Mochi Bits

I’ve become known as the “Tray Girl” at work because every morning I make about six drinks in the kitchen to start my day. While I enjoy just water, I like spicing up my beverages to make them more interesting (and increase my reasons to get up and move at work). I love having a stocked pantry of various teas, powders, etc to feel inspired to throw them together in new ways like a non-alcoholic mixologist. It's one of the ways I play with creativity. All of this has come from experimentation. None of the portions are exact and I encourage you to play and see what flavors you like. I don't add sweeteners to any of my drinks, but you can always add as you like. Most of these recipes also work in "batch prepping" which means just double the recipe and make it in a large mason jar. That way you can have a tasty drink at the ready in the fridge throughout the week. Tea is the ultimate Swiss Army knife beverage - it can warm you up or cool you down, energize or relax you, a...

One of the easiest, totally free, and most palpable bio-hacks is breathing. You can use your breath to destress, energize, work through pain, help you get to sleep, and so much more. You can do it anytime, anywhere. Sounds like I'm selling a dream product! I do 2 minutes of breathwork to start my meditation practice (all I do is randomly pick something from this list based on how I'm feeling). This helps calm my mind and grounds me into meditation. However, it can be as quick as pausing to take one deep belly breath throughout the day and I always feel noticeably different. Breathwork gets us to stop, center and check-in with ourselves. I want to give credit to the book " How to Breathe " by Ashley Neese, where a lot of these exercises come from. Just like everything else I post about, I encourage you to experiment and see what techniques resonate with you.  Grounding/Stress Relief Five Breath Grounding : Deep inhale through your nose counting from 1-5, the...

We all throw events, whether it's as small as a weekly team meeting, as large as a wedding, or as intimate as a dinner party. By putting just a bit more thought into the "why" behind the gathering, you can create a better space for more connection and action. One of the most inspiring books for me in 2019 was  “ The Art of Gathering ” by Priya Parker. It's all about being more intentional with how you throw events and digging into their true purpose. The next time you throw an event, give this a read before you start planning. I took these notes a while ago just for personal use, so some of these are direct quotes (which I have not properly sourced but no copyright infringement is intended). 1. Purpose Be Clear About Why You Are Meeting The ‘why’ of your gathering should be specific, unique, and disputable. When we don’t examine the deeper assumptions behind why we gather, we end up skipping too quickly to replicating old, stale formats of gathering. The ...

I spent a year living in Toronto to be with my partner while he finished up school. I always knew it would just be a year, and that making friends would be the hardest part. I put effort into making friends like one would into finding a job.  My initial approach was to ask everyone I know if they knew someone in Toronto, make a list, call up each person before I arrived, so by the time we had a coffee date there was already slightly a connection. But half of those coffee dates were flakey and I didn't see most of them again.  The realization I have come to is that our generation does not prioritize making and maintaining social connections (even though everyone is lonely). There is a lack of accountability and manners (just like in dating). They either have a partner and/or a few old friends and give their time to themselves, a career, their mental state, or another priority. I don't want to force people to prioritize me. So I accept that I just have to be the best ve...