I attended a music festival this past weekend in the middle of Michigan. It has become the way my family and I mark the beginning of summer. Camping for 4 days at an old civil rights and peaceful action center listening to every genre of music while away from technology and stress completely.  

I marveled this weekend how the experience has changed for me over the past years.  See, completing this weekend involves massive amounts of walking...like 3 to 5 miles at minimum per day, carrying water, hours of standing or sitting in the sun, and late nights.  

We began going years ago, when my body still carried about 50 extra pounds and was generally constantly inflamed, despite eating a 100% organic diet, not consuming sugar, or vegetable oils, or drinking soda or doing countless other things that were opposite my ideal, I would leave that weekend feeling happy but wrecked.

Maybe you know the feeling, doing what you want to anyway, but having to pull yourself through the whole way. Ther...

So, I love words...I love to use expansive, expressive, dynamic words because they enliven what we say.  It is amazing what they do...pick the right word and what you said or wrote just takes off.

Honestly...it is one of my huge life joys to play with language. Sadly, I rarely find people who can play like that. My husband’s best friend can...and when we have the chance to get together, we go out of our way to banter, which I love.  

What’s so funny, in the realm of public speaking or writing, I always get told to diminish my use of words because it puts distance between myself and those I am writing to.

Consequently, I find myself writing and then going back and changing it, which is fine, but it always brings to my mind the role of language in our lives and in our healing.

What's so funny is the role words play in what we do or don't do, there's a lot of ways we learn to use words that block us from taking action 

I find this when I'm speaking to women that they tell me, “yeah, ...

Hate to be the one to tell you this, but Dr's have no idea how to manage or even understand exhaustion, most hormonal issues and especially inflammation!

Today is my youngest’s birthday. Every year as my kids pass these milestones, I think back to the miracle of their arrival and marvel.

This milestone is no different, but today, I am struck with a bit more awe as I contemplate his arrival. Eleven years ago, after spending about 20 hours in labor at home...as I was attempting my third home birth, my midwife suggested it was time to go to the hospital, she said his head was coming in sideways and there was just no hope of making progress.

I was honestly devastated, crying and exhausted, we made our way to the hospital, afraid, feeling totally off my path and way out of sorts, I was greeted by doctors and staff that thought I was crazy for having attempted home birth in the first place.  This attitude culminated by a doctor walking out on me after I rejected a dose of Pitocin saying I could sit and wait a few hours until the next doctor on staff could see me.

This went like this for hours until I finally suggested they break my water t...

Who am I and what is my story?
Someone asked me the other day if I was really a doctor, and I thought it was a great question, so, here is my brief about my video. Enjoy!

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 see don’t have a plan either, and that recognition of t...

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 system as a whole and operate ...

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 got me thinking about conversations I ...