Strengthen your spine—don’t harden your heart

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✨Strengthen your spine. Don’t harden your heart🫀

This mantra has carried me through the most chaotic and divinely beautiful six months of my life thus far.

I tumbled into sleep-deprived motherhood while still deep in med school—juggling clinical demands, family shifts, and the sweet perfume of baby snuggles. It’s been awe-inspiring. It’s been brutal. And it’s been survival mode.

I stepped away from my daily meditation practice for the first time in 5 years, letting myself float in the messy tides of becoming. But after a breaking point last week—long commutes, food poisoning, a terrifying ER visit, balancing my partner’s career demands, and pressure to perform—I heard the call to anchor again.

I returned to my routine. To my spine. To the breath. And to a heart still soft enough to hold it all.

This reflection came through in stillness:

When life gets tough, strengthen your spine—don’t harden your heart.

My meditative practice reminds me to sit tall and breathe through my entire spine, and to soften my heart despite the barrage of chaos the world consistently berates me with. I find myself sighing in relief, ready to come home to this new version of myself, again.