An Open Letter To The Fitness Community.

We believe that the wellness community has an especially important role in the fight against racism, fatphobia, bigotry, and inequality of all kinds because we claim to be all about health. But we also believe that we are only as well as our community is well. And right now our community is desperately struggling. As a community, we are telling people "not to gain the quarantine 15" when we should be showing them compassion. We are posting pictures of our white bodies and talking about racism as if we could ever understand. We are posting black squares (if we are event doing that) but not taking the necessary action to make our spaces comfortable for everyone. We're asking our black friends to assuage our white guilt and "hold us accountable." We aren't connecting the dots between fitness and privilege. We're talking about fitness as a moral high ground (it's not). We wear lulu lemon and outdoor voices without holding those companies responsible for their platform. 

We cannot be anti diet culture and still promoting before and after pictures as the holy grail of accomplishment. 

We cannot ignore the intersection of diet culture and systemic racism and claim to give a single crap about wellness. 

We cannot be “body positive” and fatphobic at the same time. 

We cannot use the customs of other cultures without due credit or honor and be a “yogi.” 

We cannot ask black and brown people in the community to have coffee with us and to share their story if we are not willing to pay them for their work and elevate their platforms. 

It’s time for the wellness community to own our role in the harm that has been done so we can begin, together, to create a space for the healing and progress we have purported to be promoting from the beginning.

By now we have been given ENDLESS resources. We have had time to process our role in everything. We have access to books, documentaries, personal accounts, and so much more.

There is NO MORE ROOM FOR EXCUSES. People need us and they are looking to us to be leaders and in so many ways we have failed them.

-Elizabeth & Ashley

The Role Of Wellness Companies During The Pandemic

Look. Listen. Elizabeth here, CEO of TRILUNA. I’m going to be honest. As a “wellness company” it’s tempting to just dole out advice when things get tough. “Write in your journal” or “go for a run” are easy traps to get caught in when we feel like we need to do something—anything. And I get that. I really do.

But trauma is more nuanced than that. Lives and stories are more nuanced than that. I am seeing so much shaming right now from the health//fitness//wellness community and I am absolutely 100% over it. We responded to a post recently that a local company wrote about how porn viewership is up, weed use is up, alcohol sales are up, movement is down...and how all these things added up to a pattern of “self-destruction” and it absolutely infuriated me.

Could it be that alcohol sales are up because bars are closed? Could it be that movement is down because parents have suddenly become teachers as well? Or that more people are turning to yoga or lower intensity workouts because they are easier to do while social distancing which puts fewer steps on your fitness tracker? Are more people watching porn because they are self-soothing, or going on fewer dates, or seeking the dopamine release of an orgasm, or having more interesting date nights while locked in a house together? To say that people are being self-destructive when in survival mode is irresponsible. To see that fitness trackers are reporting fewer steps and equating that to Americans getting lazy in the face of a pandemic is irresponsible. To say that gyms should be part of phase one [of the reopening plan] because they should have the same “rights” as restaurants is wildly irresponsible.

As health and wellness companies our MAIN JOB is to help our clients lead healthier lives. If you’re piling guilt and shame on top of them while they try to survive: the shame should be yours. I understand we will likely get backlash for this post. We are ready for it. We are so tired of seeing the “wellness community” lose sight of people’s actual wellness.

Now is the time to focus on what you need to survive, on the practices you find soothing, and the things that help you reduce stress. If that’s running and doing high-intensity workouts...GREAT! If it’s having a donut with your coffee in the morning before the kids get up and start screaming...GREAT. If that’s yoga at noon and a cocktail at night...GREAT.

This is what Brene Browns calls an FFT (an effing first time) because it’s hard and we don’t know what we’re doing. It’s a pandemic. We will be researching the mental, physical, emotional, political, financial, and scientific fallout of this for decades. You don’t have to get everything right right now. You also can’t look at one sampling of data and start making accusations about the self-destructive nature of people in quarantine.

If you’re a wellness//fitness//health focused company right now: now is the time for compassion and grace. Not shame and guilt. We can do better. 

Join us on the 29th for our “Virtual Supper Club” about Surviving Vs. Thriving, a real no b-s conversation with four incredible women plus a local box you can add on with dinner provided by Golden Roots Nashville.

Resources For The Coronavirus Quarantine (Working From Home, Working Out, Self-Care, & More)

If you don’t know us, we are an experiential wellness company that specializes in creating engaging and enjoyable content in both corporate and community settings. Right now everyone is keenly interested in wellness— and rightfully so. Over the last few weeks, we had many people reach out to us about where to find a good online workout, how to deal with stress, and where to get trust-worthy and up-to-date coverage about coronavirus. So, we put all our answers in one place and made it public. Whether you’re working from home, trying to avoid the news, or navigating being alone or stuck in your home with your otherwise-very-lovely significant other or we’ve put together a collection of lessons from our teachers, friends, and executive team. For some nice relaxing meditations we would love to see you over at our podcast, “You’re Excused.” To stay connected with our community we have taken all of our events virtual which you can find on our calendar here. To see the full list of resources we are currently offering you can navigate to the resources tab at the top of our website.

GROCERIES

Getting good, nourishing food is especially important right now as we all try to stay healthy, but grocery stores are packed, shelves are empty, stuff is crazy right now. SO.

1. COOKING WITHOUT A RECIPE IS POSSIBLE! Go check out Hannah’s podcast, Pantry Raid. It’s literally a podcast about, “how to make more food and less waste one ingredient at a time and often without a strict recipe.” So yeah, it’s perfect. Also, it happens to be a TRILUNA superpower. If you have a bunch of weird-ass ingredients you don’t know what to do with, send a list to Hello@TRILUNAwellness.com and we will come up with a recipe for you.

2. If it’s available to you, call your local farmer. We called ours today to see if they were open. They were not, however, they were still on the premise so they took my grocery list, shopped for me, and then loaded it all up so I didn’t have to put my hands all over everything. Not only was I able to support a local business, I was able to support local agriculture and more sustainable business practices, but I also got the very best of the best quality in ingredients.

3. Don’t take more than you need. A dear friend, also a doctor working on the front lines right now, said, “It’s likely going to get worse before it gets better. Be responsible with your resources and only take what you need for you and your family. Every pound of meat or an extra loaf of bread you take that goes uneaten in the freezer is precious food that someone else might go without due to supply shortages. This applies to masks, cleaning wipes and hand sanitizers as well. If your family is lucky enough to work from home or adhere to quarantine guidelines, consider donating any of your extra supplies to people who work in industries that are not amenable to working from home. You won’t need them nearly as much as they will.”

4. If you’re nervous about food safety, check out this podcast from the Splendid Table where they interview “food science writer J. Kenji López-Alt, who consulted with virologists and experts on how to shop and eat safely right now. He takes on questions ranging from how to best stay safe grocery shopping, how to handle take-out, and how to protect ourselves from other foodborne illnesses in our own kitchens.” They also end the interview with some really great, accessible home cooking tips.

HEALTH

We are not doctors or health professionals. But we have a lot of friends who are so we are going to collect a bunch of their information and resources below here.

1. High Garden is an herbal tea shop and apothecary in Nashville whose physical location was destroyed by the Nashville Tornado. The owners, Joel and Leah, are an absolute wealth of herbal knowledge. Even in their grief around losing the shop, they have put together an herbal guide to self-care during the coronavirus.

2. Stay up to date and informed without freaking yourself out. Where you get your information matters. We are currently listening to four different podcasts for our coronavirus and world news…and that’s it.

   1. What A Day Podcast by Crooked Media

   2. Up First by NPR

   3. This Podcast Will Kill You by Exactly Right Media

   4. America Dissected by Crooke Media

YOGA + MOVEMENT

Perhaps the main thing to remember right now is that this DOES NOT have to be the opportunity to finally, “get fit” or create your “dream body.” Now is the time to find gentle movement and make time for self-care. That said, movement is a great way to get your mind off the madness and find your center. Yoga is especially great for this time because it’s all things in one (depending on the kind of yoga you do), it’s stress-relief, breath work, stretching, strengthening, all the things. Here are a few ways that you can do all of this from home (for free + donations) based on our experience in the wellness industry:

1. The Nike Training app is great for many different types of workouts, experience levels, and equipment levels.

2. If you’re interested in responsible wellness and fitness and love to move your body then the getFIT615 mobile app is your new best friend.

3. Yoga with Adrienne on YouTube is perfect. She has yoga FOR EVERYTHING. Plus she is great for beginners and advanced yogis alike.

4. We believe, in a totally unbiased way of course, that our team is the best team in the whole world. We picked them because they are the best. And many of them are doing donation-based classes right now. Please consider donating to them for their time. This is incredibly hard on the wellness industry right now:

   1. Erika Porter yoga is going live EVERY DAY at 11:30 and you should absolutely join her. She will be posting on her Facebook and on YouTube HERE.

   2. T’Lark is doing all sorts of incredible live classes, she’s a yoga teacher that specializes in Buti Yoga and Primal Movement. Follow her on Instagram to keep up here @MAIKOHMVMT or check our her Youtube Page.

   3. Caitlin Carlson is doing a giveaway right now for free personal training and also has a great level-up-guide you can follow along with here.

   4. Grace Chee is offering a 5-day program on “Cultivating Mindfulness During Uncertainty” which will include mini-lessons, group coaching, activities, etc. She is planning on making this donation-based for anyone who wants to participate. Keep up with her here.

   5. For those in the Nashville area, Chef Keshia Hay will be doing some “fun ideas for little prepped meals” to-go including:

      • date night in-a-box

      • anniversary/date night to-go

      • comfy food & chill for 2-4

      • elevated family style

      • indoor picnic

   6. Stacey Caron has a lovely flow for all those tight hips we now have as a result of working from the bowels of our couches. You can get that here.

   7. Pretty much every single yoga studio in Nashville has gone digital. Find your favorite studios on Instagram and Facebook to keep up. (Some of our favorites include Kali Yuga Yoga, Steadfast & True, and Liberation.)

   8. Shed Fitness has gone digital! A Nashville classic you can find their high-intensity workout classes here.

MINDFULNESS

It’s a time of easy spiraling. Anxiety is high. Stress is high. Now is the time to care for our mental health and be intentional about how we protect our space.

1. Meditation is huge right now. We’ve made our “Meditation for Stress Management” packet available to everyone here.

2. Download the Calm App for everything from music and meditations to sleep stories. Also Insight timer for meditations is great also.

3. Have grace when people need to cancel future plans. Some have lost a lot. There is a great deal of insecurity around money at this time. You may be unaffected, but likely you know someone that has been.

4. Check out Ashley’s three-part breathing exercise from our podcast here.

5. Be mindful of trauma. Complaining about your work when others have lost their only sources of income can be triggering. Be you, do you. But be mindful.

WORKING FROM HOME

Working from home is great, well it can be. Working from home when everyone else is working from home also: maybe not so great. A few things are keeping us sane right now:

1. Wake up with intention. Admittedly, I (Elizabeth) am not great at this. My business partner, (Ashley) is great at this. Set an alarm and try to wake up at a normal time (assuming you have gotten enough sleep and weren’t kept up all night with anxiety—sleep is critical to immune health). Have coffee, journal, tarot, read, whatever it is that you do and then get to work.

2. Clear your workspace. Is it your kitchen table? Fine. But clear it off before you start working. A clean space is infinitely easier to be productive in.

3. Try using a productivity planner/working in “zones.” A productivity planner helps me to break down my tasks into chunks and know exactly what I need to be focusing on. Now is a great time to get all the things done that you’ve been “too busy to get to.” And being intentional about that can be incredibly helpful. A zone is an uninterrupted period of time. And like fully uninterrupted. Turn off your cell phone. Turn off the notifications on your computer. Turn on your favorite focus music and for 30 min work one ONE PROJECT and nothing else. Screaming kids aside this is a great option. Do your best. Working from home is hard so if you get interrupted just get back into it.

4. There is on time. And there is off time. When working from home it’s easy to just roll out of bed and start working. Or just eat dinner and work. Or just not ever stop working. Or not ever start working. Create set times and turn your slack/email notifications off at a certain point and put the work down. Step away. Your brain will thank you.

A COLLECTION OF TIPS FROM OUR HEALERS:

If you don’t know this yet, it is hard to be a healer. It is hard work. For little pay. And they are amongst the hardest hit in this coronavirus madness. Not only are their classes canceled but, many also work as singers, bartenders, servers, cooks, and baristas to make enough money to dedicate their lives to healing others. Please buy their albums, donate to their Venmo, attend their live classes. They have devoted themselves to helping us. Now it’s our turn to help them.

1. In this time of high anxiety, breath work and relaxation techniques can be key to turning your day around. Keeping your body and mind at ease can also boost your immune system! -Erika Porter, yoga teacher

2. Although there is talk about not being outside, my experience this past week is that getting out in the fresh air and the sun, even if those rays come through the clouds.  Just getting out and smelling the fresh almost spring air.  Walking up and down the street.  In my neighborhood in the West End, there is nobody out so Shawn and I take extra long walks with the dog.  While we are out we look up to the sky since we are looking down at books and phones and stoves all day.  We look up and breathe deeply.  We stretch out arms and legs.  This is what keeps us from "getting stuck" in the house. -Jimmy Burk, yoga teacher

3. Work a puzzle. Play with pets. -Eleanor Van Denend, yoga teacher

4. Spend time outside! We are distancing from people, not nature. If you can’t get outside, stick your head out the window. Stay connected to the natural world. She is trying to talk to us right now, listen to her. -Sara Jean Kelly, yoga teacher, singer & songwriter

5.  I've been cooking often and trying to have regular meal times/nourishing food. Waking up and going through my routine has been huge as well and I have been prioritizing my morning yoga and mediation. I think building and continuing routines is important during this time. Finally, I recommend outdoor activities (something I would like to do more of). Playing tennis, going for a walk, going for a drive, packing a picnic and going to a park, etc. -Grace Chee, Health Coach

6. Breathing into the heart to heal and strengthen the lungs and open the hear space by coalescing the upper (masculine) chakras and the lower (feminine) chakras into a harmonious and balanced state of flow. We’ve had such an emphasis on the masculine features in our society: productivity, action, accumulation, thinking, doing, that we have caused great rifts in our health and society. We must bring these dualities into harmony by honoring rest, stillness, sleep, being, sexuality, and creativity. The mirco reflects the macro and vice versa. When we make shifts within ourselves, we cause ripples and shifts out in the world. We are not powerless. Also! Some of the most powerful medicine to me is movement! Dance! It doesn’t matter what it looks like. Abandon aesthetic and just FEEL how your body wants to move. -Cat French, yoga teacher, tarot reader

7. Self-defense teacher and all-around badass Michelle Dirienzo recommends training outside when it isn’t raining and making a game out of it. In between sessions she’s working on plant/house projects, doing some serious self-care, getting enough rest, getting reacquainted with myself and body. - Michelle, self-defense + HIIT instructor

THIS IS AN ON-GOING PROJECT. Please send us any ideas you have or things you think should be added. Let’s help each other with resources, tips, and education. Breathe and do the next right thing (yes, that’s a Frozen 2 reference).

A Letter To Nashville After The Tornado + During Corona

Dear Nashville,

Right now it’s all anyone can talk about: Coronavirus. The companies (that can) are suggesting their employees work from home. Small businesses are struggling to figure out what to do next. Events are getting canceled across the country. Toilet paper stock is running dry. People are incredibly nervous right now––and with that fear comes stress which leads to an increase in cortisol which can, in turn, increase anxiety and depression, affect sleep and concentration, and slow digestion. So while we quarantine ourselves, work from home, and protect our physical health it is just as important to protect our mental health and our community. 

Nashville has recently experienced some significant trauma. Between the tornados and now the coronavirus, we are shutting down the city right when we need each other most. These are necessary measures and the right thing to do, but it’s an especially critical time to make sure we are checking in on each other and taking care of our community. 

Social distancing is critical right now but it’s also incredibly hard on small businesses, those that work in the service industry, those that work as contractors/1099, public servants that have no choice, group fitness instructors, community organizers that still need volunteers, everyone in the events industry, and so many more. We all want and need to stay safe but please make sure you are still supporting where you can. If you have access make sure you donate to organizations like Gideon’s Army and Hands On Nashville. Both are working to still take volunteers but HON is limiting the max number per project. (As always, if you feel even a little less than 100 please STAY HOME.) If you have a friend that works in the service industry maybe hire them to help with another project you have, or cook them a meal, or just offer an understanding of how difficult it is to have your income pulled out from under you. If your favorite local business has an online account please consider buying something or send them a card letting them know you are thinking of them. 

Cutting ourselves off from each other physically doesn’t mean we need to be alone. Call the friend you’ve been meaning to catch up with. Call your parents or your sibling, read a book about someone’s lived experience that’s different from yours, watch a documentary. Now is a time for taking care of ourselves both mentally and physically. Don’t panic. Manage your stress. Breathe deeply. 

We’re making out Meditation for Stress Management packet available to everyone here.

We hope it helps. If you want to listen to a guided meditation why not check out Ashley’s three-part breathing exercise from our podcast here.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us if you need anything. Or if you have ideas. Or if you want to talk. We're here for you.

-Elizabeth + Team TRILUNA

2019: A Recap Of Our First Full Year Of Business!

Y'all 2019 was WILD. We have so much to be grateful for and that is all because of YOU. Before we launch into our tirade about how terrible weight loss results are (because you KNOW that's coming) we wanted to take a look back at our FIRST YEAR of business because we believe in celebrating the hard-won successes:

• We hosted TWO weekend-long retreats 

• We threw a 400+ person festival

• We were on Channel 5 THREE times (and another coming out in January)

• We brought on many incredible corporate clients 

• We grew our team by 17 amazing teachers and healers

• We established some truly great partnerships with other local small businesses

• We hired our first employees

• We had 34 events. Yeah, you read that right: 34

• We launched memberships

• We found a home

We would be lying if we said it wasn't incredibly hard. It was. But you all came out to support a mission of more inclusive wellness. You SHOWED UP. You invested your money into building a supportive community. Every ticket you bought, every t-shirt you purchased, every donation for a community event you made is helping us to build a better version of wellness for this city. THANK YOU. We hope each and every event was as healing for you as it was for us. We are forever grateful.