Happy New Year 2021!

 

 

Happy New Year 2021!!

May 2021 bring you peace, harmony and renewed health!!

 

This is always such an interesting time of year for me. I ponder what happened in the ending of 2020, and reflect on what I would like to accomplish or focus on in the upcoming year.

 

This ending year has been a big one. It felt like an “on pause” year, a year to help us re-evaluate one of our most precious possessions, our HEALTH.

 

In the Chinese philosophic system of the 9 palaces, Health is in the first palace, because without our health, we cannot build upon our life force(qi) to fulfill any of the rest of our purposes: career, prosperity, partnership, Parenthood, travel, learning, knowledge and acquiring wisdom.

 

2020 has certainly put me in touch with how precious our health is. I recently read some advice that said: “Make yourself your own precious cargo”, which made me stop and ask myself,

What does that look like?

And I think of the way I raised my children,

with nutritious food for growth,

magical play for building the imagination,

adventure days to explore the beauty of the natural world around us, and

education that is child-centered and creative.

What if I gave these gifts to myself, as a loving mother, to my own precious cargo, my own playful child, would that change the way I care for myself?

 

I will carry this ponderance into 2021. And I would love to hear any insights or comments that you have made about your health this year.

 

And how “community” changed this year!!

 

1. The Community of women at our office, Brain and Body Health, were able to wend a path through the pandemic, shifting and changing to accommodate all the best procedures and equipment to make our office one of the safest Health Clinics to continue getting effective and cutting-edge healthcare. Every phase of change was a “yes, and” experience for us.

 

2. The Community of Learning and Growing: Kathleen Port alerted me to the Net of Knowledge portal which provided free classes in Chinese Medicine topics, weekly, as a community service (free), of which I caught many lectures, (and post lecture discussions with Kathleen) and it made me feel like I was a part of this worldwide Chinese Medicine Community, bonded by our mutual love of health and healing in a time of heath crisis.

 

I was lucky enough to have taken an Herbal Medicine class with Andrew Ellis (thanks to Holly Guzman who brought him here to Santa Cruz in February). That single action — one class in with the top herbalists gathered together on Feb. 15^th, a huge impact with this unique viral pandemic. Andrew gave us the basis for understanding the ways to deal with this pandemic using Chinese Anti-viral herbs, and the published studies to prove the efficacy.  Kia Sinay clinched the topic of WEN BING, Heat Epidemics. She did a beautiful job with transmitting such complex theories into practical clinical applications. And just in time to give us the insights we needed to tackle the after-effects of the virus’s lingering presence.

 

Dr. Datis Kharrazian , Dr. William Shaw,  and Dr. Jeffrey Bland all helped enlighten the Functional Medicine Community about the Bio-Chemistry of Immune strength and resiliency. I felt a strong support in being a part of this amazing community of Functional Physicians. It made me feel that I am exactly in the right groove of medical direction and intervention strategies.

 

3. Old friends that I was able to connect with on zoom/facetime became closer. Family Zoom gatherings offered a chance for deep connection and a new (different) meaning to “togetherness”.

 

4. Zoom Yoga, Pilates, Meditation, Qi Gong and Ballroom Dance kept me in shape. A great blessing to stay in motion.

 

5. I used the Insight Timer app more often to meditate, and discovered the FASTIC app via my daughter, and lost all the lbs that tried to hitch a ride over the pandemic, and then a few more!! Another silver lining.

 

6. Zoom Knitting circles sprouted. Spirituality studies flourished, and Painting online classes stretched me.

 

7. I enjoyed Zoom Soul Collage groups, with Sonya Kleshik and Mariabruna Sirabella. Zoom Happy Hours, dance clubs, book clubs, and creativity cluster groups; all the creative ways my friends and family found to keep life fun.

 

All such surprising blessings!!!

And I also got a bit sick of Zoom, too, and had to pace myself.

Ah, the balance of Yin and Yang……

 

2021, this upcoming year, begins as I am reminded that I can still do the things that I love – remotely, on zoom, thanks to the quick pivoting of the Hostesses of these amazing beginning of the year events that I look forward to attending.

 

Feel free to check these out if you are interested too.

 

1. First Annual Intentions Day Long Retreat with Catherine Houdek (and she has a couples retreat in Feb) :

https://www.meetup.com/Shaped-Realitys-Intentions-Gatherings/events/274438475/

 

1. Book your Vison, intentions for the soul in images and key words:

https://freshintuition.com/book-your-vision-virtually-2021/

 

This is how I set myself up with my intentions for the year, every year, and this one with be very different and no different…..

 

As we jump into this promising new year, (breath held- remember to exhale) may we be held in the balance, as a bridge between the Heavens and the (too warm) Earth, the above and below, finding our footing amidst change, the one constant we can depend upon, as we always must do throughout the days of our lives.

 

Be Resilient,

Therese