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the_iriselle

@the_iriselle

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movement | mindfulness | musings
🧘🏾‍♀️Yoga Teacher |👩🏾‍🎓EdD student
guiding+gathering for the people✊🏾

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Sun Studio, Moon Studio, Athens or Atlanta — we’re consistently the best 🫶💅

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We’re super excited to have Iris in a permanent Sunday slot!

Come see her, Sundays at noon 🩵🫶

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🦁 30 DAYS OF FEEDING THE LION — DAY 21

👂🏽 THE LESSON: LISTEN TO YOUR PRIDE.

Looking at this picture reminds me that our retreat was never just about the sessions I planned.

Everyone brought something—their stories, wisdom, vulnerability, laughter, and love.

I created the container, but the Pride created the experience. 🦁

Lion Habit #9: Listen to Your Pride.

Strong leaders don’t need every answer. Sometimes growth means getting quiet enough to hear the people who know us, challenge us, and believe in us.

🧠 THE RESEARCH

Strong social connections are consistently associated with greater well-being and resilience. We’re wired for connection.

📓 JOURNALING PROMPTS

• Who is part of my Pride?
• Whose voice do I trust?
• Who might I need to listen to right now?

You don’t have to figure everything out alone. Listen to your Pride. 👂🏽🦁

30DaysOfFeedingTheLion @feed_thelion #ListenToYourPride #LionHabits #LeadershipWellness #Community Connection

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30 DAYS OF FEEDING THE LION 🦁 | DAY 15

Halfway there! And today’s lesson is to pause.

For so many leaders, educators, caregivers, and people in service of others, rest becomes something we think we have to earn.

I’ll rest when this project is finished.
I’ll rest when everyone else is taken care of.
I’ll rest when things slow down.

But what happens when the work never really stops?

🧡THE LESSON: Rest isn’t the reward for doing the work. Rest is part of the work.

Research consistently connects adequate rest and sleep with better emotional regulation, learning, decision-making, and performance. Our bodies and brains need recovery—not just productivity.

That’s why one of our 12 Lion Habits is:

🦁 Habit #11: HONOR REST.

Even lions rest. A lot. 😴

Strength doesn’t require constant movement. Sometimes feeding your lion means giving yourself permission to be still, recover, and trust that the world can keep spinning without you for a moment.

✍🏽 JOURNAL PROMPT:
Where in my life am I treating rest like a reward instead of a requirement?

And what would it look like to honor rest before my body forces me to?

Halfway through these 30 days, maybe the invitation isn’t to do more.

Maybe it’s to pause.

Feed your lion.
Then let your lion rest. 🦁💛

@feed_thelion 30DaysOfFeedingTheLion HonorRest #HolisticWellness LeadershipWellness #RestIsProductive SelfCare #WellnessForLeaders #HealthyLeadership

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DAY 12 🦁 | YOUR STRENGTHS ARE CLUES

One of my favorite moments from the Feed the Lion Retreat was reflecting on our proudest moments—not to brag, but to notice the patterns.

Because the moments when you’ve felt most alive, most capable, and most like yourself often reveal something important:

Your strengths. 💪🏽

Research on strengths-based development suggests that focusing on what we naturally do well can support greater engagement, confidence, and well-being.

At @feed_thelion , we don’t believe growth always means fixing what’s “wrong.” Sometimes growth means recognizing what’s already right—and learning to use more of it.

🦁 Lion Habit #4: Leverage Your Strengths

And this picture captures some of mine: bringing people together, creating community, and making space for people to grow—and have a damn good time doing it. 🥂😂

✍🏽 JOURNAL PROMPT:
Think of 3 moments in your life when you felt incredibly proud of yourself.

What strengths were you using in each? What pattern do you notice?

Your past wins may be leaving clues about the person you’re becoming. 🦁

#30DaysOfWellness #FeedTheLion #HolisticWellness #LeadershipWellness Strengths WellnessJourney

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30 DAYS OF FEEDING THE LION 🦁 | DAY 5

What if something goes… right?

Yesterday I wrote about flexibility when things don’t go according to plan.

But here’s the other side of that lesson:

Unexpected doesn’t always mean bad.

After our first full day, I realized I had overplanned. We didn’t need another session the next morning. We needed to move, laugh, sweat and start the day in our bodies.

At dinner, my cousin @saraith_yzquiel (who by the way is a certified personal trainer) volunteered: “I’ll lead the workout tomorrow.”

It wasn’t on my agenda. I hadn’t asked her. And it ended up being exactly what we all needed.

She got us moving, laughing and challenging ourselves together—and gave me permission to simply participate for a while instead of leading.

We spend so much time preparing ourselves for what could go wrong that sometimes we forget to leave room for this possibility:

Things can go unexpectedly RIGHT, too.

Research on optimism suggests that expecting positive possibilities is associated with greater psychological well-being and more adaptive responses to stress. Optimism isn’t pretending everything will work out perfectly.

It’s remembering that difficulty isn’t the only possible outcome.

For those of us who lead and care for others, there’s another lesson here too:

You don’t always have to be the one leading.

Sometimes wellness is trusting someone else enough to step forward while you step back.

🦁 TODAY’S LION PRACTICE + JOURNAL PROMPT

Where am I spending more energy preparing for what could go wrong than noticing what could go right?

And:

Where could I let someone else lead, help, or surprise me?

Today, leave a little room for life to exceed your expectations. ☀️

Day 5/30. Keep feeding your lion. 🦁

#FeedTheLion #30DaysOfWellness #HolisticWellness #Optimism #WellnessIsLeadership

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30 DAYS OF FEEDING THE LION 🦁 | DAY 3

Wellness was never meant to be done alone.

Yesterday I shared that everything starts with a vision.

But a vision also needs the right people around it.

When I started imagining this retreat, two people immediately came to mind: Danielle and Iris—both former educators and KIPP leaders who understand what it means to spend your life pouring into others.

I knew I wanted them helping me create a space where leaders could finally pour some of that energy back into themselves.

@the.soundsage brought sound healing and lessons from her work around self-love, including The Secrets of a Self-Love Sage. @the_iriselle brought movement, yoga, grounding and presence.

And together, they reminded me of something we sometimes overlook:

Community is wellness.

Research backs that up. Strong social connection is associated with better health and well-being, while isolation can negatively affect both our physical and mental health.

That’s why Social Wellness has a place on the Lion Wellness Wheel—and why one of our Lion Habits is Build Your Pride. 🦁

Especially for leaders, educators and caregivers who spend so much time being strong for everyone else:

Who is strong for you?

🦁 TODAY’S LION PRACTICE + JOURNAL PROMPT

Who are the people in your Pride who leave you feeling more grounded, energized and like yourself?

And then the harder question:

Am I intentionally making enough space for those relationships?

Today, reach out to one of them. ❤️

Day 3/30. Keep feeding your lion. 🦁

#FeedTheLion #30DaysOfWellness #BuildYourPride #SocialWellness #WellnessIsLeadership

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30 DAYS OF FEEDING THE LION 🦁 | DAY 1

Last month, 13 of us traveled to a little corner of the Dominican Republic and did something that feels increasingly rare:

We slowed down.

We put our phones away. We moved our bodies. We ate good food. We journaled. We laughed. We cried. We rested. We reflected. And we asked ourselves a simple question:

What does it actually mean to feed the lion within? 🦁

I went into the weekend as the person who planned the retreat.

I came home realizing I had just as much to learn as anyone else.

So for the next 30 days, I’m sharing 30 lessons in wellness that I brought home from the first Feed the Lion Wellness Retreat.

Some are things I’ve believed for years. Some were reminders I needed. And some surprised me completely.

We’ll talk about vision. Breath. Gratitude. Movement. Food. Rest. Nature. Community. Self-love. Putting the damn phone down. 😂 And what happens when we intentionally create enough space to hear ourselves again.

This isn’t about having wellness figured out.

It’s about practicing it.

Because wellness isn’t a destination. It’s how we choose to live.

And for the next 30 days, I’m inviting you to practice with me.

TODAY’S LION PRACTICE 🦁

As September begins, ask yourself:

What would it look like to intentionally feed my mind, body, and spirit this month?

Write it down. That’s your starting point.

Tomorrow, we’ll start with the lesson that made this entire experience possible:

Everything starts with a vision.

#FeedTheLion #30DaysOfWellness #WellnessIsLeadership #FeedYourLion

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To all of the people I spent August with, thank you ♥️ same time & place next year 🤔

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There’s a difference between having a curriculum and having a plan for how that curriculum comes to life.

This week we partnered with the incredible team at Sankofa Montessori to facilitate Scope & Sequence Planning as they prepare for the school year ahead. Together, we worked to ensure teachers weren’t just looking at what to teach—but when, why, and how it all connects across the first nine weeks of instruction.

Our planning focused on:
✨ Prioritizing standards
✨ Aligning curriculum to pacing
✨ Identifying critical learning experiences
✨ Creating a shared vision for high-quality Tier 1 instruction

Strong instruction starts long before students walk through the doors. It starts with intentional planning, collaborative thinking, and a team that’s committed to getting it right for kids.

We’re excited to partner with Sankofa Montessori this year and can’t wait to see the impact this work has in classrooms.

#TeacherPlanning #education #instructionalcoaching #erinncottman

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SWEAT & STRETCH THIS SATURDAY @ 10AM 🔥

We’re pairing up MultiCamp and yoga for one session that hits both sides, the work AND the recovery.

Bring your energy for camp, then we slow it down with yoga w/ @the_iriselle

Pull up. Bring a friend. Let’s get to work!

📍 MultiFitness Training Club
🗓 Saturday @ 10AM

Must Register on our website or MultiFitness App

@multifitness.gym

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We spend so much time taking care of everyone else that we forget to take care of ourselves.

The workouts get scheduled.
The errands get done.
The to-do list gets checked off.

But recovery? That usually gets pushed to the bottom of the list.

The truth is, your body carries everything.. stress, tension, long days, sleepless nights, and the constant demands of everyday life.

That’s why I love our Thursday yoga sessions with @the_iriselle It’s more than stretching. It’s an opportunity to slow down, breathe, release tension, and reconnect with your body. 🥹

If you’ve been feeling tight, overwhelmed, or simply need an hour for yourself, we’d love to have you join us.

🧘🏽‍♀️Yoga at MultiFitness
📅 Every Thursday
⏰ 7:30 PM

Comment “YOGA” or send me a DM for details. 🤎

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