Welcome! I’m glad you’re here. My name is Tiffini Theisen, and in addition to my work as a writer and communications consultant, I also lead women’s circles online and in person.

Currently, the easiest and most accessible way to connect with my spiritual leadership and teachings is through my Deer Path community on Substack. Through this community, I host a women’s circle on Zoom every other Wednesday from 8:30-9:30pm EST. Your first gathering is free!

Click below to learn more details about this women’s circle and to receive your free guest pass to join us and see whether our group feels like a fit for you.

More about my spiritual path

My inner life shapes how I move through the world. I’m a seeker and lifelong learner who’s dedicated to healing, mindfulness and exploring what it means to live with presence.

We all have different paths, and for most of us, these draw upon a variety of traditions and practices. My own path is grounded in movement, nourishment, nature and creativity.

Some of my favorite ways to express myself include writing, art and film appreciation, creativity, cooking, using herbs, talking to the trees and animals, making a space feel like a refuge, hosting potlucks and tea ceremonies, cracking jokes and having fun, playing with my dogs, exercise, reading, gardening and being in nature, and more.

Planted seeds

Like many who are on a personal-growth path, I was first led to the search for stability and meaning as a way to heal from trauma. On the outside, I was a high achiever — excelling in school, attending top colleges, and building a rewarding career as a journalist and professor. Yet on the inside, I often felt unsettled, anxious and disconnected in my relationships. And in the workplace, as someone who’s always been sensitive and thoughtful by nature, I struggled to navigate environments that seemed to reward aggression and ego over reflection and empathy.

These experiences shaped my curiosity about the inner life and guided me toward a spiritual path. They also helped me recognize patterns so I could begin seeking relationships and environments that were rooted in depth, mutual respect and authenticity.

My work in yoga, Reiki, and mindful practices became not just a personal refuge, but a path to understanding, grounding and connection that I strive to carry into my daily life.

Mind-body connection

If you’re still reading, I’ll share that one of my first turning points for my spiritual path came during the summer I was 23, staying with my dad and stepmom in Wellington, Florida, in between post-college life in New Orleans and starting graduate school.

I had grown accustomed to the rich, buttery flavors of the Big Easy — beignets, po’ boys and rich gumbo — so the latest fad diet my parents were trying, the strictly vegan McDougall Program (which was all there was to eat in the house!), was a radical shift. But I tried it, and quickly learned that eating this new way made me feel more vibrant and energized than I ever had.

Now mind you, I don’t advocate any restrictive eating program unless medically necessary. I don’t agree with extreme diet fads like the super low fat craze that was popular in the late 1980s and early ’90s. Yet I can’t deny that, for the few weeks that I got heavily processed and inflammatory foods out of my system, my lethargy and brain fog lifted, giving me my first visceral experience of the mind-body connection. I later returned to eating in a more balanced way, but with a new understanding of how caring for the body could be a form of spiritual practice in itself.

I stayed a vegetarian through graduate school and well into my twenties, and being part of that community introduced me to yoga and meditation. But stepping into the career-woman life in a big city — relentless deadlines as a newspaper copy editor and a newsroom culture of hard-drinking and late-night socializing — pulled my attention away from inner work. For several years, spiritual growth was on the back burner.

It wasn’t until a fresh round of trauma in my mid-thirties that I came back to my body and began nourishing and caring for my vessel again. And once again, I found that when I resumed exercise and healthy eating, I was able to reconnect with my energy, restore my inner balance and anchor in a sense of presence. Unlike sitting meditation, which doesn’t feel natural for me (I get antsy and my legs fall asleep!), this body-based approach became my path to clarity and inner strength.

Exploring spiritual paths

During this time, I became a frequent visitor of crystal shops, New Age circles, personal growth workshops, and alternative churches — all spaces that helped me see new ways of understanding myself and the world.

These experiences — which were both challenging and enlightening — led me to formal yoga training. In 2012, I completed a 200-hour yoga teacher program in the Sivananda tradition at Yoga Inner Peace in Lake Worth, Florida. The program was immersive and disciplined, combining daily yoga practice, meditation, chanting, and study of anatomy and yoga philosophy.

I managed to juggle it all with my full-time office job and the demands of owning three large, active dogs. It wasn’t easy — especially not that 5am daily alarm — but before long, living within the structured schedule and following the ashram’s guidelines helped me cultivate focus, patience and inner calm.

As part of that experience, my teacher offered me a spiritual name and a mantra — a symbolic blessing meant to reflect qualities I was growing into.

My teacher, Bharata, chose the name Mohini for me. In yogic stories, Mohini is a form of the Divine associated with inner radiance and quiet, transformative presence — not flashy charisma, but the kind that comes from alignment and truth. She’s said to represent the ability to refine what’s heavy into something lighter and more life-giving.

Along with the name, I received the mantra “Om Namah Sivaya,” which is traditionally translated as “I bow to the inner Self.” It’s a reminder to return to the part of us that’s steady beneath fear, old roles, and the identity patterns that make us small.

Over the years, this mantra has helped me release what no longer fits and come home to a clearer, calmer sense of myself.

Healing hands

Another turning point in my spiritual journey happened in 2014, during an Easter Sunday service at a small mountainside church in Central America while I was on vacation with friends. Suddenly, one of my friends was seized by a painful muscle spasm. Before I even consciously understood what I was doing, I suggested we step outside and walk a few steps up the mountain. She agreed.

Once we were standing a short distance away, next to a burst of spring wildflowers along the roadside, I instinctively hovered my hands near her neck and moved energy around. I never touched her skin, but within moments, her pain disappeared. She called it a “miracle,” and I was amazed at what had just happened.

This experience gave me my first real glimpse into the power of energy healing. Over the following years, I noticed how often my hands seemed to bring comfort and calm to friends in need, which inspired me to study Reiki more formally. In 2018, I earned my Level 2 attunement in the Usui tradition, deepening my understanding and practice.

Expanded offerings

In 2021, I launched and led Sharing Our Authentic Selves, a regular in-person gathering held mostly at The Metta Center in St. Petersburg, Florida, that included gentle movement, group meditations and rituals, journaling exercises, and sharing and discussion.

In late 2024, I completed a nearly yearlong 9-Pillar training through the Song of Sophia school. Rooted in feminine, nature-based spirituality, the curriculum wove together embodied practices, seasonal rituals, plant wisdom, and deep intuitive work.

That experience has become a steadying force in my life, strengthening the way I teach, write, and support others in finding meaning, steadiness, and a more rooted sense of self.

In early 2025, I launched The Deer Path, a community on Substack that offers an online sanctuary for those seeking mindfulness, balance, and a deeper connection to nature, spirituality and themselves. As part of my Deer Path community, I also lead biweekly women’s circles via Zoom.

An inner fire

One of the most formative experiences on my spiritual path was a transformative weeklong Ayurveda immersion in the spring of 2025 with Acharya Shunya and Chef Sanjai, co-founders of Vedika Global, at the Sivananda Ashram in the Bahamas (above). While I had encountered Ayurveda before, this was the deepest of my immersions in this tradition to date. I had the opportunity to feel how small, mindful choices in daily routine, diet and self-care can transform energy, clarity and well-being. Immersed in yoga, meditation and intentional practices, I had the rare chance to slow down fully and turn inward. That week kindled a deeper inner fire, a spiritual spark that awakened my curiosity, vitality and sense of purpose — a light I continue to nurture.