Write Your Story with Ally Fallon

Human beings don’t deal well with uncertainty, which is why a mystery draws you in and why a cliffhanger on a TV show can keep you watching well past your bedtime. 

Your brain is wired for answers. 

Yet life is full of uncertainty. So how do we manage this tension? 

When a story is unfolding and you wonder, “how will this end?” Or when the big questions of life go unanswered and you lie awake wonder...

What if your life was meant to feel good?

I don’t mean that in a “if you can dream it, you can do it!” kind of a way as much as I mean… what if your life—as it is—was meant to be pleasurable? 

What if you could learn to slow down enough to see every single day, every breath, every new opportunity, every inconvenience, every hiccup, even every heartbreak as an absolutely gripping reminder th...

When you’re in the middle of your story and it appears that no resolution is on the horizon, it’s easy to assume that you must be doing something wrong. 

Maybe if you were stronger, wiser, or more "positive" you would be able to find a solution and bring your story to resolution. 

But what if the point of the story is not to resolve the story?

What if the unresolved, chaotic, painful middle of a story is exact...

Do you ever get the feeling like you’re telling the same story over and over again? The details may change (new boss, new partner, new hometown) but the cycle of the story stays the same. In today’s episode I talk about what to do when you seem to be stuck in the same frustrating story on repeat. I’ll share my own experience with finding myself in this rut and talk about how to move when you’re ready to fina...

Have you ever felt derailed by failure in your life? 

Perhaps it was the end of a relationship, the loss of a job, a public embarrassment, or a mistake that cost you more than you felt ready to lose. 

Or maybe you don’t experience failure much. It’s possible you tiptoe around failure, making sure that you’re never too far out on a limb so as not to fall. 

In that case, you might feel blocked or stuc...

What do disciplining a child, teaching preschool and taking good care of yourself have in common?

The answer might surprise you. 

This week’s episode is inspired by a parenting technique that seemed too simple to actually work. But as soon as I watched this alarmingly unsophisticated tactic have wild success with my four and five year olds—and their friends—I had to ask myself: maybe there’s value in ev...

Do you ever feel an inherent tension between the pull of your creative passions and the need to pay for groceries? 

When you think about developing the more creative parts of your life and yourself, do you get stuck worrying if it's selfish, entitled, or unwise to give into these desires? 

Do you feel that your spirit gets deadened or dulled sometimes by the monotony of day to day living? 

Do you sometimes settle for...

More than a year ago, someone recommended I read the memoir called How to Stay Married by Harrison Scott Key. It reminded them, in some ways, of my memoir from 2017 about a marriage crisis, called Indestructible.

It took me more than a year to hit “play” on the audible file, but by the time I started it, I also finished in a matter of a few days. 

The speed at which I consumed the book, however, does not necessaril...

Does your life ever feel like it moves at an absolutely break-neck pace? 

Maybe that pace works well for you or maybe, over time, you start to feel like you’re drinking from a fire hose. 

Like you’re overwhelmed with experiences and information, unable to integrate and disconnected from everything that is happening.

If that sounds true for you, today’s episode offers a meditation I’ve been using la...

Is inspiration a luxury? A privilege? Do we have to go without inspiration in times of war or chaos or change? Or, is inspiration an absolutely vital part of life? In this episode, I share why I think inspiration is essential to human existence and talk about the simple things we can do to stay inspired. 

How do you stay inspired? I’d love to hear from you. Write your list of 10 ways to stay inspired and tag me on...

Do you ever get the feeling like everybody else is thriving and you’re the only one struggling?

Maybe you’re scrolling social media and see a hundred smiling faces. Or maybe you bump into a friend at the grocery story who says they’re doing great! Everything is going great! All is well with their world!

You might start to wonder if maybe it’s just you that is struggling financially or stuck in a dead-end job...

This week, I want to offer some straightforward writing and publishing advice that might hurt your feelings; but I’m willing to hurt your feelings since it is in service of awakening your inner artist (see: last week’s episode). 

Even if you’re “not a writer” or don’t have any aspirations for publishing, this advice is for you. It’s for any creative person who questions the validity of...

Do you have an artist in you that you’ve tucked away because…

• Obligations and responsibilities took precedence over art? 
• You were shamed or ridiculed for being “unrealistic” or having your “head in the clouds”?
• You’ve forgotten what it felt like to be creative?
...

There's been a cultural obsession recently with optimizing your life, your health, your body and more. And while optimization can provide support and scaffolding, there’s a hidden danger of focusing too much on optimization. 

I’ll unpack that silent drawback in today’s episode. 

I’ll also share an update from my most recent trip to Montana and the status of my yoga teacher training program. 

Y...

In today’s episode, I share a metaphor I’ve been using in my yoga classes lately that has served me in the rest of my life, too.  

If you’re new here, or if you missed it, I’m teaching yoga! For now it’s one each week at Hot Yoga of East Nashville, a free / donation based 60 minute flow class on Fridays at 4:30. If you’re in Nashville or if you come to visit, come see me at the studio!

...

Human beings have a primal need that we don’t often talk about. 

It’s not food or water or love, although we need those things too. 

It’s the human need that drives you to watch Netflix, scroll Instagram, gasp at a text message that says, “you’ll never guess what happened!?” and even binge a great audiobook (the three I mention in the episode are in the notes below).  

And yet...

AI has been a constant topic of conversation lately, mainly because we’re watching the world change at a rapid pace in ways that are unprecedented and can be unnerving. 

We’re in uncharted territory.  

As nostalgic as I can sometimes feel about a time when iPhones didn’t rule our lives, I tend toward the belief that, in general, the best times are ahead of us — not behind. 

I even recorde...

If we’re all a sort of “hero” in our own personal narrative, it begs an obvious question: who is narrating the story? 

I watched Harold and the Purple Crayon on Netflix with my kids over the weekend, a children's book turned movie where the main character of a book goes searching for the narrator of his story so that he can better understand his purpose in life. 

My kids thought the movie was hilarious. ...

One of the most common questions I’ve been asked in the past ten years is if I would talk about my evolving process with the Christian faith of my childhood. 

I even recorded an episode called, “Are you still a Christian?” here: 

Finally, after years of avoiding and evading the question, after nearly a decade of processing and evolving privately, I’m ready to share parts of my experience. 

The...