I am thrilled to share that we have another book baby! Christa Fairbrother has published Water Yoga, A Teacher's Guide To Improving Movement, Health and Wellbeing.

Here is her story, in her words:

Dream = Book

I remember when I was a kid, I said I would be a writer when I grew up.  Like most kids, there were some other ideas too.  And like most adults, I grew up to do different things than my childhood dreams.  But unlike most adults, I didn’t let go of those early dreams, and this month I’m seeing them fulfilled with the publication of my first book, Water Yoga.

Nice to meet you.  I’m Christa Fairbrother, water yoga coach and trainer. 

I live in Florida with my husband and two teenage sons.  I drink tons of tea.  I love reading.  And yes, my passion and vocation is water yoga.  

What is water yoga?  Simple, it’s taking yoga postures, breathing techniques, and yoga philosophy and doing it in the pool.  Except it is a bit harder than that as the water’s properties affect your balance, muscular effort, and nervous system responses.  As someone who lives with multiple kinds of arthritis, I specialize in working with people who live with chronic pain.  Someone who lives with arthritis really appreciates the water offloading sore joints, maintaining joint health through strong muscles, and dampening their pain responses.  They get all that without having to get on and off the ground or bear weight in their hands.  That’s just one example of how yoga in the water benefits people in differently than on land.

Helping people with arthritis through yoga became my passion after my diagnosis and what led me to water yoga. 

Teaching any subject, including water yoga, requires you to communicate well.  While I had earned a graduate degree and did some writing for my previous careers, I hadn’t focused as much on outreach.

While water yoga is not new, it can feel like yoga’s best-kept secret.  By publishing on social media, writing articles, and appearing on podcasts, I help people learn that water yoga doesn’t just exist; it’s valuable for them to learn. Except I hadn’t done any of those things before.  In trying to educate people about the topic, I also needed to put myself out there in bigger, bolder ways than I had before.

I got good feedback, and my students were happy and learning.  And people kept saying you should write a book.  Which brought me full circle to my childhood dreams buried underneath my adult self-doubts and excuses.  I thought about it and thought “in the future,” meaning some undetermined time as a pipedream. 

And then COVID came.

Everything shut down.  I still had a backyard pool to practice in, but I couldn’t teach my students so I had a lot of newfound time on my hands.  I decided to step up and write the book.  Three years previously, we’d had a hurricane that forced us to evacuate and lose power for a week.  I wrote and self-published a water yoga philosophy book over two-weeks.  The stress caused my health problems to flare up, and I couldn’t sleep for weeks so I wrote a book instead.  That experience taught me disasters are the perfect time to write.

I wrote a book proposal.  It was accepted right away, and so I had a book to write. 

That meant daily word counts, writer’s block, imposter syndrome, and a whole bunch of other stuff that sounds like my health diagnoses.  And I was lucky enough to find Creative Dream Incubator and Andrea.

Because while writing a book is a solitary experience, you’re never alone.  You’re just in your own head a lot.  Which isn’t always helpful creatively or emotionally.  Using Dream Book while writing the book gave me an outlet to deal with all the stuff that was coming up in the moment instead of letting it fester.  I could get my doubts, worries, and to-do lists written down and then move on to the book.  I actually have two art degrees, so I have a lot more confidence in creating within the visual arts.  Sitting down daily for a few minutes of visual creativity while working through my thought processes got the words flowing and kept me confident and supported.  It felt a little more familiar than all text, all the time.

I know Andrea calls her program Dream Book.  My expression of the program is Dream = Book (Water Yoga).

I hope you don’t give up on your dreams.  Write that book or paint the painting you have inside of you.  If you need help or support it exists.  You will find it.  You and your dreams are worth it.  

My bio - Christa Fairbrother, MA, ERYT 200/500, ATRIC, AFP, AFAP is an internationally recognized water yoga coach and trainer.  She lives in Florida with her husband and two sons.  When she’s not in the pool, there’s nothing she loves better than a good book and a huge cup of tea.  You can find more information about her book, Water Yoga, on her website.

Christa also sent me some photos of her Dream Book, with permission to share!

Now - go check out the book!