Mindful Movement to Get You Outdoors: My conversation with the Active in Alaska Podcast

Uncategorized Oct 06, 2025

Interview Recap: Active in Alaska with Kendall

I recently joined Kendall on the Active in Alaska Podcast for a warm, energizing conversation about movement, mental health, and finding belonging in the outdoors. We talked about growing up in Alaska, tackling the Wilderness Classic, and how I’ve built a career blending fitness, nervous system regulation, and a deep love for this place.

We explored how strength is more than muscle—it’s emotional and nervous system resilience, and how outdoor culture can become more inclusive and compassionate. From interval workouts filmed in my living room to my evolving somatic work in Anchorage, we discussed creating supportive, choice-based movement spaces that meet people wherever they are.

Topics We Covered:
(0:15) Growing up in Alaska and finding my way into outdoor culture
(3:59) The Wilderness Classic and learning empowerment through challenge
(7:12) Building an inclusive, scalable approach to fitness
(10:16) Connecting movement with nervous s...

Brooks Range Part Two: Rivers, Ridges, and Nervous System Rhythms

adventure alaska backcountry backpacking brooks range camping functional strength hiking nature nervous system packrafting trip report Sep 30, 2025

I’m back with Part Two of my Brooks Range 2025 summer trip! If you missed it, you can catch Part One right here.

Nothing Like Training in Action

When I think back on this summer’s trip, one of the things I’m struck by is how much the first half of the journey set me up perfectly for what came next. With a foundation of prep work – through Summer Strong, weightlifting with Allison Tenny’s Alpha program, and as much spring hiking as I could squeeze in (we had an early spring melt and good hiking earlier than usual) – I had set myself up for success. Last summer, I was sick most of the season with walking pneumonia and lost a lot of fitness & lung capacity, so I had been motivated to get as much as possible back this season! Luckily, it seemed to be working.

The structure of the trip itself helped, too. In the first half of the trip, we used a basecamp at the airstrip to allow us to do an initial short hiking loop, only three days with light packs. Then we returned to the airstrip a...

How to Train Body, Mind, and Nervous System for the Outdoors: My Conversation with Globetrotters Podcast

adventure alaska mental health nervous system podcast resilience training training Sep 23, 2025

Adventure, Nerves, and Nature on the Globetrotters Podcast

I recently joined Jonathan Otero on the Globetrotters Podcast for a heartfelt conversation about outdoor adventure, nervous system resilience, and what it really means to belong in nature. From learning to backcountry ski as an adult (with plenty of crashes along the way) to three-week wilderness trips in the Arctic, we talked about the joy, struggle, and lessons the outdoors offers.

We dug into how strength isn’t just about muscles, but about nervous system capacity and emotional resilience. Jonathan and I also explored the culture of outdoor recreation—everything from “bro vibes” and gatekeeping to finding more inclusive, compassionate ways of adventuring together. And of course, we swapped stories about Alaska, grizzly encounters, and why I keep returning to the Brooks Range year after year.

Topics We Covered:

(1:30) Growing up in Alaska and finding my way into outdoor culture
(5:14) What “mindful interval trai
...

How to Regulate Your Nervous System In Outdoor Adventures: My Conversation with the See Her Outside Podcast

alaska mental health nervous somatics training Sep 16, 2025

Embracing Adventure and Resilience with See Her Outside

I recently joined Angie Marie on the See Her Outside podcast for a heartfelt and wide-ranging conversation about adventure, nervous system resilience, and how our bodies carry us through both the wilderness and everyday life.

We talked about my journey from moss-castle childhood play in Alaska to grueling wilderness classics, and how those eras of adventure shaped the way I approach challenge today. I opened up about the lessons I learned through my fertility journey, and how that experience shattered my old belief that effort always equals outcome. And I shared the story of my life-or-death moment with anaphylaxis in the backcountry, and how nervous system skills, community, and the land itself helped me through it with a sense of growth rather than trauma.

Angie and I also dug into how suffering, novelty, and joy show up in different seasons of adventure, what post-traumatic growth can look like, and eve

...

Threading the Needle: An Early Summer Traverse in the Brooks Range

adventure alaska backcountry backpacking brooks range caribou community recreation Aug 26, 2025

This trip wasn’t supposed to go the way it did, but that’s part of what made it so good.

Long-time readers will know that my partner Luc and I make a point to take a backcountry trip together every summer. This summer was a little bit different – scheduling conflicts and important events kept Luc from being able to attend what would have been the window for the first part of a trip, so I decided that instead of not going or going solo, I’d ask a couple of girlfriends to join me for the first half. Then Luc and our friend Pat would fly in later to meet me for the second half.

That singular decision ended up setting the theme of what this trip would be full of – flexibility, creative problem solving, and trusting the process.

Plans changing like the weather

This year, as always, we were trying to thread the needle between the last of the snow and the hatching of the bugs. It’s the sweet spot we always try and hit – but it can also be a pretty big gamble. This year, the wild card f...

Nervous Systems, Nature & the Power of Coregulation: My Conversation on the Dirtbag Therapy Podcast

Uncategorized Jun 24, 2025

Talking Nature + The Power of Coregulation

I recently joined Danyelle Fisher on the Dirtbag Therapy podcast for a deep, funny, and real conversation about nature, nervous system resilience, and how we can find grounding in the wild and in our everyday lives. It was an absolute joy to talk about big ideas – and share some laugh-out-loud trail stories along the way.

We dug into a life-or-death moment I had in the Alaskan backcountry when I experienced anaphylaxis miles from help. I shared how nervous system regulation tools, co-regulation with the land, and the support of good friends helped me move through the scariest experience of my life – and why it left me feeling not traumatized, but empowered.

Danyelle and I talked about how the wilderness can be a profound teacher and coregulator, and why the nervous system doesn’t always know the difference between reading bad news on your phone and running from a bear. We discussed why it's okay to growl (literally), how orientation and im...

Connection With a Purpose: How a Marketing Project Shaped Our Summer

business community inclusive team values May 29, 2025

First Things First: We Needed a Plan

When my team and I sat down at the beginning of the year to map out our goals for 2025, we found ourselves a bit stuck.

Not because we lacked ideas, we had plenty of those, but because 2025 has turned into a strange (and still wildly privileged) time to be running a small business.

Between the ever-shifting algorithms, economic uncertainties, and the general stress of just being human right now, we weren’t entirely sure where the pulse of our community was, or the best way to connect with it.

We’re only a three-person team and have to be smart with how to spend our time and resources wisely, so we decided: let’s just ask.

40 Interviews in One Week

A couple months ago, I grabbed coffee with my friend and fellow small business owner Meredith Noble. Meredith is brilliant, and she’d recently done a round of interviews with folks in her community. The experience gave her team insight, direction, and a deeper sense of connection with the people th...

5 Years of Sistering Support

business diversity equity team values Apr 29, 2025

Sistering Support has come a long way in the last five years!

April of 2025 marks five years of offering Sistering Support - our mutual aid program for Mind & Mountain Training Programs.

Four years ago, we published our 1-year update for Sistering Support. Now that we’ve hit the five-year mark, I figured that it’s time to reflect on what we’ve been able to do in our first five years.

We’re really proud of this program and all we’ve been able to accomplish with it!

Before we get carried away with all of the updates, let’s take it back a notch and cover some basics.

What is Sistering Support?

“Sistering” is a term from construction: when a beam is bearing too much weight, it's reinforced by adding support beams alongside it. That’s the image we’re working with—offering support to those carrying more than their share, especially folks who are BIPOC, queer, disabled, in bigger bodies, or otherwise underrepresented in outdoor spaces.

In a just and equitable world, no one would b...

How to Train with Your Menstrual Cycle (and other cycles, too!)

adventure cycles embodied functional strength mental health mindset nervous system seasons self awareness Jan 09, 2025

Have you ever been curious about how your menstrual cycle affects your training?

Have you ever tried to sync your workouts with your period?

Let’s talk about it! The relationship between periods and fitness as well as the general impact of the different phases of our period have been receiving some much-deserved attention on social media lately. People who menstruate know firsthand just how much hormonal cycles can affect how we feel. So it makes tons of sense that periods also affect how we exercise!

This blog is an exploration of the topics that my upcoming course, Train with Your Cycle, will cover in depth. We’ll be diving into the nuances of all the cycles: nervous system, menstrual, moon, creative, seasonal, grief, etc with the goal of learning how to understand and support the nuances of your particular cycles.

Different phases of our menstrual cycles can yield dramatically different outcomes and feelings depending on what our body is feeling naturally prepared to handle.

T...

How I Transformed My Stress with Nervous System Work

mental health nervous system self awareness stress Oct 14, 2024

Real Tools for Nervous System Regulation

To listen to an audio version of this blog click here.

Looking back on the last few years, I can see a clear line drawn in the sand of my life.

On one side is the way I used to handle stress and attempt to self-regulate before I knew much about my nervous system – and the other the way my stress and self-management strategies changed after I took a deep dive into the land of nervous system regulation.

Before I started intentionally studying and practicing nervous system regulation, I was definitely using exercise and outdoor time to manage my nervous system activation. What I know now is that I was lacking the skillfulness, education, patience, and support (this is a big one!) to understand and navigate my body’s response to stress.

What follows are three ways that I’ve used nervous system work to help myself through stressful times. These are excellent entry points for anyone curious about or new to this work.

Don’t be fooled by their...

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Interview Recap: Active in Alaska with Kendall

Nothing Like Training in Action

Adventure, Nerves, and Nature on the Globetrotters Podcast

Embracing Adventure and Resilience with See Her Outside

This trip wasn’t supposed to go the way it did, but that’s part of what made it so good.

Plans changing like the weather

Talking Nature + The Power of Coregulation

First Things First: We Needed a Plan

40 Interviews in One Week

Sistering Support has come a long way in the last five years!

What is Sistering Support?

Have you ever been curious about how your menstrual cycle affects your training?

Real Tools for Nervous System Regulation

Stay connected & get updates from Sarah!

Yes! So glad you're here.