle your energy into your pelvis and take some smooth, slow, breaths.

Many of us were raised in a culture that values Action, Achievement, Hard Work (it’s the American Way!), so we really need to work on instilling the more feminine qualities of intuition, cooperation, sensuality. Interesting side note – it is WAY more common with my clients to have more pain on the right side of their bodies!

One of my favorite yoga poses to offset the Drive of Daily Life is Constructive Rest. I guide you through the practice here. Please remember to Check In with your heart, mind, body before and after the practice, so you can prove to your Ego that it was time well spent. 🙂

Health & Fitness, Massage Therapy, Meditation, Yoga

Why do YOU need Space to Be Human?

I created Space to Be Human to provide people with bodywork, meditation, and mindful movement tools as a pathway to rediscover space for positive change.

Why would I need this form of therapy?

  • You want to feel better in your body.
  • You have nagging pain that won’t go away no matter what you do.
  • You want to learn self-care tools to address “issues in the tissues.”

What should I expect in a session?

  • We will chat about about your story, symptoms, and patterns.
  • Heather will do a postural assessment to identify areas of the body that may be constricted and use that info + your story + your symptoms to design a treatment plan that will help you reach your goals.
  • The treatment plan will address disregulation in your nervous system, muscles, and organs via manual therapy, breathwork, and movement.

Health & Fitness, Massage Therapy, Meditation, Uncategorized, Yoga

On Just Doing It

I’ve had a real bad case of “I don’t feeeeeel like it” lately. It’s often served with a side of, “I’ll do it tomorrow.” It’s a potent recipe for not getting *&#! done!

But, each day I am reminded that, I too, am getting old. I thought it wouldn’t happen to me. Somehow, with healthy eating and moderate exercise, I could forestall this fate.

But the grey hairs are glinting through the brown, catching the light with their steely, wayward shafts.

My body is getting all weird and mysterious and unpredictable – pretty sure it’s perimenopause.

I totally HATE driving after dark.

At some point, thousand of years of human history indicate that the tomorrows will run out.

I’ve deduced that my best option is to DO the thing, even if I don’t feel like it. Even if it’s not perfect. Even if it might not work. Even if I get embarrassed. Even if I’m inconsistent and don’t DO the thing EVERY day. I just need to do it.

So here is my gift of imperfection to you!

I hosted a Gratitude Workshop last week, and here are two goodies I would like to share with you:

  1. A worksheet you can use to review 2020, pulling out 3 good memories from each month. Warning – it’s hard!! In the workshop, we started with December and worked backwards. I only made it to September, truth be told. But just reviewing those few months gave us some good insights. At the end of the worksheet are 2 exercises that you can use to set yourself up for a positive 2021.
  2. A guided gratitude meditation (courtesy of ChangeToChill.org) to get your mind and heart in a good space to complete the worksheet.

Oh! And why Gratitude? It helps us focus on the positive, improve wellbeing, improves symptoms of illness and depression, results in more optimism and happiness, stronger relationships, more generous behavior, etc. Science says!! I probably should have led with that…

Let me know what you think of the worksheet and/or the meditation. If you have any burning questions on manual therapy, meditation, thought-work, send me a note!! I live to serve (and write).

Love, Hlo.

Health & Fitness, Massage Therapy, Uncategorized, Yoga

Space to be Human

Hello My Friends!

As you may have noticed, I finally completed my name change. Heather Longoria Bodywork & Yoga is now Space to be Human LLC.

When I work with you, my main intention is to help you discover more space – more space between the muscles and fascia of your body, more space between stimulus and automatic response, more space in your bodymind to see new ways of being, thinking, and doing in the world.

I also love the sentiment of grace that come with that phrase, “space to be human.” None of us has the Right Answer. The only way to find an answer that works for you or me or him or her specifically, is to approach life with a sense of discovery, curiosity, and humor – to have the grace and self-compassion to try new things and be OK with them not working out sometimes, and to celebrate when you find The Difference That Makes a Difference.

We all need that space to be human – to do our best, keep trying, and keep learning with and for each other. As a thank you for being part of my tribe and for getting to Month 11 of 2020 together, I am offering $25 off all sessions for rest of November 2020. Use code THANKYOU25 when booking here.

And if your spine has been feeling compressed and locked up from the weight of the world (or too much computer-time), here is a short movement practice you can do that will help you start to invite more space into your spine.

If you want more tips and videos like this, check out this article on posture that I wrote for Tune Up Fitness. So many good nuggets in there!

And with that, I’ll leave you be!

With love, Hlo

P.S. If any of your friends or family are struggling with pain or tension, I would so appreciate it if you would pass on my info to them. THANK YOU!

Health & Fitness, Massage Therapy, Yoga

On Humility

I am reading a really beautiful, thought-provoking book, “Yoga Therapy as a Creative Response to Pain” by Matthew J. Taylor. I was first introduced to Matthew Taylor when I read, “Yoga and Science in Pain Care.” He wrote a chapter on the history of pain science, and it literally made me laugh out loud. Not the reaction you would guess to a chapter on pain science! But the chapter tickled me so much that I looked up Mr. Taylor and sent him an email thanking him for writing such a fabulous chapter.

And lo!

HE WROTE ME BACK!

Come to find out, this PT, PhD, C-IAYT (and past president of the International Association of Yoga Therapists), lives in Iowa City, IA – literally 45 minutes from me. As we chatted back and forth via email, I found out that he is friends with Jill Miller (my teacher and founder of Tune Up Fitness), he lived and worked in Galena, IL for several years, his wife graduated from the same college I did (St. Ambrose University). His grandma had a house 2 blocks away from where Tim and I lived for 10 years. She was also a bank teller at Davenport Bank, which essentially became Quad City Bank & Trust, where I now work. #syncrhonicities

This super brilliant man was so kind, curious, and humble. I called him Dr. Taylor, and me told me to call him Matt. 🙂

Fast forward a couple of months, and I was asked by Tune Up Fitness to write another article. They suggested that I interview Matt, and I jumped at the chance. I emailed him, and within a few hours, he emailed me back with a “Yes, I would love to!” and we settled on a date and time.

He spent 45 minutes sharing his insights and perspectives with me (more to come on that, when my article gets published). During our conversation, I found out that he had written a book. I was so intrigued by our conversation and his very inclusive, open, humble approach, that I quickly added his book to my collection.

It’s an amazing book. He is teaching me about philosophy, systems thinking, holding space for paradoxes and uncertainties, and at the same time, drawing connections between all these things and yoga. There is enough in this book to keep me studying for years, but one concept really caught my attention, as we are going through this very divisive time. On page 83 he talks about 3 forms of humility:

  • Agential humility – that recognizes that there are some things we simply cannot change.
  • Epistemic humility – that recognizes that we can never know all the factors involved in a situation.
  • Predictive humility – that recognizes the uncertainty of the final outcome and all the ramifications of our actions.

Practicing these forms of humility opens up SO MUCH SPACE for compassion, understanding, and patience. While I may believe something 100% and have NO DOUBT of its veracity, I can never know all the factors involved. I cannot judge you or your opinions as “wrong” because I don’t know all the relationships (context) involved. Also, let’s say I could somehow know that you are “wrong.” Well, I don’t know the final outcome of any actions you take based on that “wrong” belief. As Galadriel says, “Not even the wisest can see all ends.”

The only thing I know for sure is that I know nothing for sure. If we could all approach life and each other with that foundational belief – just think of the space that would open up for new ways of thinking, new ideas, new connections. Differences of opinion would be food for conversation and exploration instead of vitriol and dissension.

As a therapist and a life-long perfectionist, I really struggle with feeling inadequate. I have felt as though I should be able to tell a client, “Oh yes. I know the problem. Here is what you need to do.” But that is not me. I have a big long jumble of ideas of things that could possibly, maybe, hopefully help, and I share those ideas with an invitation of “Let’s try and see.” In reading this book, Matt reiterates repeatedly that our role as therapists is to 1) Create a safe environment and 2) Empower clients to create new responses.

So maybe I’m NOT doing it wrong??

What’s the point of this whole post? Well, firstly, if you are at all interested in yoga and pain management, you must read this book. And then you must contact me so we can digest it together (it’s DENSE). And secondly, don’t be so sure. Don’t be so sure you have the answers or that you don’t have the answers. Don’t be so sure you are wrong and someone else is right or vice versa. The answer is always “Yes and no, maybe, and it depends.”

Hold space for the unknown – there is space to play and create and connect there!

Health & Fitness, Massage Therapy, Uncategorized, Yoga

Are you Enough as Is?

Do you harbor an idea that there is something wrong with you? Have you been on a hamster wheel of trying to better yourself to be worthy of love/acceptance? How might your life look different if you believed that there was nothing wrong with you and nothing to be fixed?

I am taking an 8 week workshop called Remind with Betsy Rippentrop at Heartland Yoga in Iowa City, and these questions were provided as part of our homework this week. I am reading, “Yoga Therapy as a Creative Response to Pain,” and the sentiment of “You are complete and whole as is” is reinforced in this beautiful book as well.

If you felt that you were whole, complete as is, how would your life change? How would you feel if you were told that you ARE complete? You were born complete – no need to prove yourself. No need to push and strive and do things you hate, just to impress others or because you felt as if it’s what you “should do.”

I almost can’t wrap my little brain around that concept.

But I think – I think what I would do – if I were whole, complete, as is, I would just do what I really ENJOY doing. I would do what makes me happy, what makes me lose track of time.

And what I really enjoy doing, is learning. Well, learning, and then sharing what I learn with others. Sharing an idea, or a practice, or a perspective that opens up space in another for new opportunity, a new way of being, space to explore – that is what I really love.

And that gets me to the point of this post – I am in the process of changing my business name to Space to Be Human. Honestly this year has tossed a lot of my goals, plans, and drive to execute on their heads! BUT, the important thing is to keep moving forward, enjoy the process, and trust that things will work out the way that they are supposed to work out.

So, all that is to say, if someday, you wake up and try to book a session with me, and Suddenly! my website and booking software say, “Space to be Human” instead of “Heather Longoria Bodywork & Yoga,” do not be alarmed. It is all legit. I’ll explain my rationale for the name (which I am 100% totally in love with) in the next post.

In the meantime, I recommend getting some paper, a fun pen, setting the timer for 10 minutes, and writing out your own response to the opening questions. I would love to hear what you come up with.

Love, Hlo.

Health & Fitness, Massage Therapy, Uncategorized

On Balance

“Everything flows out and in; everything has its tides; all things rise and fall; the pendulum-swing manifests in everything; the measure of the swing to the right, is the measure of the swing to the left; rhythm compensates”

― Three Initiates, Kybalion: A Study of the Hermetic Philosophy of Ancient Egypt and Greece

And that, my friends, explains everything – Life, The Universe, and Everything. Oh, and Neurosomatic Therapy too.

The universe, our bodies, our lives – we all strive for homeostasis, for balance. In NST, we look at the body and observe where it’s tipping, tilting, twisting away from balance. Not that any of these movements are bad, in and of themselves. But over time, done repetitively, the body starts to adapt. It shortens and lengthens muscles (Davis’s Law), it grows and destroys bones (Wolff’s Law). It adapts to be more efficient at the positions you put it in most often. Unfortunately, this means that if/when you want to move and hold your body in a different position, your muscles and joints doth protest, and that protestation can manifest as pain.

In NST, we do 84 measurements of bony landmarks in your body to see where you have made accommodations over time. Based on these measurements, we can target muscles that need incentive to relax and let go or that need stimulation to get the attention of your brain, so that the brain can start operating them better.

I have been listening to a great podcast, The Optimal Body, which is hosted by two physical therapists who have an easy-to-understand balanced approach on getting people out of pain. They introduced me to the concept of 30 for 30. For every 30 minutes that you are in a static position, spend 30 sections doing the EXACT OPPOSITE thing!

For example, if you are (like me right now), usually sitting, hunched over your computer, wrists extended, shoulders rolled forward, head craned toward your computer, eyes focused intently 2 feet in front of you, then ===> Stand Up. Extend your spine. Ramp your head back so your ears are stacked over your shoulders. Flex your wrists. Stretch your arms out to the side and point your elbow pits up to the ceiling. Look out your window and at the farthest, farthest tree. Do that for 30 seconds.

This is SUCH a simple exercise – no fancy cueing, no complicated instructions to remember. Just DO THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT YOU USUALLY DO. You remember that episode of Seinfeld where George Costanza does the opposite of everything his instincts tell him to do, and his life suddenly turns around?? Well, in this rare instance, follow George’s example.

I am in the process of figuring out when/how to return to NST practice. Miss Rona is being very difficult. But I will get it all figured out soon. In the meantime, feel free to reach out to me with questions, comments, suggestions for what you would like to hear about next. Thanks SO MUCH for reading!!!

Take care, My peeps!