Not in love with your life?

drowning in worry, pain, and exhaustion?

let me help.

I’m here to help you break free from “self-care” and guide you on a path to self-healing so that you live in joy, feel abundant energy, and love your self and your life.

Here’s What I Know About You

You’ve been amazing all your life.

You know there’s a new path forward, but you just can’t see through the clouds.

Pushing through your day isn’t working, but you don’t know what else to do.

Physical therapy helped, but you don’t feel “fixed”. In fact, you worry that your shoulder/back/knee about “go out” at any moment.

Your yoga class leaves you in back pain and you spend Savasana deciding what you’ll do next.

You’re in the right place: This was my story and I’ve helped hundreds of women just like you.

Let’s make it happen together.

Hi, I’m AnnMerle Feldman

Guide for Brilliant, Hardworking, Exhausted Women Like You.

Through woman-centered connection, soul-centered strength, myo-fascial self-massage, body-centric breathwork, and a new appreciation for rest - yes, simply slowing down to rest - I bring you back into your body, where your wisdom, intuition, and a heart-centered life awakens you to a new aliveness that will blossom into the next 50 years of your life.

And here’s a brief description of who I am.

Here’s my story:

I Ditched the Fight Against Aging,

I Embraced a Self-Healing Journey,

and I am Becoming Who I Was Meant to BE

(And I want the same for you!)

I Was Fifty and Fed Up!

Here’s the good news and the bad news.

At 50 I was solution-oriented. And that’s good, right?  I knew how to get things done. I knew how to fix what was broken. This can-do capacity served me well in my career as an English professor, as a researcher, an administrator, and in my life as a single mother of two. I also applied my solution-oriented, fix-what’s-broken skills to my own body. 

I relentlessly sought solutions for the constant pain in my body and the non-stop chatter in my mind. I now call these solutions “self-care,”’ realizing that they were, for the most part, a ride on a consumer-oriented hamster wheel: take these supplements for cognition; go to this new, innovative chiropractor for the pain in my neck; try this especially compassionate physical therapist for my nearly always frozen shoulder; apply these very expensive cosmetics to recapture my youthful skin. 

Self-care worked until it didn’t. 

Of course, I loved my once a week massages: sinking into the utter bliss of the moment until the next morning, that is, when the familiar tension headache returned with a vengeance. 

I embraced yoga and the wonderful teachers I had. Simply making the time to go to classes told me I was on the right track. Looking back, though, I see how yoga became yet another addiction for me. I expected yoga to fix me and I was devastated when it didn’t. My shoulder was still freezing up and the chronic, extremely painful trigeminal neuralgia continued to plague me. 

I see now that I had a very mechanical view of my troubles. The solution for my apparently broken body and non-stop mind was, I determined, too much stress. If I could let go of the stress, my body and mind would then be repaired. All of these self-care solutions, I thought, could reduce the stress I was carrying. 

At thirty or even at forty, I was able to shake off my injuries and ongoing issues, but by 50, nothing was working and I was growing more and more desperate. 

Fixing my mind and my body’s problems was Job One.  A sense of panic was beginning to take over.  I wondered what would be left of me by the time I could retire. I was losing my sense of optimism and wondering what my “somewhere over the rainbow” would look like. 

I had reached the end of my rope. 

Leaving Self-Care Behind and Embracing Self-Healing

Then, in yoga class something happened. It was a turning point for me. 

I learned how different and powerful self-healing was. 

And, I realized that all my self-care solutions were simply bandaids.  

The real transformation lay in learning to listen to how my body felt and owning her wisdom. 

I remember this moment like it was yesterday. I was in a yoga class with my beloved teacher, Steve. He asked us to do a forward fold and notice where we naturally stopped and what we felt in our bodies. I felt the familiar edge-of-pain, grippy, tightness that I also felt each time I stood up from my chair. My mind chimed in to tell me that this tightness was doing me in. 

Steve handed us each two blue balls, about the size of tennis balls (but firmer and grippier) that he had gotten from Jill Miller, the creator and founder of TuneUpFitness®, at a workshop he had attended and asked us to massage the bottoms of our feet on those two balls. 

Then he asked us to repeat the forward fold and notice what was different. 

I was dumbfounded. 

There was no pain, tightness, or stiffness in my back!  Beyond that, my whole body felt more alive, more awake. Of course, my feet felt great. Who doesn't love a foot massage? More than that, my mind had let go of the chatter. 

In the midst of my bliss, I heard Steve saying, almost as though talking to himself, “I am behind the eight ball here; this is an entirely new way of working with the body.” 

That next summer I began studying myo-fascial self massage with Jill Miller.  She had an extraordinarily innovative approach to body-centered work that taught us how to wake up the feelings that lived in our body’s fascia.

 “Our body thinks in feels,” Jill Miller gently, but continually reminded us. 

I discovered how the ability to feel lived in our respiratory system – the home of our breath. 

I was newly learning to wake up my breathing apparatus, which fed energy and resilience to my fascia.  My fascia – the whole body network of connective tissue – feeds blood and oxygen to my entire body. 

An inside out transformation was occurring. With self-care, my body was a machine and someone was trying to fix me. With myofascial self-massage, I was becoming aware of what my body was whispering to me. 

I was now listening to my body first and the advice of others secondarily. 

I learned how to breathe at a much deeper, internal level. This is so crucial because our breath hydrates our fascia. 

Then self-healing becomes possible. When our fascial connective tissue is hydrated, we are able to use our breath and movement to shift, intentionally, into a self-healing state. 

Spoiler alert:  If you were like me, back then, in your “self-care,solution-oriented, do it yourself,  fix-it mode,” you might be saying, “Okay, done. Where do I get those balls and off-load this stress I’ve been carrying around for decades?”

It’s not that easy. But it is also not that hard. 

It’s about a crucial shift in orientation. Instead of seeing yourself as a machine to be tuned up or fixed, you begin to feel the way in which you engage your breath and your heart and let your self-care, solution-oriented mind take a break. 

Our “solution, or fix-it” approach to our bodies directs us to stretch tight muscles. In doing so, we release stress in our body. In the short term, this feels good - like any massage does. But, sadly, the results are also short term. 

I developed my own system, or method called The Body Vitality Method. 

My transformational, self-healing Body Vitality approach invites you to learn how those tight muscles, that recurrent and even chronic pain, your ruminating thoughts are fed by your nervous system. 

Day to day stress is not the problem.

The problem is deeper – it’s how our nervous system has been holding onto stress and trauma for decades. 

I understand. You are intensely aware of your tight muscles and sometimes chronic pain.  This tension and stress, is, unfortunately, informing  a nervous system that has, for decades, responded to feelings of danger and inadequacy and overwhelm by burying them in your body and letting our minds run the show. 

Now, our self-healing task is to learn how – through our body - to speak to our nervous system. 

We are learning to feel safe in our bodies and our lives. These self-healing practices might look the same as a foot massage, but our healing intentions speak not only to our muscles but, through our fascia, to our nervous system where the real, long-term holding is going on. 

After I turned 50, for about 10 years, I practiced some deeply impactful yoga but then, at about  60, realized that my body-centered work needed to deepen – both spiritually and scientifically. 

Through the many, many seminars and certifications with Jill Miller and other mentors and through guiding hundreds of my over-50 women clients, I began to see how we needed to attend to ourselves differently in a self-healing way. 

I have shared with you here just one, memorable moment – massaging my feet with those blue balls – when I learned how to walk the path of self-healing. There was much more to learn – more science and more spirituality. Because my approach is different, I felt called to write a book (see below)  to share with all my dear women over 50 who have worked so hard, all their lives, and who now wonder where to go next.

Intentional Self Healing Invites Us to Become Who We Were Meant to Be

Now, at 73 years old (at this writing), I offer an intentionally-driven, self-healing practice for my brilliant, hardworking, but exhausted women over 50. 

We learn how to respond to our bodily challenges and our mind-driven worries. 

We don’t stop there:

Our long game is to live our dreams, imagining a life of joy and vitality. 

Our endgame goes well beyond healing a frozen shoulder. 

We are becoming who we were meant to be.  

Yes, our self-healing solutions now feel a little different. 

Take a moment in a comfy chair, take your shoes off and wiggle your toes. Invite your ankles to make circles. If you can reach your feet, use your hands to gently massage your feet. If you have two tennis balls or a foam roller, let your feet caress these objects. Let your feet rest on an ottoman or a pillow or a cushion. Let your mind take a break and feel. Simply feel. 

The immediate and extraordinary feel-good moments of massaging your own feet wake you up to how much support, pleasure, and healing you can provide for your own body. Well done! 

This moment is just the beginning of your intentional, self-healing journey. 

The possibilities for your own self-healing are infinite. I want to reassure you that you do not need to say goodbye to all those professionals and teachers who have brought you to this moment. 

Instead, you are incorporating a powerful and consequential self-healing capacity. 

When you go to the doctor to talk about symptoms you are experiencing, you will have the confidence borne of all the time you have spent getting to know your own body – knowing that what your body tells you is true. 

Even though you will feel immediate results, the path to self-healing emerges through a slow, experiential process and it is best felt through the company of other women. 

I am so, so grateful for all the hundreds of women who have traveled this path with me and felt the growth and support that comes together in woman-centered community. 

After decades of teaching this evolving approach I felt that I needed to share what it is in some detail. And so, as I mentioned above, I wrote a book. 

My book shares stories of women just like you and how the self-care industry failed them. I illustrate through personal stories, simple practices, scientific literature, and spiritual learnings, how women over 50 can become their own best healers. 

In my book, I introduce my Body Vitality Method: how myo-fascial self-massage, breathwork, deep rest, soul-centered strength, and woman-centered community supports self-healing. And I take you on a journey to free yourself from decades of conditioning and become the self you have always dreamed of. 

I’m eager to hear about your stories and how my book resonates with you!

Fierce Over 50:

Quit the Fight Against Aging,
Leave Self-Care Behind,
Empower Your Self-Healing Journey,
and Become Who You Were Meant to BE

My Qualifications 

The proof is in the pudding. I learned self-healing first through my own journey. 

My road to self-healing, expressed through work with amazing teachers, had now led me to you, dear reader. 

Forrest Yoga

How to incorporate movement, breath, strength,and self-healing into an ongoing practice.

  • Forrest Yoga Advanced Teacher Training, 2013

  • Functional Anatomy for Yoga Teachers, Ellen Heed, 2007

  • Forrest Yoga Continuing Education - 2009

  • 22-day Meditation and Intensive Classes with Ana Forrest  2007, 2012

Turbodog Yoga

How to incorporate shamanic healing into a yoga practice. 

  • Deep and extensive practice with Steve Emmerman and Talya Ring at Turbodog Yoga, through workshops, classes, semi-private, and private lessons (2001-2012)

  • Power Journey Retreats: Dominican Republic (2013), Puerta Vallarta ( 2011, 2012), Costa Rica (2008, 2010), Firewalk with Heather Ash Amara (2008); Sweat Lodge on Sacred Native Grounds (2009, 2010)

  • Yoga Mentorship Program, Talya Ring & Steve Emmerman, 2012-2013

YogaTuneUp, The Roll Model Method, Breath and Bliss, and TuneUpFitness with Jill Miller

How myofascial self-massage, breathwork, and rest promotes self-healing through nervous system downregulation. 

  • YogaTuneUp® Certification with Jill Miller (2016 and continuing) 

  • The Roll Model Method® Certification (2018, 2024) 

  • Breath And Bliss Immersion (2017, 2024) 

  • Hips Immersion, Core Immersion (2017, 2019) 

The She School with Anahita Joon

How recognizing the sacred leadership of women unleashes our quantum nature.

  • Beauty Unleashed: comprehensive year-long program designed to help women embody their authentic beauty, power, and femininity (2021-2022) 

  • Full Spectrum: Where the Erotic Body Meets the Quantum Field: a year-long transformative experience combining deep inner work with personal growth and empowerment(2022-2023) 

  • Kauai Retreat (2022): Gathering of participants in Beauty Unleashed to ground in the growth and magic of the year-long program by spending profound time together in ceremony.  

Just to let you know that I also experience deep joy when working, playing, and dancing in the native, pollinator, prairie garden we have been growing here for about the past three years! 

WHAT MAKES ME DIFFERENT

When you choose me as your guide you get…

Women
Over
50

I write about specifically what changes for women over 50 and why.  The decades of sitting, people-pleasing, and holding onto stress is what we are letting go of. I write out of my own experience and draw on both science and spirituality.

Women-Centered Co-creation

We heal best when we heal together. I write about how the exhausted loner path only leads to more of the same. We grow our energy for healing when we take care of each other. My work is always woman-centered. Immersing yourself in a woman-centered program is magical. 

Self-Healing Takes
Time

A self-healing transformation is an inside job. The self-care industry sells us quick-fixes. I write  and teach about how we must shift to inner body awareness and that is a slow-growth process. In particular, we must learn how crucial rest is on our self-healing journey. 

My promise to you

I’ve got you! 

The amazing awakening in the next 50 years of your life is literally in your hands (and the rest of your body!)

Learning how to take care of yourself, intentionally, through self-healing is what I have for you. Everything I know - my vision for you -  is in my book and in my program. 

Are ready to take real action, so you can change your life’s course? 

Let’s do this, together. 

Ready to meet your FierceOver50 Self?

I invite you to buy my book and re-imagine the years ahead.

Fierce Over 50: 

Quit the Fight Against Aging,
Leave Self-Care Behind,
Empower Your Self-Healing Journey,
and Become Who You Were Meant to Be