Daily self-care is the key to feeling and being well. The lifestyle choices we make have a profound imprint on the expression of our overall health. Practicing stress relief, moving our bodies, eating fresh food with the seasons, cultivating healthy relationships, mindfulness, refraining from smoking and being in nature all promote life balance. While being in harmony with the needs of our bodies promotes health, being out of sync feeds illness and dis-ease. Health is a joy, a personal responsibility, a freedom, and a choice. The power of thriving is in your hands.
Never need for Apology
I’ll admit a little secret: I’m not always perfect. In fact, I’m rarely ever perfect. Nor would I wish to be. However, I do find a sense of integrity in vulnerability, in the flow state of learning in the present moment and being open to life. As a recent practice, I have been working with the notion of remorse. Inspired by Marshall Rosenberg, who teaches remorse as an alternative path to apology, I have been practicing being with the feelings associated with grief, instead of jumping past the moment and into repentance. This means that...
read moreHow to be who you are
If I were to describe to you what I’ve learned in my Environmental Leadership Master’s degree, I’d most likely tailor it specifically in a way you’re likely to understand, connect, and converse about it. You see, I want to have meaningful conversations with you about the health of the emotional self, the body of culture, and our home planet. Environmental Leadership is about taking a whole-systems view of the world, the interrelationships between people, and transforming the inner awareness. I might tell you about...
read moreHow to speak with heart
“We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow-men; and along those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects” ~ Herman Melville Throughout my journey as an environmental leader, I’ve learned that communication is essential. The words we say and the ways we interact contribute to our karma in ways that can harm, and ways that can heal. The tools of empathetic attunement, resonance, and nonviolent communication have proven especially helpful in...
read moreRecipe for success
My best guide in life is a mixture of joy and terror. These feelings, when woven together, produce a powerful sense of aliveness and purpose. Without the joy, what’s the point? And without the terror, how can I grow and expand? These are the feelings I can always recognize as the threshold to an expanded consciousness. I felt this way before I chose to move to the place I now call home, when I applied to graduate school to go after my dreams, when I first adopted my dog-baby Dilly, before I entered into relationship with my love, and...
read moreOpening up to welcome in the world
I consider privacy to be a favorite luxury. I currently enjoy a life of independence, a supporting role behind the scenes, a hermitage of clandestine study. I love this life. I love the attention I can give to reading, sleeping, meditating, writing, and walking my dog. I love the relationship I have cultivated with myself. And, I also want a life of love and healthy relationships. My desire for a vibrant relationship trumps my desire to have my home to myself, and so, I recently opened up my home to welcome in my sweetheart. I realize...
read moreBoost your sustainability by diversifying your bottom line
There are many ways to measure success. Businesses look to their finances and profits, nonprofits look to their relationships and societal impact, and environmentalists look to their ecological footprint. But a deeper look reveals something much more soft to measure. In our hybridized world, a singular and narrow bottom line is no longer enough. Customers now look to their business partners to have a positive social and environmental impact, and donors and foundations want to ensure their dollars are well spent with fiscally-responsible...
read moreAll the time in the world
Time is a flowy, circular, and rather paradoxical concept. Relative to region, culture, age, sense of spirituality, belief, and even altitude, time can feel different for everybody. I have experienced many diverse quickenings and hinderings at different moments in my life, depending on inner and outer circumstances. Some have been expansive, some universal, and some uncomfortably constrictive. Elizabeth Gilbert captures this notion of time eloquently in her new novel, The Signature of All Things (Viking, 2013): “…there was such a...
read moreDeceiving ourselves with our own masks
Owls, tigers, raccoons, monkeys, humans. We all wear masks of some sort. We could call these masks personality, identity, stories we tell of ourselves to ourselves, our social media profiles, our clothing, our jobs, our titles. Masks are a tradition for tribal peoples, celebrations like Mardi Gras, and storytelling in theatre. They are a way of coming to terms with death, a way of understanding our common stories, of expressing creativity and energy. Masks are a way of escaping from our present reality. But stripped down of these...
read morePrevention: Why hospitals should focus on the environment
Pop quiz: When is the best time to schedule a healing? a). When feeling sick b). When feeling stressed c). When feeling awesome d). None of the above e). All of the above I arrived to my most recent acupuncture appointment feeling awesome. I’ve been working with my healer for months, and we had gotten my body into balance to a point where time had passed and I didn’t feel dependant on our sessions. I felt great, free of needing an appointment. I almost cancelled my next scheduled date, because I figured, “I’m not sick, so I may as well...
read moreSanity in a world of duality
There are many ways to sustain a sense of balance in a world of duality and anger. Personal Balance is about the three-dimensional relationship between mind, body and spirit. It is not about right or wrong, but about noticing if you are heavy in one area and offering nourishment to any area that needs more of your energy. If you find yourself busy most of the time, you may be dominant in masculine and find meditation and aimless time in nature to be your balancing point. If you are mellow and relaxed, you may be centered in a more feminine...
read more
