Dear friends,

It feels incomplete to write to you this month without acknowledging the reality we’re living in. There is a lot of disorienting, ungrounding heaviness happening in the world right now.

But here’s the truth I keep coming back to: we don’t need to bypass what’s hard in order to stay open.

And we don’t need to harden in order to protect ourselves from it.

In mindfulness meditation guru Jack Kornfield’s recent writing, he shares a simple but powerful reminder: the work is to love anyway.

Not because the world makes it easy.
Not because people always meet us with kindness.
But because choosing love – again and again – is what keeps us human. It’s what keeps us grounded in our humanity.

It would be easy to shut down. To become numb, guarded, detached. In many ways, that response makes sense. But as he writes, that isn’t freedom … it’s armor.

And armor, while protective, also keeps us from fully living.

Perhaps you recall my December Letter From the Editor when we talked about hope not as blind optimism, but as a grounded, embodied practice and force we actively cultivate.

Hope and love, in this way, are not separate.

Hope says, I will find a way.
Love says, I will stay open as I do.

Both ask something of us: both require presence, courage, and a willingness to remain engaged with life as it is, and not just as we wish it to be (this is a tough one for me – do you relate?!).

So this month, I’ve been reflecting on a quieter, steadier form of strength. Not the kind that pushes through or powers over, but the kind that softens without collapsing. That stays open without losing itself.

The kind of strength that says: I see what’s happening. I feel it. And I’m still here.

Still breathing.
Still caring.
Still choosing to love.
Still choosing to remain open.

Because an open heart, even when it aches, is a living heart.

And a living heart has the capacity to create change – within us, around us, and beyond us.

This is the practice.

To stay.
To feel.
To love anyway.

Not perfectly. Not all at once. But in small, real, human ways through how we speak, how we show up, how we care for ourselves and each other.

If you’re craving a space to land in this practice, I’d love to practice together.

I host a live virtual class every Tuesday at 7:30pm EST on YouAligned Classes as a space to move, breathe, and reconnect in real time. You’re always welcome there. You can find a link to these live classes on the YA Classes home page and on your My Classes page.

With love,
Ashton