Melinda Emily Thomas

I come from a family of devoted readers who nurtured my love of sacred wisdom, storytelling, and the creative life.

A dancer since childhood, In my 20’s I began studying yoga as a spiritual and physical practice, and I’ve been teaching since 2007. Yoga, for me, is less about perfect poses and more about listening deeply, cultivating balance, and learning how to live with presence. You can learn more about my training and approach on the Yoga page.

When my son was born I spiraled into a postpartum depression that was one in a long line of bipolar episodes I’d lived through since my teens. 

The radical life changes motherhood brought propelled me into a dark-night of the soul experience that ultimately led to a deeper commitment to the everyday spiritual practices of yoga and the principles of balanced living offered by the Rule of St. Benedict, a 6^th century rule for monastics. They kept me going until I found the right combination of medication and sacred rhythms to return me to equanimity. 

I came to learn that balance is not static, it is a dynamic response to the ever shifting circumstances of life.

My decades long study of yoga and Benedictine wisdom provided the inspiration for my first book Sacred Balance: Aligning Body and Spirit Through Yoga and the Benedictine Way which weaves together two ancient wisdom traditions to support embodied spiritual practice in everyday life. It’s written for you with simple practices to return to again and again to find anchors for your body, mind, and soul.

Listening to nature and aligning with her sacred rhythms became a path to healing, wholeness, and joy.

Learning about the sacred cycles of nature through yoga and Benedictine spirituality drew me into a more intimate connection with the trees, mountains, waters, and painted skies I have loved since childhood. 

In response to the practical time constraints of motherhood, I began writing poetry again as a way to integrate my painful journey with miscarriage, depression, my deep love for my son, and kinship with the natural world.

My poetry memoir makes space for these experiences that are too often held quietly. Elements of Being: A Spiritual Memoir in Verse gathers 108 poems voiced by Earth, Water, Fire, and Air as they companion a first-person narrative of becoming whole. Rooted in earth-centered spirituality, these poems honor both sorrow and delight as essential teachers.

While I continue to experience periods of depression, I also fall more in love with my son and the beauty of creation each and every day. 

Nature inspired poetry is now one of the pillars of my spiritual and creative life. Through reflections, poems, and prayers shared at The Journal of Elements and Seasons—I offer you inspiration to live an embodied, wonder-filled, contemplative life in the midst of your ordinary responsibilities, and the tremendous pressure of this cultural moment in time.