I find it fascinating just what we fear but don’t say. 

In my conversations with women every day, there are these things hanging around in the background….

I am worried this exhaustion might really be cancer

I am worried this pain might be something serious

What if I have diabetes?

What if my heart fails?

What if this weight never moves?

All the what if’s and worry...all real things...things we really should be paying attention to.

But we don’t, not really, because, in truth, we don’t know-how. This is what I hear from these same women…

Maybe this diet

Maybe Dr. so and so’s plan

Maybe if I just cut my sugar

Maybe if I just move more

Maybe if I just rest a bit

Maybe if I just….

That place, the maybe if I just place is so dangerous because in truth it is our mind’s way of making it a bit less daunting, a bit less painful, that truth, the one where we would have to admit we don’t really have a plan, that the doctors we...

I remember when I first encountered true healing, or at least the introduction to what real healing is, it was in a Classical Chinese Medicine class nearly 20 years ago.  The lecturer was Dr. Heiner Fruehauf and he was talking about the dynamic nature of healing and it was in that lecture that my soul called out “this is what we are here for”.  Up until then, although I had had fantastic lectures on the potential magic available in the body through various methods in Naturopathic medicine, nothing had ever touched on a philosophy of healing that evoked the combined abilities of Heaven-Earth and Human Beings together.

When he spoke, he made it clear that our body is not just a body, it is a full system within a larger system, and is dynamically engaging with and connected to the entire universe always.  Therefore, authentic and true healing is accomplished by identifying where that connection needs work and invoking methods which work with respect for the...

As I was contemplating my day and the week ahead of me this morning, I found myself thinking on rest.
At first, I felt kind of like: “I am not sure I got enough chance to rest this weekend”, but then I realized, no, that’s not it. “I am not sure I am taking enough time to experience meaning in my life and in turn, rest and activity of meaning too.”

Upon hearing this truth speak from within, I sat stunned and still, taking it in. I could see clearly, that what I was feeling wasn’t really fatigue, but a craving for more of my life spent in direct connection between me and my DIVINE purpose, gift, essence, and path.

As I took this further within myself, I could see that there was a definite divide between just activity and DIVINE activity, between rest and DIVINE rest. Gay Hendricks refers to this place as our zone of Genius, the operating place where we commit to an expression of our true gift our most authentic self and all that comes with that.

It...

He came careening from the left, just a blur, barely fitting between the car next to us and the space in front of us. My breath caught in my chest, I gasped and exclaimed “Oh My GOD”.

We looked at each other, my husband less wide-eyed than me, because he had seen the guy coming, and had managed to slow down just in time to make the space he knew the car was headed to big enough to fit.  We continued driving, catching our breath, slowing our heart rate, until we reached the next light and by chance the very same car.

We pulled up next to it, both still in shock, the passenger rolls down the window sheepishly, obviously expecting to be yelled at, immediately saying I’m sorry, really, sorry.  The driver, however, begins with bravado, “you all right buddy” he says with just a touch of arrogant tone.  My husband calmly answers, “yes, I was more worried about you”. It goes like this back and forth, my husband encouraging him to...

I am learning to say no.

It’s not as easy as I thought it would be, invoking this little word.  Saying “NO” is a big part of my own personal healing journey, in fact, you could say it is part of my prescription for healing.

See, I like to say yes, even when it isn’t in my best interest, “yes, I will help you”, “yes, I can do that too”, “yes, I can contribute”.

Yes is great, yes is awesome, but yes can take us down to almost nothing.

Some people proclaim no to be a limiting word, one to eliminate from our vocabulary, but to me, no is liberation and rest and freedom.

How would your life change if you felt you could say no to the things you really didn’t want to do?

Realistically, I am not speaking of life’s little annoyances (paying bills, taxes, running errands, or going to the dentist), no, I am speaking of the commitments we make out of obligation, or to keep up appearances. I am speaking of the minutia...

So, I am laying on my couch with an oyster shell full of burning embers on the side of my head…..

This is me, treating the consequences of not following my own advice.  See, yesterday, while at a local health food store with my daughter, I, against my own best knowledge had about 4 ounces of a smoothie.

Any of you who have ever sat and listened to me talk nutrition know, I am avidly against smoothies, they are cold, filled with hard to digest sugar from fruit and cause the Spleen to feel utterly rejected.

Well, we all make bad decisions, and yesterday, this was mine. It was such a small amount, but almost immediately I had an ice cream headache (which apparently didn’t stop me) and a few minutes later had another one.

Today, I woke up with pain on the side of my head where the ice cream headache had been and along with that, trouble opening my jaw.

Hence, the shell and embers. See, the cold from drinks like smoothies can get lodged in the body, and in my...

Some days you just wake up feeling a bit "off".  That’s me today, a bit off, a bit fatigued, my mind a bit slow.

I try to pay attention when this happens, check in with my body, try to see if I can locate the feelings or sensations, and then feel deeper into them.  My goal is to experience their totality, not just the fact that they are there, but what I think of or notice when I draw myself into the awareness of their presence.  Today, I felt a desire for some quiet time, a tinge of frustration, a bit of sadness, and a voice speaking a sort of “I don’t want to”.

Noticing into these sensations got me thinking about how I have in the past tried to silence or mute the sensations of a day like today. Maybe stopping for a sweet coffee, or having something starchy or rich for my breakfast, or maybe just by being grumpy with others.

But today, as I noticed and honored what I was feeling I also experienced a deep sense of connection to the routines I...

I saw something really cool last night in my evening meditation, and I just had to write about it so I can share it with you.  But, I first have to set the stage.

Every night, I sit in front of my Near-Infrared Lights and meditate (part of my nutritional restoration program). Lately, I have been focusing on pulling the yang qi, the heat and light into my lower dantien (the area below my belly button). The reason I focus here is to warm my Kidney yang and increase my vitality, a meditation I will soon be releasing in guided recorded format for anyone who is interested. So, here I was sitting in my homemade sauna holding my hands over my lower belly and breathing slowly and deeply, inviting the warm energy to grow and expand to fill the space.

In the tradition of Qi Gong, I also had my tongue pressed to the top of my mouth, as this initiates communication between my Governing Vessel (running up the back of my spine into my head) and my Conception Vessel (running down the front of...

Hello there,

I hope your Friday has begun with joy and blessings, and if it hasn’t, I hope it shifts that way quickly! I was driving through town the other day, enjoying the colors on the trees (even though I am honestly struggling with this change of seasons) and something struck me.  

I noticed how many beautiful gardens and houses fill this area and how so many of them have these beautiful, quaint, quiet sitting areas strategically set in their gardens.  Spots with lovely perennials, and flowers, a bit of shade, some nice chairs, but I never see anyone sitting there.  

I think what stood out the most was that these scenes were like a call to leisure, as if to say to a passerby: “sit with us, and quietly contemplate the awesomeness of these plants, or the softness of the breeze”. So much intention has gone into these spaces, which says to me that the people inhabiting those houses actually at one point and maybe even still have a dream of living a...