Last weekend I did my first of three health and wellness workshops for the New York Restoration Project (NYRP). It went really well and I feel really good about. But instead of describing it myself, I’ll use the official event report from the incredibly NYRP Outreach Coordinatar, Rachael Brody:

It was a perfect afternoon in East Harlem for sprouting and salad making this past Saturday! We kicked off the first of three workshops on Healthy Eating and Wellness in the El Cataño Community Garden. The workshop, led by Noah Goldstein, former NYRP educator, covered the importance of incorporating movement and a seasonal diet (in whatever capacity possible) into our lifestyles.  20 community members and folks from our meet-up.com group joined us.  We started off with some simple stretches to get our bodies moving, followed by a holistic discussion about seasonal food and nutrition.  Then we broke up into two groups and prepared two delicious salads, laughing and swapping recipes along the way, using all parts of the plant (root,stem,leaf,flower, and seed) with some extra special ingredients handpicked from the garden!  At the end of the workshop each participant went home with a new sprouting jar and a variety of seeds to begin making their own sprouts at home.

“ The presentor did a great job of combining all the essential elements of wellness into an easily digestible (no pun intended!) format in a fabulous venue. From the beginning stretches to the hands on salad prep with edible flowers to the parting gifts of sprout seeds, it was very well orchestrated. Look forward to the next one! ” Kathy Andino

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Photo courtesy of Rachael Brody

… and I find myself further along a path and closer to a goal, and much much more relaxed! Perhaps more important than being further along or closer to the end, I’m deeper in a process. A process I want to be in, a process I enjoy, but often wish away because I’m so eager to make it to the end. In the pauses, while I’m slowed down, I can remember and remind myself to stay as focused on the process as I am on the end result.

This was a pretty good semester, long and short in different ways. It started in the slow and dark Winter, with cold challenging the daily routine, and ended in the bright and warm energetic Spring. It was my first semester in the clinic (about which I have much to write) and first with herbs (again, I’ll be sharing much more). I feel I’ve done a pretty good job staying in balance internally and with the world around me, and I’ve been able to learn from the times I was pushed or pulled out of balance.

This break is exciting in many ways and for many reasons. A few weeks to relax. I’m moving in with some beautiful people, I’ll be doing a two week NADA training about which I’ll be sharing much more very soon, and I have some more time to write and work on improving this blog. I have a lot of great ideas for creating more useful content. In addition to sharing my personal experiences I want to be sharing tools that you’ll be able to apply to your own life. Things like self-massage techniques, qi-gong exercises, and herbal and dietary information. I’m hoping to make some downloadable PDF’s that you could keep around to look at and maybe even some videos! I’m also hoping to get some guest posts, so keep your eyes peeled.

As always, keep me in the know about what you’re all up to and most importantly Enjoy the Spring!

I recently wrote about spring cleaning at home and its relation to our ability to shift and grow and change. Once a year we all need to do a deep clean to purge our home from extra accumulated junk and allow for new growth and for energy to flow smoothly. A trend that echoes this that I’ve been hearing a lot about lately (possibly indicative of the crowd of people I hang out with) is “the cleanse” or “the detox.” It’s pretty common these days to do some sort 3-10 day diet-change to feel lighter and healthier and people are often very interested in doing so in the spring. The question usually seems to be which cleanse and for how long.

What I find interesting is how my own heritage includes these concepts in its spring rituals and holidays. Passover which is all about liberation and the movement from slavery to freedom, involves an intense week-long dietary shift. During the holiday, not only are Jews supposed to abstain from eating any leavened bread, but we aren’t even allowed to own “chametz.” Many sects of Judaism also abstain from legumes and all grains. There are two primary symbols intrinsic to not eating leavened bread. The mythical idea is that while fleeing Egypt We did not have time to let their bread rise, in fact, some of it was basically baking on our backs under the desert sun. The spiritual symbolism (and the one I personally find more meaningful), is in the idea of what it means to rise and to be puffed up like bread. According to Chassidic thought, leavened foods are symbolic of the ego, which enslaves our deeper truer selves. By disciplining ourselves and changing our diet we work to break free from the captivity of the ego.

I’m about the embark on a week-long journey of cleansing my physical body and hopefully along with it my mind and spirit. I’m doing this with a community of people to help the process; we can support each other through the rough patches and celebrate our successes. Hopefully, We find ourselves a week from now that much closer to true Freedom.

This isn’t the blog-post I was hoping to write. I have many more thoughts and feelings to share and those that I’ve shared here I feel lack an eloquence I strive for, but the sun is setting and it’s time for me to disconnect from the electronic world. I will let go of self-judgment here (at least for now) and embrace honest imperfection.

I look forward to sharing more and to hearing people’s responses.

Until then, blessings for Freedom world-wide. For each and every one of us to find the strength within and from family, friends, and our great world to break free for any shackles holding us back physical, emotional, psychological, or spiritual, it’s all one. And let this Spring be a time of growth, healing, and transformation.

Unfortunaly, this is not the home we'll be moving into, but rather a gorgous home on Martha's Vineyard, but I figured some imagery would be nice 🙂

In about a month I’ll be moving into a new home with my girlfriend and 5 other awesome individuals. This is very exciting. It’s a huge loft, just renovated, with a ton of windows and lots of space. The idea is to create somewhat of a community feeling, where we share and support each other, and cook and create together, where we can dance and play, but also respect everyone’s need for personal private space. So far, we’re envisioning more houseplants than you can imagine, and lots of color and art.

It’s a pretty huge transition for me (and most others involved). The past year and a half, I’m been living with a different group of amazing people in a community/cooperative home that I help create. It’s been a pretty special journey for me, and has led to a lot of personal growth and I’ve gained a tremendous amount of experience. We’ve had our ups and downs, but we continually come together as a group to solve problems when needed and celebrate when it’s time.

That’s just a little background on me, that will maybe help put this blog-post in context. As a holistic healer, I look at the whole state of an individual. Obviously this points us to all systems of the body (which is why an acupuncturist might ask about your bowel movements even if you’re coming in for a headache), but it also points us beyond. Does the person  like their job, what’s their overall lifestyle, how are their relationships with their friends and family? We talk about root and branch treatments in Chinese Medicine, which is essentially, treating symptoms (branch) and treating the underlying cause (root), generally we try to do both. Sometimes it’s important to focus on the branch before we can get into the root layer, other times it might just take us a treatment or two (or 3 or 4) before we’re able to truly identify what the root cause is. Sometimes we’ll be able to address it with herbs or needles, but depending on the dis-ease at hand, the root cause could have something to do with lifestyle (diet, lack of exercise, poor emotional support systems, a rough transition). In these cases I think our role is largely to empower and encourage the patient to make whatever shifts and changes they need. I think empowerment and encouragement can be in the form of needles and herbs (which can create significant energetic shifts that put a person into the right mindset to make the changes they need) and/or in the form of counseling and educating.

One life-factor that is easy to overlook is the home. I hear practitioner’s ask about people’s jobs, their partners and friends and family, their exercise and diet, but I haven’t yet heard anyone ask about someone’s apartment. Do they like their roommates, do they live alone? Is there enough sunlight and air circulation? I think this is a particularly important issue in a city like New York.

Our homes are the foundational spaces from where we set off into the world. They are our Earth where we eat and sleep and dress, and it’s tremendously important that we take the time to maintain our homes. We are moving out of the winter, a time where we tend to nest and hibernate at home a little more, and as we move into spring, we feel a little lighter and lot more like being outside all the time. It’s important to take time to make sure our take-off and landing pads are comfortable places, healthy places, nourishing places. We’ve all heard about Feng Shui, which can seem a little “out there” at times, but on a basic level it’s about setting up our homes in a way that things can flow best. It’s a system to bring intention into the layout of our living spaces and whether you use Feng Shui or your friend’s advice, the spring time is a good time to clean-out and rearrange.
My roommates and I just set up a date to do a massive Spring cleaning (our apartment really needs it). Later next month I’ll be moving into a fresh new clean space, (leaving a fresh clean space behind for someone else in need of a new home).

I think it’s a good time to think about how our homes are affecting our health and well-being, and how are health and well-being are affecting our homes. And perhaps most importantly, make any changes we feed we need so that we can head into the summer on stable ground.

Springtime is here in full swing out of nowhere and I’ve been thrown into a different phase of myself. Suddenly, I’m filled with excitement, plans, and ideas. All of this while school starts to pick up in intensity as we near finals and I prepare to move to a new home.

I find myself challenged to find a balance between overloading myself with things to do amidst my excitement and restraining myself to nourish and sustain my ability to follow through with projects I start. I know I need to pace myself or I will burn out, all of this wood energy needs water to feed it and metal to restrain it.

I’m back on my bike which is wonderful and I’m full of motivation to exercise and move more, so I feel that I need to make a conscious effort to sit and just be. To nourish my Yin aspects. I will also use this as a time to set the intention to spend less time up in my head, and more time in my heart and body.

It’s just so crazy how suddenly spring popped up, and I feel a little unprepared, but I also feel confident that I can find my balance. I just need to sit still for a moment and ground myself.

Now, get off the computer and go play in the sun!