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Breathe:

More Kindness for Ourselves and Each Other

Do mindfulness apps "work" as well as live classes?

1/21/2020

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Mindfulness teachers and students treasure the benefits of live, in-person classes --the increase in support, and the decrease in isolation; the ability to ask in-the-moment classes about practice difficulties; and the huge help with distraction by the modeling of others around you making the same attempts to bring kind awareness to each breath.


At the same time, many mindfulness teachers and other teachers of live classes and workshops have noticed a decrease in enrollments in the last couple of years. Recently, a journalist from Mic reached out to me to ask if apps can be adequate support for panic and anxiety. (Interesting...she didn't include the quote from me about how mindfulness is grounded in cultures of generosity, and is not just about becoming about a better capitalist...:)).


More important than attempting to breathe a certain way is to gently notice your breath and treat yourself with compassion, whatever form your breath takes — whether fast or slow, shallow or deep.

In the moments leading up to a panic attack, you might notice your breathing start to feel constricted and concentrated in the upper chest, explains L. Rebecca Connell, a therapist with an independent practice in Oakland, California, known as Center for Stress Reduction. You tend to feel deep breathing, on the other hand, in the abdomen, and you often engage in it when you feel relaxed and safe.

But while some people might benefit from trying to control or change their breath, Connell says, the strategy could backfire in others, making them more worried about their breath, which could worsen their anxiety. More important than attempting to breathe a certain way is to gently notice your breath and treat yourself with compassion, whatever form your breath takes — whether fast or slow, shallow or deep. Practicing this mindful approach when you're relatively calm could make it easier for you to do so when you're anxious, and before your anxiety escalates into a full-blown panic attack.


Meditation and guided breathing apps can be helpful in moments of mild to moderate anxiety, when it’s harder to hear your own inner guide, Connell says. But she worries that without guidance from a mindfulness teacher, you might set unreasonable expectations about how you “should” feel — for instance, that you need to empty your mind — which can make you feel discouraged and, again, worsen your anxiety. If you have periodic feelings of anxiety without panic attacks, these apps could be useful, but “if someone is having panic attacks, especially if they’re worried about having another one, they might want to find a licensed professional who can work with them,” she says.


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Mindful Digestion: Eating with the Stars

2/6/2018

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If you would like to practice awareness of eating, feel free to walk away from the screen for moment and bring back a bite to eat.

Mindful Eating Meditation

Perhaps picking up a small piece of fruit, like a raisin, a fresh grape or berry, or a wedge of apple or orange.

Trying a thought experiment, imagining that you have just arrived on this planet from outer space and you have never seen anything like this before.

Just looking. Looking at this amazing object, without needing to know its name. Spending time just seeing color, shape, form. Noticing the differences between the different parts of it.

Just beginning to experience the sense of touch. Feeling it with the fingers, noticing the contours, the textures, the weight.

Beginning to listen, holding it up to your ear and seeing if there is a sound. Seeing if a sound is produced by rubbing or tapping the object next to the ear.

Bringing awareness to the causes and conditions and people that created this moment. What happened that brought this object to your hand? Who touched it?

Holding it up to the nose and smelling, noticing the sensations. Noticing what happens in the mouth, what happens in the belly, what happens in the mind.

Gently savoring it in the mouth without biting. And biting down once and noticing what happens.

Reflecting on what you noticed when you awakened your senses in this way
.

Welcome. You have now joined the world-wide community of people who have eaten one raisin mindfully. This practice is the first one we teach in Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction. And now what? What would it be like to continue to check in with this raisin as it makes its descent into your body? Or continuing to lovingly notice your mood and energy over the next day or two? How does this raisin affect your brain health?

It wasn't until my digestion got really upset, most likely in the recurrence of a travel-related infection, that I realized that digestion was really a thing. After I complete the process of putting the food in my mouth, I am still eating! My body is continuing its relationship with the food I have given it.  Perhaps I can sit and relax for a moment after the mouth part of my eating is done to let the belly part of my eating continue.

So can we check in again with our raisin in the belly? As she moves down into the body, she is not alone. Perhaps in part because we are far from our ancestral foodways of eating in tribes and communities, we can feel restless when eating alone. We can even feel restless when eating with others, wanting to add reading, television, or electronics to our meal. And yet we are never really alone.

Recent research reveals that there are more bacteria in your gut then there are stars in the galaxy.

Yuck! you may think. These bugs sound dirty, like infection and illness. Yet we are beginning to understand that these bacteria are essential to multiple aspects of being a human being, especially digestion and mental health.

We have similar numbers microbial to human cells cells in the body, and 500 times more microbial DNA than human DNA.

"Each animal is an ecosystem with legs,” says microbiome researcher John Rawls.

Research out of the University of Rouen in France has shown that our gut bacteria have their own cravings. I began to imagine them hanging out in my belly, placing their orders with the waiter, putting in requests. I felt a whole new sense of responsibility. I was taking care of not only myself, but my community. And I was the only one of us with access to a fork!

My mindful eating teacher Jan Chozen Bays, MD said the other day that since many of us, especially people who are socialized as female, tend to take care of others more than we take care of ourselves, perhaps remembering that we are nourishing countless others by eating will increase self-care. Since it's no longer only self-care, we could think of it as community care.

As you continue to mull over the journey of your raisin friend, you might consider turning down the volume of your electronics and sending some lovingkindness to your bacterial community. You can thank them for digesting your food for you that you would not be able to digest on your own. You can thank them for signaling between the brain and the gut, which is being called the second brain.

One of the most challenging aspects of bringing our awareness to eating is that for many of us, as individuals and societies, paying attention to food comes with an enormous wallop of self-criticism and judgment. We learn best when the nervous system is relatively relaxed and open. So I invite you to bring this attention in moments after you've practiced some meditation or yoga already or you feel yourself naturally in a state of some self-compassion. Collaborating with a mindfulness teacher, therapist, or mindful group or community can be an important resource in this process.

What would it be like to choose the foods you eat out of a motivation to love and protect all of the members of your microbial community? Which foods do you intuitively feel might support a community that has been around long before the time of your oldest human ancestors?

Can you listen to the messages from the friends in your gut?

Leslie Korn, my wonderful nutrition mental health teacher, suggests to ask yourself two questions. What are the foods that make me feel well? And what are the foods that don't make me feel so well? The "old friends" in your gut will let you know.

Enjoy the discoveries you make in eating with the stars in the galaxy of your belly.

Originally published in Revolutionary Wellness Magazine, see page here.

I Contain Multitudes: the Microbes within Us and a Grander View of Life, Ed Yong, 2016
French researchers from the University of Rouen quoted in The Swift Diet, Kathie Madonna Swift, 2014
The Good Mood Kitchen: Simple Recipes and Nutrition Tips for Emotional Balance, Dr. Leslie Korn, 2017
Eat Right, Feel Right: 50 Recipes and Tips to Improve Mood, Sleep, Attention and Focus, Dr. Leslie Korn, 2017
Nutrition Essentials for Mental Health: A Complete Guide to the Food-Mood Connection, Leslie Korn, 2016
Mindful Eating, Jan Chozen Bays, M.D., 2009





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Pass it on: New research shows nourishing food might save your brain

9/26/2017

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Picture of bowl of berries with coconut
Worry wakes up before you do. It must, or it wouldn't be so ready to greet you before you wake. That unsettled flutter in the chest. The reluctance to face anyone, least of all your own mind. It can feel like this at a funky time like 4 AM or when the alarm goes off for work. The edginess can return in force in the afternoon, with that crashed-out, craving-a-pick-me-up feeling as the workday ends and before dinner appears.

Discovering the connection between food and mental health has been a revelation. It’s made a necessary difference in my sleep and chronic pain. Once perceived, it seems so clear. Yet not all doctors and therapists are making these connections yet. I'm passionate about letting you know how you can nourish your mood and give your brain health what it needs. I hope you will share this profoundly hopeful message with others.

I love geeking out on topics like the human microbiome, blood sugar and cortisol, microglia and inflammation, and the gut brain, our second brain. Not everyone wants to read dozens of books from my favorite teachers, like Nutrition Essentials for Mental Health by Leslie Korn and The Ultra Mind Solution: Healing Your Broken Brain by Healing Your Body First by Mark Hyman, MD. But the research is there, and it’s compelling.

Nutrition mental health research is slowly starting to come into more mainstream awareness, with review articles from the American Psychological Association; a collection of peer-reviewed articles in Clinical Psychological Science; and a review of the impact of food on neurotransmitters in Harvard Medical School's
blog. Just this week, the Harvard Medical School had an article about the impact of leaky gut -- which has been recognized and treated largely by the leaders in the field of naturopathic and functional medicine whom I follow --on autoimmune conditions, fibromyalgia, and mental illness.



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Eat the Rainbow of Love

9/26/2017

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Picture of Heart made of rainbow stripes of food, with yellow flower petal borderRainbow heart by Page Hodel in honor of Madalene
This beautiful rainbow of nourishing fruits was made by local lesbian artist and DJ extraordinaire, Page Hodel. She makes a heart every Monday in honor of Madalene, the love of her life who passed away more than 10 years ago. Receive an weekly heart of enduring love in your inbox here. I wasn't sure whether Page would give her permission for us to use this heart, do you think: "ABSOLUTELY YES YES YES AND MORE YES....I would be honored.Thank YOU for the great work YOU are doing." is a clear enough answer?



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Leaf Meditation and Amazing Fractals

7/19/2017

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PictureLeaf with three lobes and sawtooth edges, like triangles along edge. Network of three main lines, with each line dividing and subdividing into smaller lines. bright green along three main lines. light yellow, white, and red colors.
In summer, it's a wonderful time to be outside, whether in the foggy days of the Bay or in the bright sunshine. Long evenings and sometimes opportunities for travel bring us closer in connection with the natural world. You might take a moment to notice the trees around you, even if you can see part of a tree out of a window or find one planted by a volunteer on a sidewalk.

As Robin Wall Kimmerer beautifully says in Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, "Trees constitute the environmental quality committee – running air and water purification service 24 – 7. They are on every task force, from the historical society picnic to the highway department, school board, and library. When it comes to civic beautification, they alone create the crimson fall with little recognition… These processes are what ecological scientists term ecosystem services, the structures and functions of the national world that make life possible.… And yet these services go unaccounted for in the human economy.… We get them for free, donated continually by maples."


Leaf Meditation

If you like, take a moment and observe a tree. You might look deeply at it, as if getting ready to draw it. Noticing the shapes of the leaves and their colors, how different parts of the leaf give way to a range of colors. Noticing the network of lines.

The pattern of lines in tree leaves make fractals, amazing geometric patterns and shapes in which each part is similar to the whole and similar patterns repeat at progressively smaller scales.

Do these network of lines remind you of anything? They might call to mind the patterns in lungs, blood vessels, or other parts of the body.

Coming back to the tree, gently.

If you are close enough, you might touch a leaf, whether it is on the ground or still connected to a living tree. Feeling the texture.

Breathing in.

Breathing out.

Conspiring, breathing with, the tree.




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Mama Earth gets a mammogram

4/24/2017

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PictureImage: Earth from space, Blue enrobed with abundant ice on South pole, Apollo 17, 1972, NASA, https://www.nasa.gov/content/blue-marble-image-of-the-earth-from-apollo-17
Mama Earth gets a mammogram
 
she gets up with the sun
for her appointment
and has to take two buses
 
on the second one, she stands holding onto the strap
and the young people glowing into their screens
don't offer her a seat
 
she gets up slowly
with a rocking motion that propels the great globe
of her belly forward
with an audible sigh
 
the driver kneels the bus down
taking pity on her slow progress
aluminum walker with split tennis balls on the hooves
 
she looks around with the sun
squinting at an angle into her eyes
cradled by their rivers
carved by years of laughing and concentrating
to puzzle through
 
sees the semicircular driveway and metallic windows
and shuffles her bulk
through the door to information
 
spells out her name
for the unfazed ponytailed volunteer
chewing gum
who sends
Ms. Earth
to mammography
without looking up
 
the plates are cold
and seem to smash her breast
between them
with unnecessary force
 
her breath tightens and catches
against the pressure
but that's been going on for a while now
like a century
 
she hasn't had time to get it checked out
so many other fires to put out
the job she has seems always to take more than 24 hours in a day
if that's possible
and never came with the kind of insurance or sick days
that would allow her time to get her lungs checked
 
it's harder to remember details these days
but it seems like she hasn't had a raise
since the Rockies popped up
mmmmm, that was a hard birth, too
 
the tech asks her to switch breasts
and the plates descend again
 
she heard through the grapevine
there was this new preventative care plan
free mammograms every year
or in her ancient case
eon
 
she doesn't know what she'll do with a positive result
a biopsy sounds not only painful but expensive
and she doesn't know if it's covered
the little she'd been saving for retirement
disappeared in the
crash
 
the tech’s eyes behind her glasses
look concerned
mama knows the tech isn't really allowed
to tell her anything
but those women are always the first to know
 
she hopes it's not too serious
and if they do find something
that it's not
too late
 
Reba Connell, Berkeley, California, USA, 37.9° N, 122.3° W, June 2013, Cenozoic era



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Freedom from the Food Prison

1/10/2017

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Last spring, on a beautiful afternoon after a weekend retreat in Tilden Park in Berkeley, California, I overheard two kids talking on a trail about a presidential candidate who was talking about excluding members of our communities. Maybe they were about eight or nine. They were talking energetically about how to stop this candidate.
 
A child proposed, "Let's just put him in jail."
 
"Yeah!" his friend responded. "And just feed him candy and soda and then see what happens to him!”
 
Shirin Ebadi, Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner, judge and human rights lawyer says that Iran denied prominent political prisoners “access to the outdoors and adequate amounts of fruit and vegetables in their meals. Soon both fell ill,” she relates in her 2016 memoir, Until We Are Free.
 
It's amazing that the Standard American Diet (SAD) is shocking to human rights advocates, harmful to prisoners, and rings bells in the fantasies of progressive children wanting to block politicians.
 
A 2008 Australian study of 1000 women found that a traditional diet of vegetables, fruit, meat, fish, and whole grains was associated with lower risk of both anxiety and depression. The more processed foods one ate, the higher one's risk for depression and anxiety.
 
As compelling as this research is, self-criticism, worry about weight, and reluctance to change what we eat for a range of reasons -- from our values to taste, time and convenience -- can block an honest exploration of change.
 
My course Mindful Eating with the Brain in Mind provides two crucial ingredients that help the recipe of learning work. One of them is mindful self-compassion, and one of them is the principle of Health at Every Size. Knowing that you are your own best teacher and guide, and that your body size does not need to change, allows us to breathe, slow down, and learn together.



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Water is Medicine

12/13/2016

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“Mni Pejuta: water is medicine and Mni Wiconi: Water is Life,’ says Wakinyan LaPointe, Lakota community organizer. ‘In our Lakota way, it is our responsibility to strengthen our relationship with water.’”

Modern research continues to affirm indigenous wisdom, that water is one of our most useful medicines. Water can improve energy, mood, anger, concentration, and focus. The brain is very sensitive to small changes in levels of water in the body. Water is vegan, free, and in most cases comes with few side effects. You can do an experiment on yourself.

Like many of you, I've been deeply moved by what is happening at Standing Rock. Lakota Sioux have been joined by hundreds of indigenous nations from the Americas and the world, as well as other people of conscience called to protect the water, support the rights of our First Nations to their sacred ground and water and to protect the earth from from further global warming.

I read that the water protectors received word that the police had put out a list of requests including granola bars, energy drinks, soda, and warm clothing and gloves. The indigenous water protectors were the ones to respond to the police request.  They said, we gave them everything they asked for except for the soda and energy drinks, because water is life.

If you are moved to do more to support the water protectors, the current request is to contact the banks funding the pipeline.

In socially engaged mindfulness, we may engage with full energy but not attach to the results of our actions. 2 unexpected healings at Standing Rock were forgiveness ceremonies from the church and the military over the 500-year history of colonialization.

For heart-opening images, see a video clip of the 13 year-old Lakota Sioux girl, who had started the Standing Rock petition, after a successful goverment response to her efforts,  and images of the elders from many Native nations who gathered as water protectors.

Thank you. Water is life. Mni Wiconi. Water is Medicine.



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Water Meditation

11/29/2016

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Noticing a desire for water.

The desire may be experienced as a dryness in the mouth, an interest in the mind, a feeling of fatigue, or a cue -- of the morning, a meal, or a workout that reminds you of water.

Filling a drinking vessel with cold, room temperature, or hot water. Noticing the sound of the water as it fills your cup. Noticing how listening to the sound is experienced in the emotions and the body.

If you like, adding tea, lemon or anything else, or just drinking your plain, pure water.

Feeling the weight of the drinking vessel in your hand. Noticing the temperature of the water that is conveyed from the cup to your hand.

Looking at the water and seeing what you notice.

Telling your water, "I love you."

If you like, contemplating the sources of your water. Remembering or imagining where your water comes from to arrive at your cup. Does it come from a reservoir? Is it fed by a glacier, does it come from a river in the Sierras or other mountains? Noticing what you know and what you don't know. You may pray or send good thoughts to the sources of your water.

You may notice gratitude for being in that portion of humanity  that has running water in their home.

Smelling the water and noticing what you notice.

Taking a drink and noticing the temperature of the water in the mouth and the temperature of the water as it travels into your body.

Noticing that the water in your cup joins the water you are.


With a deep bow to the Lakota Sioux teen girls and elder women, traditional allies of water through the flow, who are leading the way and teaching us how to pray for and honor water. Thank you to the Ohlone people for the land where I sit and write. Please accept humble apologies for any misunderstandings of the teachings.




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Community Love Meditation

10/6/2016

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Community Love Meditation

This is a guided meditation to be read aloud to a group. It gives two options in the four sections. The leader or leaders read the guidance either for sitting or for walking.

Singing to Begin:
אהבה ורחמים חסד ושלום
Ahavah  V’Rachamim, Hesed V’Shalom
Love and Compassion, Lovingkindness and Peace.
--Ahavah, by Bon Singer and Ya Elah

(Sitting) Just allowing yourself to take a breath in and a breath out. Just noticing the breath in and out the body and noticing yourself here in the room. Noticing your feet on the floor. Noticing your head and the air above your head.  Now bringing awareness to the two human beings on either side of you, to your right and to your left.

    (Walking)  We're going to enter now into a silent community meditation. You'll be invited to be together in silent witness and will not need to say anything. Let's begin by standing. Just standing and feeling the weight of the feet on the floor and the contact between the foot and the floor. If sitting for this part works better for you, that's just fine. Standing and feeling the breath. Now turning to the center to see the other people in the room.

    Let's walk, or roll, out and fill the aisles, and the center, sides, back, and front of the room. Just noticing the other people as you pass.

    Now, still in silence, stopping and finding yourself in a group of three with two other people. Catching each other's eyes and standing facing each other quietly. Beautiful. If it ends up to be four, that's fine also. You can have your eyes open or closed, or alternate between open and closed, as you feel comfortable.

1. Noticing the other people here with you.
Appreciating their presence.

Knowing
they've watched the sunset over the bay,
they've sat on granite high in the mountains,
they've touched their hearts watching the vast stars

held someone they loved,
asked and pleaded for their prayers to be answered
searched for the Holy One, gave up, searched again;

longed for love
been beloved and loving

stayed up late on fire with
תיקון עולם
tikun olam
for something they believed in,
repairing this gorgeous, trembling, flawed world.

Know that this is
אהבה רבה
ahavah rabah,
The Great Love.

(Sitting) Now gently bringing awareness to the person sitting in front of you and the person sitting behind you.

(Walking)  In silence or with a word or gesture, giving thanks to
the people in your group and walking again.

Now, still in silence, stopping and finding yourself in a group of three with two other people. Catch each other's eyes. Beautiful.     If it ends up to be four, that's fine also.

2. Noticing the other people here with you.
Appreciating their presence.
Knowing
they have been uncomfortable,
comforting and comforted
felt sick and gotten well
been lonely and hidden their shame from us

felt not included in the warmth of the tribe;
took the time to sit with a friend
listened deeply without interruption

wept angry tears over loss and injustice
somewhere close or far away;
took less for themselves and gave more
to cool the burning
of the raucous, brilliant Earth.

Know that this is
אב הרחמים
av harachamim,
The WombFatherMotherParent
Of all compassion.

(Sitting)
Noticing two people in different parts of the room from you. Holding them in mind.

    (Walking) In silence or with a word or gesture, giving thanks to the people in your group and walking again.

    Now, still in silence, stopping and finding yourself in a group of three with two other people. Catch each other's eyes. Beautiful. If it ends up to be four, that's fine also.

3. Noticing the people here with you
appreciating their presence.
Once
they gave a dollar,
a sandwich, or a smile
even if they didn't have it to give that day.

They look up recipes and chop vegetables to feed us,
on a day they're busy and tired.

They put a kid in their lap,
or push an elder in their chair.

They were that child, asking for a story.

We hope they'll be that Elder, vibrant and thoughtful.

They've turned an upside-down shovel of dirt
and heard it fall onto a casket,
to honor someone they love.

Know that this is
חסד של אמת
Hesed shel emet,
The truest lovingkindness.

(Sitting) Bringing your awareness to two other people in the room you haven't had in mind yet. Perhaps someone new to you, whom you just met or you don't know their name.

(Walking) In silence or with a word or gesture, giving thanks to the people in your group and walking again.

Now, still in silence, stopping and finding yourself in a group of three with two other people. Catch each other's eyes. Beautiful. If it ends up to be four, that's fine also.

4. Noticing the other people here with you.
Appreciating their presence.

They’ve been confused, tired, and scared,
said something they didn't mean,
mixed up their emails, texts and posts,
gotten angry and forgotten to breathe,

been distracted and had accidents,
woke up in the middle of the night
with regret over something they said

apologized
made it right
listened when they wanted to jump in –

said: yes!
That makes sense,
I see your point,
how hard for you.

Traveled across town,
across the aisle,
across the world,

longed for and agitated for
true, lasting
peace and justice in the Holy Lands,
and all Lands.

Know that this is
שלום רב
Shalom rav,
The Great Peace.

(Walking) In silence or with a word or gesture, giving thanks to the people in your group and walking again back to your seat.

Knowing that you can do this practice again throughout the year, in our community and wherever you are, just by bringing these remembrances to mind when you see someone.

Reba Connell 2016, Elul 5776
after Joanna Macy, "Learning to See Each Other," from "Taking Heart: Spiritual Exercises for Social Activists," World As Lover, World As Self. The Four Divine Abodes of the Buddha are lovingkindness, compassion, joy in the joy of others, and equanimity.



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    Reba Connell teaches Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindful Eating classes in the Rockridge neighborhood of Oakland.

    She has completed several levels of study in teaching Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, including a professional training program under the direction of Dr. Saki Santorelli and Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn and a training in teaching Mindful Eating, through UCSD.

    She is deeply engaged with science-based and traditional approaches to healing through food and self-care. Her trainings include Food As Medicine; The Gut Brain; and Preventing and Managing Chronic Inflammation: Special Focus: Nutritional Interventions.  She has been practicing meditation and yoga since 1999.

    Finding mindfulness, movement, and food to make big differences in her own healing from chronic pain, she feels called to share what she is learning with others and to help people make their own discoveries. She is committed to a feminist approach that honors all body shapes and sizes while collaborating in radiant wellness.

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