Lately, it feels like everything around us is heavy with tension, hearts uneasy, nervous systems on edge, a low hum of uncertainty threading through our days. It can be incredibly anxiety-provoking.

Where do you notice anxiety showing up in your body?

For many, it’s a racing heart or sweaty palms. For me, it’s tightness in my chest and butterflies in my stomach.
May I share an inspirational anecdote about butterflies (the nervous kind, not the winged kind)?

I remember one of my very first yoga classes as a new teacher. Right before I was about to start, my mentor asked how I was feeling. I told her I was nervous and had major butterflies in my stomach. It was a big class, there were some seasoned teachers in it, and what if I messed up?

She smiled and said something I’ve never forgotten: “My hope is that you always have butterflies. It means you care. The work isn’t to get rid of them … it’s to train them to fly in formation.”

Anxiety isn’t a flaw in our system. It’s information. It’s energy. At its core, anxiety fuels action preparation, awareness, focus, care. The goal isn’t to eliminate it entirely (that’s neither realistic nor beneficial), but to work with it.

Think about public speaking. If you’re afraid of speaking in front of a crowd but have to give a speech to 500 people, your anxiety might spike to a 10/10. Fight-or-flight kicks in. Self-doubt gets loud. But that same anxiety can motivate practice, preparation, and presence. With intention, that 10 can soften to a 5; a sweet spot where the butterflies are still there, but no longer overpowering. That’s a performance zone. That’s formation.

This is where our practices come in. Yoga, meditation, breathwork, and mindfulness don’t remove anxiety; they help us relate to it differently. These practices build our capacity to stay present, grounded, and responsive rather than reactive. They teach us how to meet nervous energy with curiosity, steadiness, and choice.

In our Sunday member check-in (members can watch the replay on the My Classes page) last weekend, practiced Tonglen meditation, a Tibetan Buddhist practice of breathing in difficulty with compassion and breathing out ease and care. It reminds us we don’t have to push discomfort away to transform it; we can meet it, breathe with it, and let it soften as it moves through.

The world feels laden with conflict, injustice, and constant noise that keeps our nervous systems on high alert. The question isn’t how to escape that reality, but how we choose to respond. How can we channel this collective nervous energy into positive action for our inner wellbeing and for the world we’re shaping together?

With presence,
Ashton

P.S. Thank you to everyone who completed our live class survey. Our community spans many time zones, which we love … and also means there’s no single perfect time.😜To start, we’re launching Tuesday evening live classes and may evolve the schedule based on participation and feedback.

Join us for our first live class on Tuesday, February 17. More details to follow soon!🥳