Carling Harps

when it’s good, it’s real good ✨ (lately, it’s been great. on multiple continents and in all the ways)

“I feel so tight.” 🧐 But what if that tightness isn’t about your flexibility? what if your body is trying to send you a different kind of signal? Sometimes, the body feels tight not because it lacks flexibility, but because it lacks strength or stability in the range or task you’re asking of it. In this moment, help her find more control and progress to more postures she’s interested in, we needed more strength and a more balanced distribution of effort. Which meant that she had to work. and work hard. 💡 Tightness isn’t always about needing more space, sometimes it’s your nervous system telling you that you don’t have enough control in that range. This is where strength work, isometrics, and strategic adjustments come into play. our goal here is better segmentation, strength, and stability. The detailed segmentation work has to happen in tiny controlled bits in much much less complex shapes - but here in Wheel Pose? we used examples of isometrics to create more stable engagement and body awareness. This stuff takes time. It’s not one and done but it is the kind of personalized adjustment that students can take with them and practice on their own each time to get the reps into their tissues. In my Body Reading & Adjustments training, we dive deep into the WHY behind movement patterns—because not everything (or not even most things!) should be sorted with just *more stretching* and heavy duty hands on adjustments. Next one is coming up and it’s coming back to the US - any guesses where the next Body Reading module will be?

“But you’re a yoga teacher… you should just stick to yoga.” 👀 But here’s the thing, newer research shows that single-sport athletes are more prone to overuse injuries than multi-sport athletes. So maybe, just maybe, cross-training and movement variety really matter. What would happen if you only did one thing forever? Is yoga not enough? Won’t lifting make me lose my flexibility? Or… what if mixing it up made you fall back in love with movement? 🤯 What if trying something new reminded you what it’s like to be a beginner—and actually made you a better teacher? What if strength training gave you the power to use your flexibility, rather than just chase it? Your shoulders might thank you for something other than chaturangas. Your brain might light up at the challenge of novelty. And your yoga practice? It might feel better than ever. so if you’re like me, you probably need the reminder that your yoga should ENHANCE all the aspects of life—not consume them.

Stockholm I knew you were going to be lovely, but I was not expecting just how instantly warm and welcoming you would turn out 🥹 getting to be a part of the @yogagames 10 year anniversary was a deep honor and my little yogi heart is full after spending the weekend among so many inspiring teachers and dedicated students. This felt good. sometimes festivals and conferences can be really good - and, well, a lot 😅 but every person and piece of this event was such a delight. It’s not often that I actually get to practice and take classes when I’m on the road teaching so my gratitude is running high for the rare time on the mat I also got to spend with this amazing teaching crew. This felt good, and can’t wait to see you all again 🥰

Your joints need movement like your lungs need oxygen. And mobility? It goes way beyond just your hips (despite what your feed might tell you). It’s all connected! Your spine isn’t just scaffolding, and it’s not just for fancy flexibility (lookin’ at you, my yoga loves 👀). 🧠 It’s an information superhighway, and movement is the traffic that keeps it thriving. Yeah, motion is lotion—but more than that, it’s data. It’s nourishment. It’s currency. 🤑 Joint rich = brain rich = movement rich. It’s all connected. We’re diving deep into all this nerdy goodness at Mobility Meets Asana, April 11-13 in Seattle! This event has been sold out for months, but we just secured a bigger location—meaning new spots open this week! Wanna join me in person for all the mobility magic? Drop a comment, and I’ll send you the details! ⬇️

what part of your body is sending you the most information?IF IT’S JOINT RICH, IT’S BRAIN RICH 🤑 that means your spine is a wealth of not just movement but also information that comes directly from the joints themselves. We get caught up a lot in accomplishing tasks as a student or assigning tasks as a teacher when planning your class sequences - but what if you stepped back from the fruits of the labor and instead got fascinated with actions (regardless of what fruits they bear!) I lost my voice this weekend but that wasn’t gonna stop me from dropping into some quintessential yoga tenants + the fundamentals of movement to help everyone craft better, more intentional and intelligent classes. Because the combo can suddenly illuminate those moments when the “little” stuff, becomes the “OHHH AH-HA! 💡” big stuff. Lots of opportunities to learn with me online or in person, you know where to find it 😉

if it matters, you make time for it. I’m not saying it’s always easy or that things never go astray (lol literally all the time) but the movement, the people, the goals, the commitment to yourself and others are all part of the deal. we have kids to mother, jobs to perform, partners to love, marathons to run (them two, not me 😂) and big lives to live but it’s all better with a little accountability + community - especially on leg day 🍗

when you finally get that 20 slide IG update (don’t worry, there’s not actually 20)

i wish you no regrets, I wish you life without a limit. Last bits of lately and it’s been sweet and quiet and just what I needed.

Hard to do - BUT DOABLE. that’s the key. If it’s impossible, if it’s beyond your capacity, then it’s beyond you to even be able to perform the work. If it’s a piece of cake, a walk in the park, no big thing - then you haven’t sent the right messages to your systems and tissues to adapt and change. No different than life. We need sufficient challenge to stay engaged, stimulated, motivated (idk about you, but I’m definitely guilty of stirring the pot and then realizing ohhhh I was maybe just bored 😅) but too much chaos? And we shut down or lose control. There is a sweet spot. And THATS WERE THE MAGIC IS. Hard to do, but doable. Wanna learn more with me? Online and in-person trainings are always on the calendar for you!

Ready to Learn to Teach? looking to Deepen your Practice? and want to do it with the live support and accountability that most of us need? @carlingnicole is leading a brand new LIVE 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training that starts next month! This course is the first place to start on your teacher training journey with Awakening Yoga and lays the foundation for everything else. Accessible from anywhere and all sessions are recorded for later relaying you can’t attend *if you are currently enrolled in the on-demand you can upgrade to join this cohort or if you are an AYA graduate we have options to audit and refresh with us also 🤗 We can’t wait to share this practice and all the learning with you! Find all the details and enrollments where you usually do 📲🔗

I was going to make a little year re-cap and then I remembered that y’all already saw plenty of what I did 😂 But maybe what you didn’t see (or, maybe you did 😅) was what a tougher year it was than I anticipated. Last January I really thought I was through the thick of it but LOL nope not quite! A few big joyful wins: • Spent the whole year saying yes. To all the gigs that used to exhaust me but now feel invigorating, to every big new opportunity, and unnecessarily terrifying bike ride 😂 new languages, and jobs, and people who softened the edges • Parenting feels the best it ever has. I could live in this year of motherhood and marvel at her forever and ever. Also wins, but less joyful: • Took me longer than I expected to finally catch myself when projecting old hurt on new people (sorry about that!) and to stop hurting my own feelings to finally see patterns instead of empty promises. It’s not necessarily a resolution, but my word of the year is NOURISH. it’s been a long time since I’ve been out of survival mode enough to actually enjoy cooking again. To not need myself to be so busy that I can’t feel anything. Since I cared for myself as much as I overfunctioned elsewhere. part of it’s parenthood (iykyk) part of it’s running your own business (iykyk) and part of it was the stuff I’ve never shared but if you’ve been here for a while, I assume you must have figured out by now. the most cliche betrayal as a mother that no movie trope can actually prepare you for. you all still ask about it a lot, I never know how to respond. it’s just part of the deal when things have been public here for so long. 3 years later and I’ve only really just stared sharing it in real life. finally processing. and to be honest, it’s taken seeing the look on peoples faces when they hear the story to finally let it be reflected back to me. To witness it from the outside. to see how much grief I’m allowed to have. I knew, but also didn’t want to know. So this year? I make no prediction on how it’s gonna go 😂 all I know is that I’m focused on feeling instead of forcing. healing instead of distracting. nourishing instead of depleting. dancing and unraveling instead of running.