Nico's Flows // Suffering is not enough

& A Spicy Flow to Revolved Half Moon

Nico’s Flows is my regular newsletter with readings and reflections, curated yoga music, and a short, creative sequence designed for yoga teachers and anyone who loves to move. For those who wish to dive deeper, paid subscribers receive an exclusive guided meditation and journal prompts for further exploration.

I pour so much love and care into these posts, and your support means the world to me. You can help keep this journey alive by becoming a paid subscriber or simply by liking and sharing the content. Thank you for being here!

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Soulful Musings

It’s easy to get trapped in negative thought cycles. When life feels heavy, we often only see the hard parts. Sometimes it even feels selfish to experience joy when there’s so much suffering in the world. But as humans, we have the incredible capacity to hold both pain and beauty, grief and wonder.

We need to remind ourselves, again and again, to make space for awe. Wonder isn’t frivolous, it’s necessary. How are we supposed to act, to help, to show up for change if we’re completely weighed down by despair?

I cry often from Instagram reels showing people, animals, and ecosystems in pain. When I feel myself getting stuck in the thought loop of “everything is so bad,” I put it at the top of my priority list to find the sun, laugh with friends, and roll around in the grass with my dog. These moments of joy anchor me. They help me stay present and remind me that I can make a small difference.

I hope you can find your version of this practice too. Because we’re not here to ignore the pain, we’re here to feel it and to keep choosing joy, so we have the strength to heal and help.

LIFE IS FILLED WITH SUFFERING, but it is also filled with many wonders, like the blue sky, the sunshine, and the eyes of a baby. To suffer is not enough. We must also be in touch with the wonders of life. They are within us and all around us, everywhere, any time.

Thich Nhat Hanh was a Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk, teacher, author, and peace activist who brought the practice of mindfulness to the West in a deeply accessible way. His teachings bridge the gap between contemplative philosophy and everyday life, and his writing often reads like a conversation with the part of yourself that longs for stillness. What makes his words so powerful in the context of yoga is that he invites us not to bypass pain, but to be fully present with it and at the same time, to stay in touch with joy, breath, nature, and the beauty that surrounds us.

How to theme a yoga class on this excerpt:

Focus your class on embracing the full spectrum of human experience- both the suffering and the wonder. Invite students to notice what arises without pushing it away, while also opening their awareness to the simple beauty in their breath, their body, and the space around them. Remind students that just like the breath moves between inhale and exhale, life moves between shadow and light. The practice is to stay in relationship with both.

Movement Inspiration

In honor of trail running season, this flow focuses on IT band and hip flexor opening, building toward bound revolved half moon. You’ll find twists, balance work, and movements to release tension along the outer hips and thighs woven throughout. If I were to turn this into a full-length class, I’d build it as a ladder flow starting with the foundational movements and gradually adding (or subtracting) layers each time we move through.

Yoga Tunes

This week I’m sharing a gentle playlist I made a few summers ago that still captures that perfect “summer solstice, windows down, music up” vibe.

Deeper Reflection

Paid subscribers have access to a guided meditation and journal prompts <3

I have added all my guided meditations to my ‘Podcast’ tab on Substack so that you can easily revisit them instead of going through old emails.

Guided Meditation