Tending to What is Taking Root
The Space Between Letting Go and Becoming
There is something about this time of year that feels honest. The light lingers a little longer, the air softens, and the earth begins to stir awake. Here in the Pacific Northwest, I feel it deeply, the quiet shift from dormancy into possibility. And just like nature, I find myself reaching outward.
I completed my yearly Ayurvedic cleanse, not just physically, but emotionally and energetically. My focus was on releasing the experiences and narratives I have been holding onto, stories that, over time, became heavier than I realized. The kind that quietly shape how you move through the world until one day you pause and ask, Is this still mine to carry?
I did this cleanse alone, and if I’m being honest, it was lonely. There is something deeply comforting about knowing someone else is walking alongside you in a shared practice. In the solitude, I found clarity, without distraction, just me, moving out what needed to be moved.
I spent a lot of time outside with Berkley, wandering the trails around Olympia. Some walks felt light and easeful, others carried more weight. There were moments when tears came as I walked, and I let them. Tears are their own kind of release, a way for the body to clear.
During this time, I completed a seven-month training on the chakra system. Each month, we embodied one chakra for four weeks. Not just learning about it intellectually, but living it, feeling it. Noticing where it showed up in our lives, where there was flow, and where there was resistance. The experience and training, changed me. It deepened my understanding of how our emotional, physical, and hormonal systems are intimately connected. It also made something very clear to me: there still remains a missing piece in how we approach women’s health and healing.
We talk about energy. We talk about hormones, but we rarely bring them together. And that, my friends, is where Awaken the Wise Woman was born.
Awaken the Wise Woman Series
This offering is deeply personal. It is rooted in my own training, my work with clients at Sacred Juniper, and a growing awareness that women are craving a more integrated approach, one that honors both the subtle body and the physical body.
Each month, we will explore a chakra, the hormone(s), and the gland it aligns with.
For example, the Root Chakra; our foundation, our sense of safety, is intimately connected to the adrenal glands. These glands regulate cortisol, our stress response hormone, and aldosterone, which helps maintain blood pressure and fluid balance. When our sense of safety is compromised, our adrenals respond. When our adrenals are depleted, our foundation feels shaky.
Awaken the Wise Woman is the bridge. It is where we begin to explore balance through Ayurveda, yoga, breathwork, and self-study (Svadhyaya). Learning to notice patterns as they arise and allowing space for change. Awaken the Wise Woman is a series that has us moving from self-care to self-study (Svadhyaya).
What makes this offering even more meaningful is that my dearest and longest friend will be joining to share her herbal wisdom for each chakra, gland, and hormone. Together, we move beyond theory and into relationship. Relationship with the plants, with the body, and with our energy.
And alongside all of this, another part of my work has quietly come back to life.
Coming Back Into Alignment
Yoga 4 Nurses began again this past week. What I didn’t fully expect, but maybe needed, was who this offering would bring back into my life. People from my past, and some of the fiercest women I have ever known. Women that I spent years beside in the ER, saving lives, losing lives, holding it all, and at times breaking ourselves wide open just to keep going. There is a bond that comes from that kind of work that never really leaves you. To now sit in a different kind of space together, one rooted in healing instead of survival, feels like a true blessing and a full circle moment. There are also those I worked with in the PACU, my final stop in the hospital setting before I stepped away. They knew a version of me that was standing on the edge of something new. And my fellow public health colleagues, those who have only known the Lisa I am today. The version of me I have been working, steadily and intentionally, to become.
As I guided this group of nurses, doctors, and public health workers, I felt a deep sense of alignment. This program has been with me for years, but it needed to evolve before it could return. It weaves in the Polyvagal Theory, the lymphatic system, fascia, and Ayurveda, because the truth is, stress is not just something we only think about, it is something we carry. It lives in the body, moving through our nervous system, our tissues, our breath. And so our practices must meet us there.
This version of Yoga 4 Nurses feels more complete. More honest. More reflective of who I am now.
And maybe that’s the thread through all of this, a return to myself, but a steadier, clearer, and more aligned version.
After three years, my Ayurvedic training is coming to a close, and in just a couple of weeks I begin my six-month practicum. From there, I will be preparing to sit for two certifications; Ayurvedic Health Counselor through NAMA and Yoga Therapist through IAYT. As I reflect on this time, I feel deeply grateful for the teachers who have guided me along the way. Their wisdom, presence, and dedication have not only shaped my understanding, but have supported me in my own practice and growth. This work has never been done alone, and I carry their teachings with me in all that I offer.
These years of study have done more than expand my knowledge, they have reshaped how I live, how I care for others, and how I want to offer this work moving forward. I no longer feel called to teach weekly yoga classes in the traditional sense. What is emerging instead feels more intentional, more integrated, and more aligned with what is truly needed.
Work that is therapeutic. Work that is layered. Work that supports healing over time.
My vision is to create a space where yoga, Ayurveda, and nursing come together, where individuals are guided through a healing process that includes bodywork, personalized Ayurvedic protocols, and movement practices designed for what they are navigating.
A space that is both structured and intuitive. Grounded, yet expansive.
So here I am, at the edge of a new season, feeling both grounded and open. The seeds have been planted, not just in my work, but within me.
If there is anything I am taking from this season, it is this:
You do not have to rush your becoming.
You do not have to carry what is no longer yours.
You are allowed to release, to soften, and to begin again.
The sun will return, it always does.
And when it does, may you meet it rooted, nourished, and ready to rise.
Still learning,
Lisa Ostler, RN-BSN, 500 E-RYT, YACEP
Ayurvedic Wellness Advisor | PanchaKarma Practitioner
Sacred Juniper Ayurvedic Clinic
Rooted in Ritual, Rising in Power—One Session at a Time.
