storytime

The Difference Between Good and Great Yoga Classes

What’s the difference between a good Yoga class and an okay one? Is it the level of difficulty? Stretchy poses that are held for a long time or tackling headstands or crow pose perhaps? Is it the location? Are you outside on a beautiful hilltop at sunset? Is it measured by how you feel that day coming to your mat versus when you leave class? All of those could be factors in what separates a…

How Can Yoga Help Manage ADD/ADHD and Anxiety?

Growing up with ADD and anxiety was challenging. School was a nightmare, my grades were hellish and all I wanted to do was write notes to my friends and go back to sleep. Now I’m a morning person with newfound momentum to focus and get things done! How? Yoga. Let me back up a little bit here. During quarantine, I was in a really nice position of not having to work or complete the school year…

3 Misconceptions About Yoga

Oftentimes when people think of yoga they imagine a bunch of hippies on mats in the woods chanting incoherently with incense in the background. It feels pretentious at worst and elusive at best and either way it’s just not for most people. Maybe they associate yogis with somewhat of an ascetic lifestyle and assume that because they aren’t living a mostly healthy lifestyle that they can’t…

3 Lessons I’ve Learned On My Yoga Mat

Yoga is one of those activities that stimulates both mind and body (and spirit but more on that once I can articulate it). What I love most about going to Yoga is the themes that teachers have decided on! Not everyone does it, but I appreciate the teachers who do. Let’s get into it! 1.) SHOWING UP IS HALF THE BATTLE It sounds cheesy but it’s the truth! Carving out an hour, ten minutes, a single…

5 Things You’ll Notice After Practicing Yoga for 5 Days

For those of you who don’t know, I’m in the process of learning how to become a Yoga teacher! The Yoga studio closest to me (shoutout to NoDa Yoga!) is having a new student sale and I’ve been attending classes every day for the past week. It’s been a bit since I’ve really practiced yoga and I really wanted to dive back in and find a rhythm again and I’m so glad that I did. Back in the early days…

Practice Makes Perfect: Trying to Live My Life as if I Already Work from Home

My boyfriend works from home as a composer for video games and I am so jealous of him. He gets to wake up whenever he wants and go wherever he chooses. It wasn’t an easy road for him in the beginning but he really likes where he is now. We’re both actors so we always make sure that we have the time to do shows. A couple weeks ago, when I FINALLY had a day off from teaching summer camps and…

Blending Meditation and Yoga with Theater

Over the summer, I’ve been teaching week long drama camps for elementary and middle schoolers. I get to adapt plays myself which I really love doing and it certainly saves the theater money (I occasionally post my adaptations on my blog, I still need to add more.) I love teaching, I love writing, and I love working with kids so it really was a marriage of everything that I love into one job. It…

My Adaptation of ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ for Middle Schoolers

Hi! I haven’t written in SO long but I’m going to start posting what I’ve been working on for my summer camps this year! I wrote this adaptation in like three days and I need to edit it but I also need to start posting again so here we are! Enjoy! A Series of  Unfortunate Events Based on the Series by Lemony Snicket Adapted by: Mary Lynn Bain Cast of Characters Lemony Snicket Count…

She wanted a life where she didn’t feel trapped by her feelings, her finances, or her fiance.

To Whom It May Concern,     Urinetown is probably the most topical piece of the season and I am so excited about it. The satirical, tongue in cheek tone helps us to understand the writer’s frustration with laws and capitalism. The audience is immediately clued in to the fact that Urinetown is a fictional place made up by the people in power to keep the lower classes stuck in poverty, charging…

To Whom It May Concern,     Alice in Wonderland has been retold countless times in many different iterations. But through all of the Tim Burton and Disney lenses we can forget as a collective how odd the origins of the story are and how odd the story is in general. The themes of curiosity, self reliance and independence are what keeps the story relevant to everyone. Lewis Carroll, the pen name…

His mother heard him clomping around in her high heels in his room. She wondered where her red pumps had wandered off to.

The new house was supposed to signify a new beginning but she allowed her paramour in while the husband was away.

Cleaning up the restaurant at the end of the night was Claire’s favorite part of her day. It meant that another day of business was done, her business.

The bus lurched forward carrying the frightened prisoners to an unknown destination.

She looked at the mountain of pages that littered her desk and wondered how she would ever be able to widdle down her book. The clock was ticking. Her editor was waiting.

(Lights up on Anna reading to Seryoha when Alexei and the Physician enter.) Anna: (Rising and taking Seryozha off of her lap) Alexei! You’re home early. Seryozha: (Shyly) Hello father. Alexei: (Unexpectedly cold) Hello young man. You get bigger every time I see you.  (Seryozha nods awkwardly and leaves.) Anna: And you’ve brought a guest! Forgive me, had I known I would have sent out for some…