I am a recovered stressed, anxious, overwhelmed, unfulfilled, very type-A, overachieving mom and wife.

I found practices and truths that untangled the mess that was my daily life, and have found power, peace, and happiness that I never dreamed possible.

I grew up on my family’s apple farm in upstate NY

the only girl among my brother, cousins, and neighbors, running around, trying to keep up. My sophomore year in high school my grandmother died of ovarian cancer, and a year later my mom was diagnosed with the same disease, stage 4, and given a 5% chance of survival. It was a year plus of hell, and then at the 11th hour, she pulled through from a life saving last-ditch surgery. She’s still here today, and both her resilience and the trauma from that struggle stayed with me for the years to come.

I went to college full time when I was in high school

and I was the first person in 30 years to go to one of the top three schools, landing at Yale, majoring at first in Microbiology and Biochemistry, then switching to Political Science. Going to Yale from a small rural area without either academic or worldly preparation, was a shock to the system. Adding in a boyfriend from home who I had fallen in love with during my mom’s illness who did not attend college and, it turned out, had a drug problem, Yale wasn’t an easy time for me. But I made it through, with my natural enthusiasm for enjoying life and general bravery and often ill-founded confidence.

Fast forward through >> My first job out of college as the right hand to the Chairman/CEO of Cosi, when I was the point person on the IPO, through my second job as the right hand to Josie Natori, and there I was getting married and becoming a mom.

I was woefully unprepared for how hard being a mom and wife was going to be.

I was struggling while trying to juggle the responsibilities and unexpected challenges that seemingly were never-ending. When I woke up to the fact that I wasn’t as happy as I wanted to be, I got to work, in any way that I could, to figure it out.

First, I started with fitness and nutrition, losing the baby weight and getting in the best shape of my life.

But it wasn’t just that… Then I discovered yoga.

The first few times I was reluctantly dragged to yoga I couldn’t get out of there fast enough. I only had an hour away from my babies and I needed to be punching, kicking, pushing something. Anything. Staying still was torture.

Once a friend got me comfortable enough with the basic poses that I could relax a bit, less “looking around the room to see if I was doing it right”, I started to notice that yoga felt really, really good. Afterwards, I felt like I was glowing. Something was definitely up with this practice. I committed to going twice a week for a few months and after that, I was hooked. I decided to go to teacher training to deepen my practice, and it was then the magic really started…

I started meditating every day, and going back to my philosophical and spiritual studies that I had found in college… and through reading Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi, I eventually found my meditation teacher, Don Baba, who began to teach me the Kriya techniques that he learned from his teacher, Hariharinanda. The awakening that has since occurred can’t really be described with words, but it is truly transformative and empowering beyond anything I could have ever imagined. I am no Master by any means, but I know what I need to practice and I generally can see clearly how I need to practice. The result is unlimited power and happiness.

Surrendering to the ebb and flow of the ocean

is what allows us to surf the waves.

On paper, you know that your life is awesome. You have it better than 90% of humans on the planet.... yet, you aren’t completely happy and don’t really feel empowered to achieve your greatest life vision. Something is missing. You are more surviving than thriving. In her book, Find More Strength: 5 Pillars to Unlock Unlimited Power and Happiness, Pamela Gold provides an inner roadmap to reclaiming your power and finding unlimited happiness in your life.

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