How a panic attack became a calling, and a coffee shop conversation became a community.

Once upon a time, I thought I could handle anything.

In my mid-twenties, teaching high school in a high-stress environment, nights and weekends consumed by work, I believed that pushing through was the way. I had always succeeded, regardless of how much sleep I got (or didn’t) or well I ate (or didn’t). Until my body had other plans. Panic attacks. Anxiety. My nervous system staging what I now understand was an intervention—a warning signal demanding I find another way.

The doctors offered prescriptions. But a wise therapist introduced me to something revolutionary: the possibility that I could be comfortable with who I am. He handed me Jon Kabat-Zinn and a toolkit for harnessing my mind.

That's when everything changed.

The moment I discovered mindfulness, my system said "YES"—and I dove into chakra work, yoga, anything that would help me get out of my head and into my body. I embraced the radical notion that my body might be speaking wisdom, not weakness. What a relief. 

But here's the magic I discovered: this medicine is contagious.

The Innovation: Pioneering Mindfulness in Education

Long before somatic embodiment became mainstream, I was experimenting with contemplative practices in high-stakes academic environments. When I offered my high school English students one minute of silence each day, they resisted at first. Stillness and silence were foreign, enemies even. But they came to like it, look forward to it. The soft lighting from lamps instead of overhead fluorescents, the smooth music from other lands—they found peace in the calm. Notes of affirmation, metacognition, student self-efficacy—encouraging student self-leadership rather than external control. The over-excitement of living in urgency and emergency began to loosen its grip. And they could shift into learning.

In 2005, I founded PEARLS (Poise, Elegance, Assertiveness, Respect, Love, and Self) for young women at Hillside High School. 

When I brought yoga into my AP Language and Composition classroom, something extraordinary happened. Girls brought in shorts for under their uniforms; parents were supportive. Months later on exam day, the school counselor said he'd never seen students so calm walking into a high-stakes test. I'd taught them to create internal space, to breathe, to be present with themselves. Their external performance flowed from their internal resources.

By 2012, I was conducting "Mindfulness: the ISHCMC Experiment" at the International School of Ho Chi Minh City.

The Foundation: Twenty Years of Practice

When my daughter was born, one of my first outings was to a half-day yoga workshop. We did baby yoga together in her first year. And in that tender time of new motherhood, I worked with therapist Briar Jacques, who helped me come home to myself in ways I didn't even know I needed.

This isn't just what I do—it's who I am.

During those teaching years, I was also studying—traveling from Vietnam to Thanyapura in Thailand for mindfulness educator training, diving deeper into how contemplative practices could transform not just individual lives, but entire learning communities. I also deepened my sense of everyday presence by navigating the turgid streets of Saigon.

For almost twenty years, I've maintained a twice-daily yoga practice. Not as spiritual performance, but as literal lifeline. I'd been a dancer and an athlete, so moving through emotions felt natural. But this was different. This was coming home. I had entered the art of the sacred. It's what carried me through adulting with ADHD, through my divorce, through becoming a solo parent, through living with an autoimmune disorder, through three years of long COVID symptoms (where I actively used nervous system practices to unstick my heart rate and calm my system), through every life transition and transformation.

This is what I know after two decades of devoted practice: when you create space—mental and emotional—for yourself, everything changes. You start trusting your intuition. Saying no becomes natural. Healthy boundaries emerge organically. You can heal wounds from your past without being consumed by them. Transformation becomes constant and meaningful rather than forced and performative. You slowly become who you’ve always been, and the life you’re creating becomes the life you’ve dreamed of.

The Training: Formal & Lived Learning

Formal Training & Education:

• Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) certification

• Mindfulness educator training at Thanyapura, Thailand

• Trauma-informed leadership as a teacher-leader and workshops through American Press Institute

• Solutions Journalism Network Train-the-Trainers

• Evidence-based diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging facilitation

• Neurosomatic healing workshops led by Kate Northrup, Sarah Tacy, Elisabeth Kristof, Regina Thomashauer, Emily Fletcher

• Two decades of self-study in Yoga, Kundalini, Ayurveda, Tantra, and Manifestation

• Two decades of guided and self-led embodied practices

• Almost one decade as a daily Insight Timer user

The Synthesis: Where Body Wisdom Meets Cosmic Intelligence

My relationship with astrology evolved organically—from studying sun signs as a teenager, to reading birth charts at college bars, to using cosmic timing as a tool for personal growth and healing. During the pandemic, Briar Jacques, now an astrotherapist, brought me home to myself again—this time through my natal chart, helping me see myself not as fragmented into good and bad parts, or light and shadow sides, but as a whole, integrated being. It was the gift I needed to learn how to facilitate my own healing, which became the foundation for holding space for others to do the same.

My passion for astrology reignited, I was able to use it in a whole new way. Not as a Magic 8 ball for predicting our days or shortcut for understanding our personalities, but as method for aligning with Universe, timing our intentions, and manifesting in an authentic-yet-organized way. Finding Jana Roemer (Attune to the Moon) on Insight Timer reinforced my updated perspective. My philosophy aligns with not only her, but Chani Nicholas and Chris Corsini; it’s strategic support for timing our transformation.

The Community: How Magic Finds You

Sometimes the most profound work happens when you're just being yourself. One afternoon at Mr. Rabbit Coffee in Philadelphia, I was sharing insights about the New Moon in Taurus with a friend. A woman at a neighboring table to right began to lean in:

"Excuse me, I don't mean to be rude, but I'd love to hear more about this."

Of course, I smiled.

"I heard you say something about Taurus, do you mind if I listen also?" said the woman on my left.

"Lex!" shouted Julia, the coffee shop owner. "A little louder for the people in the back!"

When I protested that surely not everyone wanted to hear about astrology, the entire cafe—customers and baristas alike —turned and nodded enthusiastically. Yes, they did.

Fast forward a few months, and colorful scrolls began appearing beside the espresso machine, each offering astrological insights for customers to read while they waited. These small gifts to the Mr. Rabbit community became the foundation for workshops, consultations, and the blog posts that now reach souls around the world.

Each scroll carried this message: "These readings are a gift from our friend Lex to the Mr. Rabbit community. For these to continue, please replace this scroll after you read it—that makes this practice sustainable. It's meant to be fun and functional if you're into timing your life."

The Evolution: Integrating New Wisdom

I've been layering in somatic embodiment practices lately—they’re not much different from what I’ve been teaching as ways to access mindfulness. My self-study includes teachers like Kate Northrup (relaxed money guru), Emily Fletcher (Ziva Meditation), Sarah Tacy (resonant pacing), Regena Thomashauer (Mama Gena, swamping) and Elisabeth Kristof (Trauma Rewired), feels like coming home to a bodyfulness I've always known. Emily Fletcher's truth that "bliss is every feeling fully felt," is a mantra to live by. Each teacher offers language for work I've been living for decades, helping me articulate the intersection of nervous system wisdom and cosmic intelligence. By resourcing myself so I can show up more mindful, heartful, and bodyful throughout my day, I am more awakened to guiding you toward the same. Always listening. Always following the intelligence that lives in my bones.

The Current Chapter: Two Decades of Specialization

What makes my work distinctive is the combination of:

• 20+ years of daily embodied practice (twice-daily yoga, meditation, breathwork)

• Global perspective from teaching and living internationally

• Educational innovation in bringing contemplative practices to high-performance environments

• Journalism background that values clarity, accuracy, and cutting through noise

• Intuitive gifts confirmed by natal chart and lived experience

• Specialization with hesitant beginners—particularly those who've struggled with traditional meditation approaches

As someone who found stillness only after engaging with mindful movement, I'm particularly skilled at working with folks who are hesitant or unsure how to start their journey. My expertise in differentiation—honed through years of teaching students with diverse learning styles and neurodivergence—means I customize every approach to the individual in front of me.

The Mission: Your Sacred Return

Whether through individual sessions, community workshops, or the cosmic weather reports I share through writing, everything I offer serves one purpose: helping you remember that your body holds what your mind seeks, that your inner authority isn't broken but buried, and that returning to Self can become as natural as breathing.

This isn't about becoming someone new—it's about coming home to who you've always been.

When I'm not holding space for transformation, you'll find me parenting my daughter, on my yoga mat, in a Latin dance class, or cycling through the city. Whatever I'm doing, I prefer to be outside, staying connected to the natural rhythms that inform all real healing.