Fall is in full swing here in the Northern hemisphere. The nights are crisp, the light is softening, and the leaves are entering their final transformation.

As the earth prepares for a season of dormancy, only the vital parts of the plants remain; everything else is released, preparing the ground for new life in the s…

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Today’s mini-retreat is a companion to last week’s essay (which you can find here).

Set up a cozy corner with a blanket and warm drink of choice and join me for a brief practice that blends mindful movement, breath, and reflection. We’ll begin by dropping into the present, exploring a brief movement practice that you can tailor to your energy today. From there, I’ll read a short essay and invite you to notice what arises—thoughts, sensations, memories—without judgment.

We’ll close with a simple mantra meditation you can carry into your day:

I am doing enough. I have enough. I am enough.

If you want to go deeper, last week’s post includes the full essay written out plus some journaling prompts to help you explore how “enoughness” might feel in your body and your life. Try keeping the mantra on a sticky note where you’ll see it often, and notice what shifts when you move through your day from this place.

If this resonated: share it with a friend, leave a comment with what came up for you, and subscribe for future mini-retreats.

References & links

• YouTube: SomaSong Wellness

• Instagram: @centeredwithabby • @somasongwellness

• Other Substack: singingsomatics.substack.com

What if you were already enough? Exactly as you are?

I’m not asking you to believe me, but I am asking you to entertain the question.

What would it be like to feel that you’re already enough?

We’re surrounded by messages of not-enoughness. From the time we’re children, these messages are already tunneling so deeply i…

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These retreats are designed to help you create a ritual of self-care—a routine that invites you to pause from daily life, check in, reset, nourish your nervous system, and move forward with more intention. Practice anytime from the comfort of your home, and come as you are—whatever you’re bringing in today is welcome here.

Before getting started, I encourage you to take some time to get cozy and set your space. You’ll get the most out of this if you carve out some intentional time. Limit distractions, silence notifications, and consider a small ritual to mark the beginning—brew a cup of tea, light a candle or twinkle lights, diffuse some essential oils or incense, or do any other quick practice that signals to yourself that this time is special. Our brains love ritual, so repeating these little opening rituals helps your system drop in more quickly in the future.

Theme: This retreat is inspired by the autumn equinox in the Northern Hemisphere. As we move into a time of equal daylight and darkness, we are reminded to find balance. Today we’ll explore the lessons of the equinox and examine what balance means in our bodies, breath, and lives.

What you’ll experience

• A gentle centering to arrive in your body and your space

• Breath awareness and even-count breathing (inhale/exhale balanced)

• Optional box breathing

• Somatic, balancing movement practice

• A reflective journaling prompt to integrate your insights

A note on autonomy & safety

Everything I offer is a suggestion, not a mandate. Please adapt or rest anytime—this is your practice.

Journal prompt to take with you

What aspects of your life feel out of balance right now? Consider work/school, rest, friendships, family, romance, your relationship with yourself, self-care, health, mental health, spirituality, creativity, and play.

What would balance look and feel like? Name 1–3 small actions that would move you toward it this week.

If this resonated

• Subscribe to get future mini-retreats and somatic practices in your inbox.

• Listen & share this episode with someone who could use a reset.

• Follow on IG: @centeredwithabby

• Website: abbyilardi.com

• SomaSong Method & courses: learn how to use singing/toning/humming and somatics to build nervous system resilience. Find us at @somasongwellness on Youtube and Instagram and singingsomatics.substack.com. You can also join our email list to be the first to know when our upcoming course drops. (Join Here).

Educational content only. Not a substitute for medical care. Please consult your provider with questions about your specific health needs.

I wrestled with what to post this week in the wake of the recent political violence and (yet another) school shooting.

I have never wanted my Substack to be a political space. Of course I have my viewpoints, and surely they influence my work, but my goal has always been to create a truly kind and compassionate corner of…

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It is so easy to get swept up by the busyness of life only to realize that we haven’t been giving our time and energy to the things that actually feel important. This practice is your opportunity to take stock and reset so you can move into this month with a clearer sense of focus.

You can use this as a guided journaling session, you could take this on a walk and use the questions as prompts for self-reflection, or you could practice this with a loved one and use the questions as guides for conversation. Feel free to use this however would be most helpful!

And if you’d like to share your intention for the month ahead, I’d love to hear it! Feel free to post in the comments below, and we can support each other.

If you enjoyed this practice, I’d also love to know. As I continue shaping the vision for this platform, I would love your feedback on what types of content is resonating.

Would you like a reflect & reset practice every month? What other content would you like to see? Guided meditations? Yoga classes? Embodied art practices? Essays? Let me know!

P.S. If you’re a paid subscriber, keep scrolling to get your bonus of the week. You’ll find all of the prompts written out, plus an herbal tea recipe curated for this mini-retreat.

A September Tea for Our Retreat

Thanks so much for being a paid subscriber. As a small thank-you for being here this month, I’m sharing a simple, cozy herbal tea blend that pairs beautifully with our retreat. A warm mug helps me drop into the moment and start the centering process, so I hope it brings you comfort and helps enhance your retreat experience.

Flavor of September

When I think of September, I immediately conjure up the taste of a crisp apple. To me, apples signify the gentle fading of summer into fall, so I wanted to incorporate apple flavor into our tea this month.

Though less common than cider or juice, apple tea can be a delicious way to embrace the tastes of the season.

Below you’ll find several options for making or procuring apple-flavored tea.

If you’d like to blend the tea yourself, you can often find loose leaf herbs in bulk at health food stores or herbal apothecaries for quite cheap. Or if you’d like to purchase a similar tea pre-blended, there are many variants of an apple-flavored tea for sale this time of year.

The Blend: Apple Spice Tea

Flavor: apple-forward with warm spice, soft florals, and a hint of citrus.
Makes: 1 big mug (12–14 oz). Scale as needed.

Ingredients (dried)

• 2 tsp dried apple pieces (or 1–2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh apple—see Method A)

• ½ tsp rose hips or orange peel

• ¼ tsp cinnamon chips (or a small crack of cinnamon stick)

• a pinch of ginger to taste

Brew: Cover with just-boiled water and steep 10–15 minutes. Strain. Sweeten lightly if you like—honey plays nicely—or enjoy as is.

Three easy ways to make it

Method A — Fresh Apple Simmer
Thinly slice ½ small apple. Add to a small pot with a cracked cinnamon stick, orange peel, and ginger (fresh or dried). Cover with 12–14 oz water; simmer 10 min. Remove from heat.

Method B — Pantry Blend (fastest)
Put the dried ingredients in an infuser. Steep 10–15 min, covered.

Method C — Store-Bought Shortcut
Brew an apple-spice/herbal “harvest” tea (2 bags, 10 min).

I hope you enjoy!

Reflect & Reset Ritual

Here are the questions we go over in the retreat written out for your convenience:

1. Spend a little time reflecting on the last month or so and complete the following sentence: “For me, August was…”

   1. Note: There’s no right or wrong way to do this. Just explore what comes up when you reflect on the last month. Of course, if you’re not doing this prompt in real time, change the wording to reflect on the previous month.

2. What were my top three highlights of the month?

3. What was hard over the last month? What were some challenges, frustrations, or setbacks that you faced? What didn’t go your way or what felt hard?

4. What lesson can you draw from the last month? What did you learn about yourself or the world? What did you learn from your challenges or frustrations? What do you want to take with you to make next month better?

5. Finish the following sentence: I want September to look like…

6. What are three things that you would like to focus on this month? What are your priorities and where would you like to place your time and energy?

7. What is one intention or theme that you would like to focus on this month? Pick a word, phrase, or sentence that will help you focus your time and energy this month.

8. What are 1-5 small action steps that you can take to make your intention a reality?

How did this ritual go for you? I’d love to hear your thoughts! And feel free to share your intention for the month in the comments below.

I originally envisioned my project on “living deeply” as the premise of a book. In fact, I have a Google Doc from 2019 with pages of bullet-pointed ideas for “The Live Deeply Project Book,” so clearly this is something that has been rattling around my brain for a long time. I dreamed of writing the next Eat, Pray, Love. …

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I’m so excited to share the Living Deeply Retreat Guide — a companion PDF I created to enrich your experience of the Living Deeply Mini Retreat.

This guide is more than just a transcript of the audio. It’s designed to be both practical and beautiful — something you’ll want to print, keep, and return to again and again. Inside, you’ll find:

• A tea meditation ritual to begin your retreat with presence (not included in the audio)

• Nourishing herbal tea blend recipes curated especially for this retreat

• All of the journaling prompts written out for easy reference

• Lined pages for your reflections

• Extra suggestions for deepening your retreat experience

Here’s a peek inside the guide:

If you’d like the full guide, there are two ways to get it:

1. Upgrade to a paid subscription — paid subscribers receive every retreat guide automatically. (If you are a paid subscriber, keep scrolling down for the download link).

2. Purchase individually — you can grab this guide as a one-time download in my online shop → [Mini-Retreat: Living Deeply in the Everyday - Payhip].

For Paid Subscribers :

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So often we rush through our days — answering emails, crossing tasks off lists, moving from one thing to the next — without pausing to notice the texture of our own lives. Living deeply isn’t about adding more. It’s about slowing down enough to truly feel what’s here.

That’s what this 30-minute mini retreat is for.

I’ll guide you through gentle movement and breath to help your body settle, followed by a journaling practice that invites you to reflect on what living deeply means to you — and how you might weave more of it into your daily life.

You don’t need special equipment. Just a quiet space, a notebook, and the willingness to give yourself 30 minutes of undivided attention.

Imagine finishing this retreat feeling more present, grounded, and connected to what really matters. That clarity is always within reach — it just takes a pause to access it.

The Companion Guide

If you’d like to go deeper, I’ve created a beautiful companion booklet to enrich your retreat experience. Inside you’ll find:

• A tea meditation ritual to begin your retreat with presence (not included in the audio)

• Herbal tea blend recipes curated specifically for this retreat

• All the journaling prompts written out with lined pages for your reflections

• Extra tips for making the most of your retreat

I love being able to gift this guide to my paid subscribers — you’ll receive the full booklet automatically as part of your subscription. (You’ll get a separate email).

If you’d prefer a one-time purchase, the guide is also available in my online storefront → [purchase here]. For the cost of a latte, you can give yourself (or someone you love) the gift of presence, clarity, and pause.

Living deeply isn’t somewhere far away; it begins here, in this breath, in this choice to slow down and check in.

P.S. Each time I release a new mini retreat, paid subscribers receive the full companion booklet automatically — no extra steps needed. If you’d like ongoing access to these guides (plus other bonus resources along the way), consider upgrading your subscription. It’s a simple way to support this work and give yourself a deeper retreat experience each time.

Subscribe now

To read the full essay and access bonus journaling prompts/reflection questions, you can check out the original article here.

Thanks for listening!

“I wished to live deliberately...and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived... I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life” -- Henry David Thoreau from Walden

I’m going to be honest and admit that I’ve never actually finished Walden.

I tried once. It was summer vacation, and I was about twenty ye…

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This trailer will outline some of the vision behind the upcoming offerings, but I want to hear from you!

What are you most interested in? Guided practices like mini-retreats, meditations, and journaling practices? Audio essays? Q+As? Interviews?

Let me know in the comments, and I’ll take your feedback into account as I design this season. :)

Hi there!

If you remember Mind Body Maven, you’ll know it’s been quiet on here for a while.

Thank you for staying on the list and not hitting unsubscribe while I took some time to step back and figure out the future of this Substack.

I’m excited to announce that I am in the process of relaunching—this time with a new name and clearer mission—and I’m so ex…

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I have been hearing a lot of buzz about NSDR in the online wellness space since Dr. Andrew Huberman discussed it on his popular podcast in 2021.

While Huberman is credited with coining the term NSDR and popu…

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I love a good New Year ritual. Though I haven’t always been a big New Year's resolution person (I believe that change is possible any time of year, and I don’t like the pressure many feel to engage in “self-improvement” each January), I do love an excuse to reflect on my intentions and goals for the coming year.

This guided journaling practice is designed to help you reflect on your dreams for 2024 and to help you turn those dreams into specific, achievable action steps.

Though I am recording this practice around the start of the new year, you can use this practice any time you want to set some goals and intentions.

Additionally, I think that there is something nice about practicing along with a guided audio, but if you prefer to have the prompts written out, here is a list of the basic prompts that we will be covering during our time together:

1. Take a moment to reflect broadly on the things you most value, or the areas of your life that you most want to prioritize this year. Keep it broad. These could be things like health, career, relationships, mental health, comfort, adventure, creativity, spirituality, helping others, etc. Feel free to make a bullet point list, or you can also free-write.

2. Looking at the values that you identified in question 1, pick one to focus on for this practice. We are going to call this the theme for the practice. 

3. Write about why you value this theme. Why is it important or meaningful to you? Spend a few minutes reflecting here.

4. Now spend some time writing about what you want this area of your life to look like in the next year. Allow yourself to imagine and dream. No need to censor yourself. In an ideal world, what would this area of your life look like over the next year?

5. Read over what you wrote for question 4. Can you distill your core desires for this theme into one sentence? This sentence does not need to include everything you desire, but it should capture the basic idea. We will call this sentence your intention.

6. Can you come up with at least one goal to help you achieve your intention? How do you want to make your intention a reality?

7. Take a look at your goal and see if you can reword it in the form of a SMART goal. SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. See if you can turn your goal or goals from question 6 into goals with the SMART qualities.

8. If you made more than one SMART goal, choose one to focus on for now. For that SMART goal, make a list of small action steps that you can take to achieve the goal. How will you break this goal into small, easy steps?

9. Pick one action step from your list and commit to taking that action step as soon as you can. Sometimes it can be helpful to make the first action step comically small to start building your confidence. No matter how small the action step, make sure you allow yourself to celebrate. You are paving the way toward meeting your goal. 

For the next several months, I invite you to regularly check back in with your intention and goals. Repeat the journaling process as many times as you need, and make sure you stay flexible. If a goal isn’t working, feel free to adjust. Maybe you need to break it into smaller action steps or pick a new goal to help you work toward the same intention.

I hope you find this helpful, and I wish you a happy start to 2024!

I am of the belief that enjoying good food is an important part of life, and to me, the holidays wouldn’t feel complete without a few Christmas cookies.

However, …

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I have noticed in both my personal and professional life that the presence of emotional pain is a double-edged sword in friendships and relationships. Pain has the powe…

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