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HEALTHY
LIVING
HEALTHY
PLANET
Heal the Climate, Heal Ourselves Why We Personally Need a Healthy Planet
Gardening
ASANAS Yoga Poses to Stay Pain-Free
HEALTHY
HOUSE Easy Ways to Green It Up
Paul Hawken Highlights
Solutions to Global Warming April 2018 | West Michigan Edition | NaturalWestMichigan.comApril 2018
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letter from publisher Going Green
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n our April issue you will find many great tips for reducing your carbon footprint and other ways of lightening your impact on the planet. Basics include eating locally grown foods, transitioning to a more plant-based diet and simply reducing overall consumption of everything. Other helpful ideas include purchasing a water filtering bottle instead of buying bottled water. Patronizing the library yields an ongoing recycled source of books, movies and periodicals. It’s a good place to get lost in our imaginations and a healthy alternative to today’s all-too-common addiction to energy-sucking television, which is corrosive to mental, physical and environmental well-being. Recently I attended a fascinating health seminar on detoxing our home. By this time most Natural Awakenings readers are fairly adept at reading food labels, yet when it comes to buying cleaning products for home and body, we may not read the labels closely. When we do, do we truly understand the full impact that using these products represent? The Environmental Working Group at ewg.org is a go-to resource for learning more about the toxins present in our everyday lives. Here you will find a comprehensive, scientific data base of information reviewing the burden of chemicals we are placing on our bodies through personal care and home furnishings and maintenance. I never wish to create more stress and sometimes knowledge can be troubling, but if we take baby steps and begin with just one area of our lives we will likely find this takes us to a simpler, less stressful state of being. Instead of purchasing expensive toxic products wrapped in environmentally toxic packaging, we naturally begin to use ingredients like vinegar, baking soda, castile soap, rubbing alcohol and coconut oil to clean and shine and in so doing our journey becomes more benign.
WEST MICHIGAN EDITION PUBLISHER/EDITOR Pamela Gallina EDITORS Rachel Scott McDaniel Alison Chabonais DESIGN & PRODUCTION Scott Carvey CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ashley Carter Youngblood Marlaina Donato Dr. Dan Gleason
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To conscious living, © 2018 by Natural Awakenings. All rights reserved. Although some parts of this publication may be reproduced and reprinted, we require that prior permission be obtained in writing. Natural Awakenings is a free publication distributed locally and is supported by our advertisers. Please call to find a location near you or if you would like copies placed at your business. We do not necessarily endorse the views expressed in the articles and advertisements, nor are we responsible for the products and services advertised. Check with a healthcare professional regarding the appropriate use of any treatment.
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Natural Awakenings Magazine of West Michigan
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HEALTHY LIVING HEALTHY PLANET
Natural Awakenings is your guide to a healthier, more balanced life. In each issue readers find cutting-edge information on natural health, nutrition, fitness, personal growth, green living, creative expression and the products and services that support a healthy lifestyle.
Contents 12 HEALTHY CLIMATE, HEALTHY PEOPLE
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Why a Warming Planet is Harming Our Health
15 PAUL HAWKEN Shares a Plan to Reverse Global Warming
16 CHANGING OUR DIET TO COOL THE CLIMATE Good Food Choices Enable Global Health
18 TOUCHING THE EARTH
20
The Healing Powers of Going Barefoot
20 GARDENING ASANAS
Yoga Poses to Stay Pain-Free
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ADVERTISING & SUBMISSIONS
HOW TO ADVERTISE To advertise with Natural Awakenings or request a media kit, please contact us at 616-604-0480 or email Publisher@NaturalWestMichigan.com. Deadline for ads and News Briefs: the 12th of the month. EDITORIAL SUBMISSIONS Email articles, news items and ideas to: Publisher@ NaturalWestMichigan.com or submit online at: NaturalWestMichigan.com. Deadline for editorial: the 5th of the month. CALENDAR SUBMISSIONS Calendar submissions Submit calendar events online at: NaturalWestMichigan.com. Calendar deadline is the 15th of the month prior to publication. REGIONAL MARKETS Advertise your products or services in multiple markets! Natural Awakenings Publishing Corp. is a growing franchised family of locally owned magazines serving communities since 1994. To place your ad in other markets call 616-604-0480. For franchising opportunities call 239-530-1377 or visit NaturalAwakenings.com.
24 HEALTHY HOUSE Easy Ways to Green It Up
26 INTO THE WOODS Nature Helps Kids Build Skills and Character
28 NATURE’S REMEDIES How Animals Self-Medicate
DEPARTMENTS 4 news briefs 6 health briefs 8 global briefs 9 action alert 11 eco tip 15 wise words 16 conscious
eating 18 healing ways 20 fit body 22 inspiration 23 chiro news
8 24 green living 26 healthy kids 28 natural pet 30 community
spotlight 32 calendar 37 resource guide 39 classifieds April 2018
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Vegetable and Fruit Gardening Presentation
news briefs
Your DNA Is Not Your Destiny... Dinner Is!
C
ome for an in-office workshop from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., April 26, at the Blue Wellness Center. For the cost of a night out, come spend the evening with Dr. Wallace D.O. and Dee Kohley, Rph. At this workshop, guests will create their own personal and functional prescription. Attendees will also learn how to determine their haplotype. Dr. Wallace will guide participants along as they complete their individual Functional Matrix. One of the key principles of Functional Medicine is that no illness happens in isolation, and the Matrix offers a vivid and useful illustration to connect the dots. Come discover which diet is right! After completing the Matrix, attendees will have the knowledge necessary to change their lifestyles. If participants decide to schedule an individual appointment for personalized care, they will be next on the schedule. Space is limited. Cost is $30. Location: 17212 Van Wagoner Rd. Spring Lake. For more information, visit BlueWaterWellnessTeam.org. See ad page 17.
Help Our Local Parks
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he Open Doors Center for Teens program at The Geek Group National Science Institute is a personalized alternative to traditional middle and high school, where students explore their interests. Now, the Open Doors for Teens students are on a mission. “We are trying to bring more people to our Grand Rapids city parks,” says the students in one class called Do Something. “We believe that when people are outside hiking, playing, and enjoying nature, they are happier and healthier. But we feel that our parks could improve and draw more people to them.” The teens need more help. Anyone willing to support this cause, please answer a few questions. The results will be brought to the attention of Friends of Grand Rapids Parks in order that changes can be achieved. For more information and to answer the questions, visit https://goo. gl/forms/ox1mI5ZACvbpNJCB2 or visit the Open Doors Center for Self-directed Teens Facebook page. 4
West Michigan Edition
NaturalWestMichigan.com
G
ardening lovers are invited to join the Lakeshore Garden Masters at 6:00 p.m., April 23, for their monthly meeting. Speaker Ben Werling, MSU educator, will address the topic “Vegetable and Fruit Gardening.” Learn how to enjoy fresh food this year the easy way. Even if attendees don’t have much space, they can learn to grow a feast of fresh foods. The potluck begins at 6:00 p.m., and attendees are asked to bring a beverage and table setting. If guests do not want to attend the potluck, they can arrive at 6:30 p.m. for the presentation. This year the regular meeting place for Lakeshore Garden Masters has moved to a new location which will provide state-ofthe-art audio and visual technology for the speakers each month. Lakeshore Garden Masters was formed nearly twenty years ago as a result of MSU Extension reorganization and downsizing. Originally the organization was made up of Master Gardeners in Muskegon County, but now the group has grown and includes gardeners of all levels and interests in Ottawa, Kent, Oceana, Newaygo, and Muskegon counties. Lakeshore Garden Masters also volunteer their time planting and maintaining the Monet Garden in Muskegon at Clay and 4th Streets. This pocket-sized jewel in the Heritage neighborhood is distinguished in its likeness to the Monet Garden in France down to the smallest detail of flower colors and reflecting pond with a blue bridge. Admission is $5. Location: 800 Ellis Road, Norton Shores. For more information, please contact Susan Thorpe at holbox04@gmail.com or 248-310-2312.
Citizens’ Climate Lobby Grand Rapids Hosts “Our Children’s Future”
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he Chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCLL) will present a multi-faceted event from 5:30 p.m. to 9:45 p.m., April 11, at the Wealthy Theatre. The program is focused on taking action to build a sustainable future for the next generation. Come celebrate Mother Earth with live bands, local food, art exhibits, and poetry readings. Also, there will be opportunities to network and take action with our local non-profit sponsors—all dedicated to building a better world. The cornerstone of this event will be a live telecast with members of Our Children’s Trust, a group of 21 children and young adults who have brought a landmark climate lawsuit against the federal government (Juliana vs. U.S.) claiming that, through the government’s affirmative actions that cause climate change, it has violated the youngest generation’s constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property. This was a bold move, but
these times call for bold action and, as seen more frequently, young people are leading the charge. Following the presentation, attendees will learn about some of the actions being taken right here in Michigan from a group of panelists moderated by former GR Mayor George Heartwell. Admission is free. Location: 1130 Wealthy St. SE, Grand Rapids. For more information and to signup, visit facebook.com/cclgrandrapids. From there, click on Events to find more details and a schedule of “Our Children’s Future.”
Aeizoon Pyr Class in May
T
he Aeizoon Pyr Fire of Everlasting Life course is coming to the Grand Rapids area in May. Come learn the first level, one of seven in the study of a specific life cultivation for this time period. This five-day course will focus on Agnostis, meaning purity, and Thriasis, meaning blissfulness. Learn purity to release the inner blockage, improving physical and mental health. Attendees will also gain knowledge about blissfulness, cultivating stillness that assists in stabilizing inner qi. This practice is very powerful for healers and therapists to enhance their potential to share qi or healing energy. This class is taught by Aristotelios Philis, TCM, master of Zhineng Qigong and creator of Aeizoon Pyr. Philis studied with Shaykh Nazim, the world leader of Sufi Nagsibnady Order and Stylianos Atteshlis, the great mystic and healer. He also studied for twenty years with three grand masters in China. In recent years, he continued his studies in Greece in the most sacred teachings of esoteric Christianity and ancient Greek philosophy. Teaching extensively in Europe, Aristotelis is now for the first time in USA. Aeizoon Pyr consists of seven levels combining the important knowledge of Chinese inner wisdom with the ancient Greek philosophy of using the mind in a unique way in order to bring stronger results. This also includes esoteric Christianity for cultivation and understating characteristics of virtues for transforming one’s life. Hermetic teaching is a cornerstone of this system. For more information and registration, contact Aristotelios.Philis@ gmail.com or ElizabethCosmos@gmail.com.
There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it. ~Edith Wharton
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April 2018
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health briefs
Whole Grains Help Us Eat Less DeryaDraws /Shutterstock.com
When overweight adults exchange refined grain products such as white bread and pasta for whole-grain equivalents, they tend to feel full sooner, eat less, lose weight and experience a reduction in inflammation, the journal Gut reports. Researchers from Denmark’s National Food Institute and the University of Copenhagen studying 50 adults at risk for Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease found that test volunteers realized these benefits by eating whole grains, and rye in particular.
Ingesting a combination of five herbs while making healthy lifestyle changes significantly reduced symptoms of polycystic ovary syndrome in a recent Australian study of 122 women published in Phytotherapy Research. The herbs were Cinnamomum verum (cinnamon), Glycyrrhiza glabra (licorice), Hypericum perforatum (St. John’s wort), Paeonia lactiflora (peony) and Tribulus terrestris (tribulus). Menstrual cycles returned to normal duration for 55 percent of the women, and significant improvements occurred in body mass index, pregnancy rates, hormones, insulin sensitivity and blood pressure. Subjects also exhibited less depression, anxiety and stress.
High-Fat Diet Risks Multiple Sclerosis Relapse A high-fat diet increases the risk of relapse of multiple sclerosis in children by as much as 56 percent, reports The Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry. A multi-university study of 219 children also found that each 10 percent increase in saturated fat as a share of total calories tripled the risk of relapse. Inversely, each additional cup of vegetables per week cut the risk of the disease by 50 percent.
ZenFruitGraphics/Shutterstock.com
Herbs Ease Polycystic Ovary Symptoms
A Harvard study of 325 women undergoing fertility treatments found that those consuming the most produce high in pesticide residues, such as strawberries, spinach and grapes, were 18 percent less likely to become pregnant and 26 percent less likely to have a live birth compared to women eating the least amount of pesticide-laden produce. Study co-author Dr. Jorge Chavarro suggests that women trying to conceive should eat organic produce or low-pesticide choices like avocados, onions and oranges. 6
West Michigan Edition
NaturalWestMichigan.com
All kind of people/Shutterstock.com
FRUIT PESTICIDES LOWER FERTILITY IN WOMEN
DeryaDraws /Shutterstock.com
Less REM-Stage Sleep Linked to Dementia Risk
People that get less rapid eye movement (REM) sleep may have a greater risk of developing dementia, according to a new study published in Neurology. Following 321 people over age 60 for 12 years, Australian researchers found that those that developed dementia spent an average of 17 percent of their sleep time in REM sleep, compared to 20 percent for others. It also took them longer to get to that dream-generating stage.
Nature Videos Calm Prisoners
Maximum-security prison inmates in Oregon that spent an hour a day for a year watching nature videos were involved in 26 percent fewer violent acts compared with fellow inmates, and reported feeling significantly calmer, less irritable and more empathetic. The University of Utah study, published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, states, “An estimated 5.3 million Americans live or work in nature-deprived venues. Such removal from nature can result in an ‘extinction of experience’ that can further lead to disinterest or disaffection toward natural settings, or even biophobia (fear of the natural environment). People that infrequently or never spend time in nature will be deprived of the numerous physical and emotional benefits that contact with nature affords.”
Luis Louro /Shutterstock.com
Air Pollution Linked to Psychological Distress Air pollution takes a toll on mental health, University of Washington researchers have concluded. By linking health data for 6,000 people to census tracts, they found that people living in areas with the highest levels of airborne fine particulate matter scored 17 percent higher in measures of psychological distress, including sadness, nervousness and hopelessness. The higher the level of particulates—emitted by car engines, fireplaces and fossil fuel power plants—the greater the impact.
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Clear Gain
A study published in the journal Science found that forests across Asia, Latin America and Africa release 468 tons of carbon per year, equivalent to nearly 10 percent of the annual U.S. carbon footprint. Thus, tropical forests may no longer be acting as carbon sinks and could be releasing more carbon than they store. Lead author Alessandro Baccini, with the Woods Hole Research Center, in Massachusetts, says, “These findings provide the world with a wake-up call on forests. If we’re to keep global temperatures from rising to dangerous levels, we need to drastically reduce emissions and greatly increase forests’ ability to absorb and store carbon.” Researchers think nearly 70 percent of this loss of carbon storage capacity is caused by small-scale degradation from logging, drought and wildfire. Researchers say that policies to curb deforestation, reduce degradation and restore the integrity of the land could turn forests back into carbon sinks.
Distributed Power Energy Users Control Own Supplies
Some municipalities spend between 20 and 40 percent of their annual budgets on the energy needed to operate wastewater treatment plants. The city of Thousand Oaks, California, has transformed their biggest energy user into an energy generator. Across the U.S., energy users of all sizes are taking control of their power supply and relieving stress from the grid. That’s the idea behind distributed energy. Atlantic Re:think and Siemens have partnered to explore this burgeoning energy revolution. View a video at Tinyurl.com/ TheThousandOaksSolution.
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West Michigan Edition
NaturalWestMichigan.com
Solar energy is now the cheapest form of new energy in dozens of countries, with record-setting solar farms being built worldwide. Researchers have been investigating ways to make transparent solar panels that resemble glass that could be used as window panels at the same time as converting the light that shines on them into electricity. “Highly transparent solar cells represent the wave of the future for new solar applications,” explains materials scientist Richard Lunt, Ph.D., from Michigan State University. “We analyzed their potential and show that by harvesting only invisible light, these devices have the potential of generating a similar amount of electricity as rooftop solar while providing additional functionality to enhance the efficiency of buildings, automobiles and mobile electronics.” As reported in Nature Energy, his team has developed a transparent, luminescent, solar concentrator that looks like clear glass, covered in small, organic molecules adept at capturing only ultraviolet and near-infrared wavelengths of light. The visible light that enables human vision isn’t obstructed, so we can see through the cell. If scaled up to cover the billions of square feet of glass surfaces throughout the U.S., it could potentially supply about 40 percent of our country’s energy needs.
SVIATLANA SHEINAtterstock.com
Tropical Forests Releasing Excess Carbon
Dirk Ercken/Shutterstock.com
‘Sink’ Setback
Window-Like Solar Cells Could Power 40 Percent of U.S. Needs
Scientists’ Security
France Welcomes Beleaguered Climate Researchers
French President Emmanuel Macron awarded 18 climate scientists from the U.S. and elsewhere millions of euros in grants to relocate to his country for the rest of Donald Trump’s presidential term. Macron’s “Make Our Planet Great Again” grants are meant to counter Trump’s intent on the climate change front following his declaration to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate accord. One winner, Camille Parmesan, of the University of Texas at Austin, who is working at an experimental ecology station in the Pyrenees charting how human-made climate change is affecting wildlife, says that in the U.S., “You are having to hide what you do.”
Big Pants Production/Shutterstock.com
global briefs
Transforming Plastics
action alert
UK furniture and design company Pentatonic has invented the Trashpresso, a solar-powered, mini-recycling plant that transforms plastic waste into usable architectural tiles. Pentatonic doesn’t use raw goods that create excess waste because they are committed to using materials for their products that incorporate some element of recycling, says co-founder Johann Bodecker. They want their products to be reusable, too, so they don’t use glues, resins, paints or formaldehydes to create them, a philosophy that influences all company decisions. The Trashpresso can be used in offthe-grid places where traditional recycling plants would be impractical. It sorts, shreds and compresses trash into plastic fibers to create fully formed tiles. The invention has attracted the attention of companies that want to reduce their own contribution to plastic waste and ocean pollution. Starbucks UK, for example, has commissioned Pentatonic to turn their coffee shop waste into furniture, including bean bag chairs produced from plastic bottles and cups.
Top Polluters
Photomontage/Shutterstock.com
Just 100 Companies Emit Most Global Emissions
In July 2017, historic new research from environmental nonprofit CDP, in collaboration with the Climate Accountability Institute, revealed in The Carbon Majors Report that 71 percent of all global greenhouse gas emissions since 1988 can be traced to just 100 fossil fuel producers. It’s the first in a series of planned publications to improve transparency and highlight the role companies and their investors could play in tackling climate change. Offenders ExxonMobil, Shell, BP and Chevron are among the highest-emitting investor-owned companies. If fossil fuels continue to be extracted at the same rate for the next 28 years as they were between 1988 and 2017, global average temperatures would be on course to rise by 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of this century, likely causing catastrophic consequences, including substantial species extinction and global food scarcity risks. Read the report at Tinyurl.com/ CarbonTop100List.
Peter Bernik/Shutterstock.com
schankz/Shutterstock.com
Mobile Trashpresso Turns Trash into Tiles
Sway Congress Save Wild Horses Campaign Update
The Trump Administration’s Fiscal Year 2019 budget again calls on Congress to lift long-standing prohibitions on the destruction and slaughter of wild horses and burros. The budget seeks to cut approximately $14 million of the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management Wild Horse and Burro Program by selling as many as 90,000 federally protected American mustangs for slaughter to avoid management costs and supply foreign markets with horsemeat. So far, citizens have held the line in favor of America’s iconic equine heritage. As Congress discusses appropriations for 2019, we must continue to press our senators and representatives to stand with the 80 percent of Americans that demand protection for these animals. Make your voice heard today via the online form at Tinyurl.com/ SaveWildHorsesNow.
Horses make a landscape look beautiful. ~Alice Walker April 2018
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global briefs U.S. Waste Paper Turned Away
Companies that recycle cardboard boxes were overwhelmed after record-breaking holiday shopping online. The U.S. Postal Service estimated it delivered 10 percent more packages in 2017 than the year before. Amazon, the leader in online shopping, said it shipped more than 5 billion items for Prime members in 2017. All of this cardboard is a huge recycling challenge. Americans routinely toss food waste and other garbage into their recycling carts, and China, the country that receives the bulk of these contaminated recyclables, says it has had enough. China, by far the world’s biggest importer and processor of recyclables, has put the U.S. on notice that it will begin turning away all but the most pristine used plastics and unsorted waste paper by this fall and early next year. The pronouncement has alarmed U.S. government and industry officials, especially on the West Coast, that face the challenge of either cleaning up the vast, never-ending stream of recyclables to meet China’s strict standards or finding other places to dump the messy items—perhaps in landfills. The uncertainty caused by China’s looming ban is beginning to slow down the entire West Coast system for sorting and shipping off recyclables. In Hong Kong, which ships its waste paper and cardboard to the Chinese mainland, mounds of the materials already are piling up at docks and in cargo ships being kept at sea.
SageElyseShutterstock.com
Chinese Chokepoint
Waxworm Wonders
Caterpillars Offer Clues to Plastic Cleanup
monticelloSefa Kaya
Waxworms, a type of caterpillar, are vexing to beekeepers because they devour the wax that bees use to build honeycombs. It turns out that they can do the same to plastic. Ongoing worldwide research reveals several types of bacteria found in waxworms that digest some kinds of plastic at rates that vary from weeks to months. Scientist Federica Bertocchini, at the Spanish National Research Council, mashed up a quantity of the greater wax moth and applied the paste to polyethylene. After half a day, about 13 percent of the plastic had disappeared. She collaborated with biochemists at the University of Cambridge to analyze this chemical decomposition of the plastic. They discovered that some of the substance is converted into ethylene glycol, a sign that it was genuinely being degraded. The carbon-to-carbon bonds found in polyethylene are also present in the wax that the caterpillars eat. Susan Selke, director of the Michigan State University School of Packaging, remarks, “The hunt for organisms that can degrade plastics is on. Right now, we don’t have a good solution for dealing with the plastics that are piling up on our planet.”
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West Michigan Edition
NaturalWestMichigan.com
Jacob_09/Shutterstock.com
eco tip
We Need Trees
Arbor Day More Vital Now than Ever
The 147th annual Arbor Day on April 27 encourages tree planting worldwide to replenish lost tree cover including trees wiped out in the recent fires in California and hurricanes in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico. The Arbor Day Foundation (ADF) is committed to providing 5 million trees in these areas alone. More than 3,400 U.S. communities will participate as an ADF Tree City. Visit Tinyurl.com/USATreeCityDirectory for a current list and criteria for new communities to apply. The ADF Alliance for Community Trees (ACTrees.org) supports treegrowing programs for 200 nonprofit member groups nationwide via funding, information sharing and forging helpful connections. Trees are much more than aesthetics, says Program Manager Dana Karcher, who most recently welcomed Community Greening, in Delray Beach, Florida, and Outdoor Circle, in Hawaii, into the fold. “Trees clean the air, are a habitat for animals, retain storm water and more.” An affiliated nonprofit program online at NeighborWoodsMonth.org encourages tree planting each October.
Billings, Montana, earned the latest Arbor Day Celebration Award after 12 elementary schools there engaged in environmental education stations and 180 volunteers planted and pruned trees. Other recent biannual award winners included California’s ReLeaf program and the Atlanta Beltline Arboretum. The need was great even before the world’s forests lost 73.4 million acres of tree cover in 2016, a 51 percent increase over 2015, due to poor forest management, climate changedriven drought and fires, says Global Forest Watch. Hopeful global signs: The largest-ever tropical reforestation project in the Brazilian Amazon aims to plant 73 million trees in the next six years on 70,000 acres. A New Zealand participation goal for the Billion Trees Planting Programme targets planting 100 million trees annually for a decade. In July 2017, volunteers in Madhya Pradesh, India, planted 66,750,000 tree saplings in 12 hours, exceeding the previous record by Uttar Pradesh of 50 million in 24 hours, as part of India’s reforestation pledge of 2 billion new trees by 2030. A $10 annual ADF membership fee includes 10, six-inch-tall seedlings to plant or to donate to a national forest. Karcher’s paramount planting tip: “Dig the hole twice as wide and the same depth of the root ball. If it’s too deep, it’ll suffocate. Give roots space to grow.”
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April 2018
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Why a Warming Planet is Harming Our Health by Lisa Marshall
S
amantha Ahdoot’s son Isaac was 9 years old when he collapsed from the heat while playing clarinet at band camp. It had been a record-hot summer following a mild winter and early spring, and Dr. Ahdoot, an Alexandria, Virginia, pediatrician, had already noticed a string of unusual cases: A toddler had contracted Lyme disease in the once tick-free region of Northern Maine. A teenager had suffered an asthma attack in February, a full month before she usually started taking allergy medicine. A displaced grade-schooler from out of town arrived traumatized after fleeing a hurricane-ravaged home with her family. But it wasn’t until she saw her son laying on a gurney in the emergency room with an IV in his arm that she fully connected the dots. 12
West Michigan Edition
“I was aware that the weather had changed a lot since I was kid. But it really didn’t hit home until that day that climate change could affect my health and the health of my children personally,” recalls Ahdoot. “I realized it would be a betrayal of my duty as a pediatrician to sit back and do nothing about it.”
Health Care Alert
Ahdoot, now a vocal climate change activist, is among a growing number of healthcare professionals that have begun to reframe climate change not as a concern for elsewhere or the future, but as a pressing U.S. public
NaturalWestMichigan.com
Ase/Shutterstock.com Boris Ryaposov/Shutterstock.com
Healthy Climate, Healthy People
health issue today. In one recent survey of 1,200 allergists, 48 percent said climate change is already affecting their patients a “great deal” or a “moderate amount.” In another survey of lung specialists, 77 percent said they were seeing patient symptoms grow more severe due to worsening climate-related air quality. In a sweeping review published last October in The Lancet medical journal, a team of healthcare professionals proclaimed that the human symptoms of climate change are “unequivocal and potentially irreversible,” noting that since 2000, the number of people in the United States exposed to heat waves annually has risen by about 14.5 million, and the number of natural disasters annually has increased 46 percent. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also begun to weigh in with a Climate-Ready States and Cities Initiative to help local health departments brace for everything from the hazardous air quality associated with more forest fires to the spread of vector-borne diseases like Zika and West Nile as the range and season of mosquitoes and ticks expands. Meanwhile, groups like the newly formed and expansive Medical Society Consortium on Climate & Health, to which Ahdoot belongs, are being proactive. Its doctors are greening their offices, swapping cars for bikes, buses or carpooling, lobbying lawmakers and encouraging their patients to undertake measures to prevent the problem from worsening. In the process, they say, they might even improve their own health. “We want the public to understand that climate change is not just about polar bears or receding glaciers in the Arctic, but also about our children and our health here and now,” says Ahdoot.
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Flora and Fauna Issues
During the past century, average temperatures have increased between 1.3 and 1.9 degrees Fahrenheit, with annual increases accelerating in recent years as 2012, 2015, 2016 and 2017 all set records for ambient heat. Such rising temperatures, combined with increased rain and record-high atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, can have a significant impact on plants— both those that irritate or nourish us, says Howard Frumkin, a medical doctor who co-authored the Lancet report and teaches environmental and occupational health sciences at the University of Washington, in Seattle. Wild, allergy-inducing plants like ragweed and poison ivy are flourishing. Poison ivy is growing faster, larger and more toxic as excess carbon prompts it to produce more of its rash-inducing compound, urushiol. “We are seeing the season for ragweed productivity expanding, with pollen levels rising higher and earlier and lasting longer by several weeks,” advises Frumkin. In 2016, residents of Minneapolis, Minnesota, endured a ragweed season that was 21 days longer than in 1990. Other, desirable crops, like grains, do worse in hotter carbonrich climes, producing less protein and other nutrients, Frumkin notes. Meanwhile, bugs are thriving, with longer seasons and wider ranges in which to reproduce. Mosquitoes’ capacity to transmit dengue fever— the world’s fastest-growing mosquitoborne illness—has risen by 11 percent since 1950, more than half of that just since 1990, according to the Lancet report. Further, the tick that carries Lyme disease is now present in 46 percent of U.S. counties, up from 30 percent in 1998. “My physician colleagues used to treat two or three cases a month during tick season,” says Dr. Nitin Damle, a physician at South County Internal Medicine, in Wakefield, Rhode Island.
Five Steps to Take Today
1
Swap tailpipes for pedals: Bike or walk instead of driving, especially for distances of less than two miles, which comprise 40 percent of all car trips. A study in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives found that if everyone did this in just 11 cities in the Midwest, not only would carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions fall, but it would extend 1,300 lives and save $8 billion in healthcare costs due to better air quality and less sedentary lifestyles.
2
Eat less red meat: Producing
red meat results in five times more climate-warming emissions per calorie than chicken, pork, dairy or eggs, according to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. It also creates 11 times more emissions than the production of potatoes, wheat or rice. Eating less red meat can also decrease an individual’s risk of certain cancers.
3
Encourage hospitals and doctors’ offices to go green:
The healthcare system is responsible
“Now each of us sees 40 to 50 new cases each season.”
Heat Pollution
Rising heat can also aggravate lung conditions because it promotes the production of ozone, a major lung irritant. With prolonged heat often come wildfires. When one burned for three months in North Carolina in a recent summer, researchers discovered that residents of counties affected by the smoke plume showed a 50 percent increase in emergency trips due to respiratory illness. Like Isaac, more kids are ending up in hospitals due to soaring temperatures, with U.S. emergency room visits for heat illnesses up by 133 percent between 1997 and 2006. Ahdoot recalls a young football player from Arkansas that showed signs of weakness and fatigue during practice, but wasn’t treated right away. He ended
for about 10 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions, according to a recent study by researchers at the Yale School of Medicine, in New Haven, Connecticut. Boston-area hospitals recently slashed their overall emissions by 29 percent in five years.
4
Plant more trees: As they grow, trees remove carbon dioxide from the air. Being around green space has also been shown to boost mental and cognitive health.
5
Show compassion: Americans,
per capita, emit six times more CO2 than the global average, according to research by Jonathan Patz, a medical doctor who directs the Global Health Institute at the University of WisconsinMadison. In a TED Talk, he observed that U.S. lower-income populations and those in developing countries are often hit hardest by gaseous emissions. “Those most vulnerable to the health impacts of climate change are often the least responsible,” he says. “Doing something about this is a matter of compassion.”
up with heat stroke, kidney failure and pulmonary edema and ultimately required kidney dialysis. “Every summer now, I see the impacts of increasing temperatures and heat waves on kids,” she says. Climate change can also impact mental health, according to a recent review by the American Psychological Association. Exposure to natural disasters can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder. Plus, according to research institutions including the University of California, San Diego, and Iowa State University, chronic heat, especially at night, can interfere with sleep and even lead to aggressive behavior. Then there’s the worry about what to do about it, and whether it will be enough. “When you talk with people about what is affecting them, climate is definitely one of the things stressing them out,” says Thomas Doherty, Psy.D., a psychologist April 2018
13
in Portland, Oregon. “There’s a sense of mystery and powerlessness around it that weighs on people.”
Fresh Perspective, New Hope
Mona Sarfaty, a family physician who is now director of the Medical Society Consortium on Climate & Health, attests that 69 percent of Americans are aware that climate change is occurring, and more than half agree that human activities are at least partly to blame. Yet only a third believe it could ever harm them personally. “So much of the early focus was on the receding glaciers and the penguins,” she says. “People today still think it will affect ‘those other people over there,’ but not them.” She agrees with the recent focus on
imminent health issues, and is encouraged that a growing number of healthcare professionals feel it’s their duty to inform their patients about climate change to mobilize action. “When you talk about climate change not only in terms of the health impact it has on individuals and families, but also in terms of the real-time benefits of taking action against it, people are a lot more interested in doing something,” says Sarfaty. For instance, shifting to clean energy sources like wind and solar instead of coal can effect better air quality and easier breathing now. Cycling or walking to work rather than driving can reduce carbon emissions, boost feel-good brain chemicals and keep weight in check. Writing letters to editors or attend-
ing rallies to urge lawmakers to pass climate-friendly policies can not only fend off the anxiety and depression that comes with feeling helpless, but also effect real change. Ahdoot is taking these steps now. She has solar panels on her roof, is assisting the local hospital to reduce its carbon footprint, takes public transportation to work and encourages her kids to walk whenever possible. “I don’t feel powerless at all. I feel empowered and optimistic,” she says. “The more we know, the more we are moved to act. We can all do something small every day to protect our climate.” Lisa Marshall is a freelance health writer in Boulder, CO. Connect at LisaAnnMarshall.com.
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Paul Hawken Shares a Plan to Reverse Global Warming by Linda Sechrist
F
or author Paul Hawken, a leading environmental entrepreneur working with a coalition of research fellows, advisors and expert reviewers, the climate goal is drawdown, or reversing global warming—the point in atmospheric time when the concentration of greenhouse gases peaks and begins to decline on a year-to-year basis. Hawken edited Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming, a compendium of the 100 most substantive solutions that already exist.
Are you optimistic about achieving the goal?
Why is drawdown the goal? If we don’t name the goal, we are unlikely to achieve it. To date, language like mitigation, stabilization and reduction has been used to address climate change. These goals are not particularly ambitious and will do little to preserve civilization. Those verbs are about slowing the amount of released gases, but do not reverse them. If you are going the wrong way down a road which heads straight over a cliff, slowing down is not a helpful goal. We need to turn around, and that is what drawdown research is all about.
Why and how did you do the research? We wanted to know if it was game over with respect to global warming, or could we reverse the buildup of greenhouse gases with techniques and practices already underway? We gathered a qualified and diverse group of 70 researchers from around the world to identify, research and model the 100 most substantive existing solutions. They modeled the impact the solutions will have if they continue to scale in a rigorous, but reasonable way, and what the cost and profits would be. All carbon data was based on peer-reviewed science. Economic data came from respected international institutions like the World Bank. The goal of the
tion is the most powerful lever available for breaking the cycle of intergenerational poverty while mitigating emissions by curbing population growth. Ranked seventh, family planning, particularly in low-income countries, impacts world population. For women to have children by choice rather than chance and to plan their family size and spacing is a matter of autonomy and dignity. Together, these two solutions would account for significant reduction in greenhouse gases by 2050. The United Nations estimates a difference between the high and median population projections in 2050 of 10.8 billion versus 9.7 billion. The difference is almost entirely determined by availability of family planning.
book was to present the findings and describe the solutions in ways that fascinated and informed, accompanied by images that enlivened and inspired.
What are the top 10 solutions? The top 10 solutions, in order, are: refrigerant management, wind turbines, reduced food waste, plant-rich diet, tropical forests protection, educating girls, family planning, solar farms, silvopasture—the intentional combination of trees, forage plants and livestock as an integrated, intensively managed system— and rooftop solar. All 100 are listed at Drawdown.org/solutions-summary-by-rank.
Did any of the solutions surprise you? None of the solutions surprised us, but their rankings did. For example, educating girls, number six, has a dramatic bearing on global warming. Women with more years of education have fewer, healthier, children and actively manage their reproductive health. Educated females realize higher wages and greater upward mobility, contributing to economic growth. Educa-
Drawdown is not about optimism, hope or pessimism. It is a reality project. The science on climate change is amazing, if not stunning. It is the best problem statement humanity has ever created, which I see as a gift, not a curse. Global warming is feedback from the atmosphere. The Earth is a system, and any system that does not incorporate feedback fails. It holds true for our body, ecosystems, social systems and economic systems. The knowledge of global warming and its potential impacts is creating huge breakthroughs in energy, transport, agriculture, housing, urbanization and materials. If it wasn’t for the science of climate change, we would be destroying our planet faster than we already are. Focusing repeatedly on the problem does not solve the problem. Diagnosis is not prognosis unless we give up. The science of what will happen if we do not act has been here for a long time. What Drawdown points out is that humanity is on the case. The plan we refer to in the book’s subtitle is not our plan; we found a plan being activated by the collective intelligence of humanity. This is a different story than one of gloom and doom. It is a story of innovation, creativity and generosity—that is who we are. Linda Sechrist is a senior staff writer for Natural Awakenings. April 2018
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Changing Our Diet to Cool the Climate
Good Food Choices Enable Global Health by Judith Fertig
T
hree years ago, the New York Times added a new word to the world’s food vocabulary: Climatarian (n.) A diet whose primary goal is to reverse climate change. This includes eating locally produced food (to reduce energy spent in transportation), choosing pork and poultry instead of beef and lamb (to limit gas emissions), and using every part of ingredients (apple cores, cheese rinds, etc.) to limit food waste. Changing our food choices to support this model can have a ripple effect. Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in a 2017 study published in the journal Climatic Change, looked at how diets impact personal health, the healthcare system and climate. They found that adopting a more plant-based diet reduces the relative risk of coronary heart disease, colorectal cancer and Type 2 diabetes by 20 to 40 percent. National annual health care costs could drop from $93 billion to $77 billion. Direct greenhouse gas emissions could annually drop 489 to 1,821 pounds per person. Such an approach involves considering the related water usage, greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprint—the energy required to cultivate, harvest and
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transport food—plus processing associated food waste. Here are some top choices.
Foods that Go Easy on Water
Hydroponic greens are hands-down winners. The Shelton Family Farm, near Whittier, North Carolina, weekly produces 10,000 to 12,000 heads of hydroponically grown Bibb lettuce. The controlled environment and carefully engineered nutrient delivery systems maximize all resources. “It’s an enclosed system that runs 24/7, and it’s highly efficient from a waterusage standpoint because we recycle the water,” says William Shelton Jr., a fourthgeneration family farmer. “The only water that’s actually consumed is what’s taken up and transpired through the plants.” In a moderate climate, energy costs to recycle the water and keep the plants at an even temperature are moderate, as well. Dry-tilled heirloom tomatoes, okra, melons and quinoa are drought-tolerant and only use available rainfall.
Foods that Go Easy on Greenhouse Gases
Plants beat meat. “Livestock farming produces from 20 to 50 percent of all
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manmade greenhouse gas emissions,” says nutritionist and climate activist Jane Richards, of GreenEatz, in Mountain View, California. “You can reduce your footprint by a quarter by cutting down on red meats such as beef and lamb.” An exception is the vegetarian staple of rice. According to researchers at Project Drawdown, a climate solutions organization in Sausalito, California, rice cultivation is responsible for at least 10 percent of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and up to 19 percent of global methane emissions. New farming techniques, like mid-season draining of the rice paddies, could cut methane emissions by at least 35 percent. Richards notes, “Meat, cheese and eggs have the highest carbon footprint; fruit, vegetables, beans and nuts, much lower. The carbon footprint of a vegetarian diet is about half that of a meat-lover’s diet.” Root crops such as carrots, radishes, potatoes and beets have a lower carbon footprint than above-ground plants due to less food waste. A beautiful beet is easier to grow than a bell pepper that blemishes more easily. Seasonal, regional fruit, vegetables, herbs and honey have a lighter carbon impact because they are transported shorter distances. Usually what grows best in a region and is consumed locally is also best for the climate. Foods naturally suited to their environment grow and taste better, and are packed with more nutrients, reports Sustainable Table, an educational nonprofit that builds healthy communities through sustainable eating habits (SustainableTable.org).
Hopeful Developments
New agricultural developments can also benefit our climate environment. According to Project Drawdown research, perennial grains and cereals could be pivotal in reaching soil, carbon and energy targets. The Land Institute, in Salina, Kansas, has been working with the Rodale Institute, in Berks County, Pennsylvania, to develop a perennial wheat that would not have to be planted from seed each year. This would save soil, carbon and both human and machine energy.
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conscious eating
Kernza, a new perennial grain proven to prosper in natural grasslands like the Great Plains, is not yet widely distributed. Maria Speck, author of Simply Ancient Grains, advises, “With up to 15-foot-long roots, it can be harvested for five years and uses less fertilizer than conventional wheat. Kernza tastes almost like a cross between rice and wheat—sweet, grassy, mesmerizing.” Michael Pollan, author of Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual and creator of the film Food, Inc., suggests we keep it simple: “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.” Climatarians would add another guideline—eat as locally as possible. Judith Fertig writes cookbooks plus foodie fiction from Overland Park, KS (JudithFertig.com).
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Touching the Earth The Healing Powers of Going Barefoot
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West Michigan Edition
by Martin Zucker
elanie Monteith, of San Diego, California, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at age 24 and plagued by symptoms for 14 years. Simple daily tasks became challenging. She relied on walking aids and walls to keep from falling. Eventually, she quit her job. Every day tested her survival skills. Then, in late 2017, Monteith tried grounding and it changed her life. Grounding, also called Earthing, refers to the discovery of major health benefits from sustained contact with the Earth’s natural and subtle electric charge. Recent research published in the Journal of Inflammation, Integrative Medicine: A Clinician’s Journal, Neonatology and Health indicates that grounding stabilizes the physiology in many ways, drains the body of inflammation, pain and stress, and generates greater well-being. Grounding can be as simple as going barefoot in nature, including the backyard, for 30 to 60 minutes once or twice a day on surfaces like grass, soil, gravel, stone and
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sand. If this isn’t practical, special grounding mats and pads are available online for convenient indoor use while sitting or sleeping; people with compromised health often benefit from more time being grounded. The activity restores a primordial electric connection with the Earth that has been lost with modern lifestyles. We wear shoes with insulating, synthetic soles and live and work elevated above the ground. These overlooked lifestyle factors may contribute to increasing global rates of chronic illnesses. Grounding revitalizes us, akin to charging a weak battery, because our bodies operate electrically and our movements and thoughts are based on electrical signals. We are bioelectric beings. Eighteen years of grounding research in a variety of indoor settings, plus grassroots feedback from around the world, clearly show that our bodies operate more effectively when grounded. We sleep better, have less pain, more energy and even look better. Here are some of the documented benefits.
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In all things of nature, there is something of the marvelous.
Reduction of chronic inflammation “Inflammation is intimately linked to most chronic and aging-related diseases,” says Gaétan Chevalier, Ph.D., a visiting scholar at the University of California, San Diego, who has conducted multiple grounding studies. “Grounding seems to be nature’s way to reduce inflammation.”
Enhanced blood flow Thick, sludgy blood is a common feature of diabetes and cardiovascular disorders. Several grounding studies have demonstrated a significant decrease in blood viscosity and enhanced blood flow. “Grounding represents a potent circulation booster; a simple, yet profound preventive and therapeutic strategy,” says integrative cardiologist Dr. Stephen T. Sinatra, of Manchester, Connecticut, co-author of the book Earthing: The Most Important Health Discovery Ever!
Decreased stress Tracy Latz, a medical doctor and integrative psychiatrist in Mooresville, North Carolina, has found, “Patients with anxiety issues, including post-traumatic stress disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder and depression, often benefit from grounding.”
Improved vagus nerve function The vagus nerve connects with and regulates key organs, including the lungs, heart and intestines. In one study, doctors at the Penn State Children’s Hospital, in Hershey, Pennsylvania, grounded hospitalized premature infants and documented improved vagal function that could potentially boost resilience and reduce complications. “These babies have a lot of health challenges,” observes Dr. Charles Palmer, former chief of the center’s division of newborn medicine. “It seems that they are more relaxed when grounded.” More research is needed. Within a few months of grounding both day and night, Monteith’s disease symptoms receded dramatically. Her balance and stability improved when standing and walking. She sleeps more deeply and has more energy. An eye issue for which there is no drug subsided. She says her health continues to improve and she looks forward to living each day. Troy Baker, a recovery consultant for special populations and chief program officer of the nonprofit Adapt Functional Movement Center, in Carlsbad, California, who has been overseeing Monteith’s exercise training schedule, has observed a reduction in the effects of multiple sclerosis since she started grounding. “Her body is more fluid, not as stiff. She moves much better, with increased energy and stamina.” For more information on grounding, visit EarthingInstitute.net. Martin Zucker, a former Associated Press correspondent, has written about alternative medicine for 40 years and is co-author of the book Earthing.
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by Marlaina Donato
ardening is good for body and soul, but long hours and repetitive movements can negatively impact even the fittest body. While stiffness and pain patterns might manifest in the lower back, shoulders, legs and hands, performing a few yoga poses can lessen pain, increase flexibility, boost stamina and prevent injury. “Every action needs a counter action for structural balance to be maintained. Repetitive movements can tighten fascia, restrict movement and compromise nerve impulses,” explains Asheville, North Carolina, yoga teacher and back care specialist Lillah Schwartz, author of Healing Our Backs with Yoga: An Essential Guide to Back Pain Relief. “What goes into spasm tends to remain in spasm,” observes Schwartz, who has helped many people overcome back pain and other chronic structural issues. Practicing yoga before, during or after spending time outside also promotes mind-body awareness which helps us tune into our body’s natural rhythms and prevent physical problems in the first place. Here are some basics to consider when working in the garden.
Be Aware
Great agility and strong muscles cannot compensate for being in one position too long, over-reaching or fatigue. “Listen to your body’s messages such as, ‘It’s time for a rest,’ or, ‘That’s too heavy,’” recommends Schwartz. Remember to take regular breaks to rest, stretch and drink water.
4. Standing Scissor Twist (Parivrtta Hasta Padasana) standing close to and bracing against a wall or fence
5. Locust pose (Salabhasana) 6. Squat Pull Spinal Traction (Ardha Malasana in traction)
photos by Michelle Van Sandt
1.
2.
Take a Breath
“Conscious breathing involves both the body and the mind. Long, slow inhalations and exhalations help us tune into our body,” says Schwartz. “Using long breaths when stretching in the garden can help muscles find relief.” To reduce pain:
3.
4.
n Stop and breathe. Take slow, deep breaths with a pause (inhalation retention) between inhalation and exhalation. n Don’t resist the pain or allow self-judgment. n Wait for a release.
Enjoy Being Outside 5.
6.
Strike a Pose
Bringing mindfulness to garden work not only helps prevent injury, but helps make it a more enjoyable experience. Here are a few more tips.
Doing yoga regularly will condition the body, but incorporating asanas, or poses, while gardening can be both a fun and practical way to avoid overstressing certain muscle groups and keep the spine and hamstrings supple. Using props in the garden environment such as fences, a wall or a chair can provide convenient support. Feel free to perform all poses before or after gardening, and all except numbers one and five in the garden.
n If rising early, begin time in the garden with a Warrior 1 pose while facing east.
1. Downward Facing Dog pose (Adho Mukha Svanasana) with
n Stop to drink some water and take pleasure in the garden’s beauty and bounty.
feet placed against a support
2. Warrior 1 pose (Virabhadrasana I) 3. Straddle Forward Fold pose (Prasarita Padottanasana)
n Be mindful of feeling the breeze when it brushes the skin and pause to breathe deeply. n Notice the music of the birds or other pleasing sounds in the surrounding environment.
Marlaina Donato is a freelance writer, author and multimedia artist. Connect at MarlainaDonato.com.
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INDIGENOUS WISDOM Elders Urge Us to Reimagine Life
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by Anita Sanchez
irst, 27 indigenous elders from 23 North American tribes, two African tribes, a Tibetan Buddhist and a Sami from Finland gathered at Turtle Mountain, in Dunseith, North Dakota, in 1994. Recently, 13 elders from 10 tribes from Russia, Columbia, South Africa and the U.S. gathered in Kauai, Hawaii. Other such gatherings, too, are participating in a shared prophecy supporting world salvation. They offer humanity four sacred gifts of wisdom rooted in their life experiences. This is our invitation to receive them.
Power of Healing
Power to Forgive the Unforgivable
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Forgiveness is releasing ourselves from the prison of pain, hurt or mistreatment. It takes courage and self-love to do this. The reward of this act is freedom to use our energy to create what is life-giving to our self and the lives of those we touch.
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Power of Unity
This is a time for us all to become and remain united and steadfast, repairing the world from the misuse of power and greed. When we choose to stand in the circle of unity, there is strength. Each of us has an important part to play in the circle of life to sustain precious relationships among people, Earth and spirit for ourselves, our children and future generations.
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Indigenous elders tailor their healing practices to the whole human being, using good medicine, defined as anything or anyone that brings into positive alignment the spiritual, mental, emotional and physical levels. Healing can take many forms, based on tradition, the healer, patient and nature, yet four basic elements or practices are consistent: listening, supportive relationships, unconditional love and committing to creative, positive action.
Hope springs from the choice to tap into an infinite energy source. It may not be understood by modern science, but indigenous wisdom keepers behold an inner certainty of something bigger than us all. When we open ourselves to hope, it is possible to release the pressure and desire to try to know something about everything, and instead free our imagination to create expansive possibilities. Anita Sanchez, Ph.D., is a transformational leadership consultant, speaker, coach and author of the new book, The Four Sacred Gifts: Indigenous Wisdom for Modern Times, from which this was adapted. For videos and a song, visit FourSacredGifts.com.
chiro news
The Metabolic Theory of Cancer vs. The Genetic Theory of Cancer
A
by Dr. Dan Gleason, DC
pril is Cancer Awareness Month. Once again, the call for an all-out war on cancer will be heard, like the one declared by Richard Nixon in 1971. Except for several uncommon types of cancer like testicular, there has been precious little improvement in outcomes of the main killers: breast, bowel, bone, lung, prostate, and pancreas. This is in spite of billions of research dollars spent looking for the cure. Pink ribbon marches; mammograms, PSA tests, and cancer genome projects haven’t made a significant dent in the survival rates of most common cancers. Dating back many centuries, cancer had been considered an invader, much like an infection. Treatments were designed to kill the foreigner. Treatments included radiation, chemotherapy like mustard gas, and surgical removal. The goal was, and often still is, to “get it all”. In 1976, several experiments led the field of oncology to adopt the Somatic Mutation Theory of Cancer. I was taught and believed for many years that cancer was due to a genetic mutation; that something carcinogenic like radiation or chemicals damaged a normal cell’s DNA. Damage to the cell’s “blueprint” caused the cell to reproduce in an uncontrolled way, leading to tumor growth and ultimately death of the human it had invaded. For many years, most research had been based on this generally accepted theory. Billions of dollars had been spent looking for something that would change the coding within the nucleus of the cancer cell. In 2006, the National Cancer Institute funded The Cancer Genome Atlas (TGCA). Teams of scientists worldwide began work looking for patterns of mutation that they’d hoped would allow us to understand each type of cancer. To the general dismay of the research community, they found an almost
random collection of mutations. Each individual person with cancer has a unique set of mutations and there are even different mutations within the same tumor. More than seven hundred targeted drugs have been developed and only one, Geevec, has made meaningful difference in the lives of cancer patients. Most “targeted” drugs only increase life expectancy by a few months and offer no survival benefit, not to mention, they can cost in excess of $100,000 per course of treatment. Several scientists have taken the road less travelled. They have continued to research the old hypothesis that cancer starts in the cytoplasm—not the nucleus. In 2014, Travis Christofferson wrote Tripping Over the Truth, The return of the Metabolic Theory of Cancer. Mr. Christofferson explores the work of Otto Warburg, a German scientist from the early 1900’s, whose research led to the Metabolic Theory of Cancer. Warburg was a friend and colleague of Albert Einstein. He was the first to discover that cancer can only use glucose as a fuel. He received the Nobel Prize in 1931 for this groundbreaking work. The phenomenon that cancer only burns glucose is the basis of the PET Scan. When performing this test, the patient is scanned following an injection of radioactive glucose to see if it accumulates in any area(s) of the body. If it does, this suggests that there is a metastasis or spread of the cancer to the area where the radiation appears. Warburg lived until the 1970s and continued to work on his theory. He noted that all cancer cells have damage to their mitochondria, the “power plants” of the cell. He proved cancer cells have fewer mitochondria than normal cells, and the remaining mitochondria are damaged. This new way of looking at cancer now can be applied today. There are ways
to heal and restore the mitochondria. First of all, it needs to be determined what is causing the mitochondrial damage. This involves testing for heavy metals, inflammation, deficiencies, oxidative stress and dysbiosis. Then, it’s important to start a comprehensive approach to correcting these factors. The ketogenic diet and intermittent fasting have been shown to reverse the damage to mitochondria. Nutrients that help mitochondrial function include: • Coenzyme Co Q10 • L-carnitine • PQQ • B vitamins • Magnesium • Amino acids There are several new medications in the research stage that take advantage of this concept. They are in the FDA pipeline but are being held in litigation. I highly recommend Tripping Over the Truth by Travis Christofferson to anyone with an interest in understanding cancer, its treatment, and prevention. For more information, be sure to check out next month’s Natural Awakenings where I will discuss the ketogenic diet and intermittent fasting. In addition to being a Doctor of Chiropractic (DC) and an Applied Kinesiologist, Dr. Gleason is a 4th generation home builder and engineer— he correlates the two sensibilities in his approach, “A person’s health is similar to that of building a house- good planning, good science, good materials make for good health as well as a good home”. Dr. Dan Gleason is the owner of The Gleason Center located at 19084 North Fruitport Road in Spring Lake. For more info: go to TheGleasonCenter.com or call 616-8465410. See ad page 37. April 2018
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Healthy House Easy Ways to Green It Up
by Avery Mack
L
iving green isn’t difficult or expensive. Start small, one room at a time.
A countertop convection oven set about 25 degrees lower circulates heated air to cook food 25 to 30 percent faster and more evenly than a conventional oven; it uses less energy and has fewer emissions. Foods come out crispier, which also makes for great veggie chips. A conventional oven is still best for soufflés, breads or cakes that rise as they bake. Replace chemical-coated nonstick pans, disposable parchment paper and aluminum foil with reusable, eco-friendly, U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved silicone mats. They are easy to clean, affordable and available in many sizes and shapes. Run the dishwasher when full and at night. Off-peak hours won’t cut the electric bill, but are more efficient for the power plant, reducing its energy footprint. Skip the garbage disposal to save water and energy. Use food waste for plantnurturing compost. Plastics numbered 1, 3, 6 or 7 are prone to leaching into food or drinks. Recycle or repurpose those already on hand to store craft items, small toys or office supplies.
On the Floor
In the Kitchen Defrosting trays have been available for a while, and although they aren’t a miracle solution, they are eco-friendly and easy to clean; thawing most meats, seafood and vegetables usually takes just 30 to 60 minutes. It’s one way to avoid using the microwave.
Most cutting boards of sustainable bamboo or cork originate in China, creating a big carbon footprint. Glass boards are breakable and hard on knives. Consider planet-friendly boards made of recycled cardboard and food-grade plastic combined with flax husks.
Keep floors clean and healthy by leaving shoes at the door. They track in dirt, pesticides, chemicals, pet waste and leaked fluids from vehicles. Slippers or socks with a grip sole keep feet warm and prevent falls. Bamboo flooring is sustainable and eco-friendly, but is also shipped from China. Using local products reduces shipping costs, supports American businesses and can give the home a unique design. “Logs salvaged from the bottom of the Penobscot River turn into flooring, ceilings and accent walls,” advises Tom Shafer, co-owner of Maine Heritage Timber, in Millinocket. “The cold temperature preserves the wood and gives it a natural patina. It’s now available in peel-and-stick, affordable planks called timberchic. Planks have an eco-friendly, UV-cured finish.” For more flooring tips, see Tinyurl. com/Eco-FriendlyFloors.
In the Bathroom
Instead of air freshener sprays, hang petand child-safe plants. 24
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Ase/Shutterstock.com
green living
Use fast-drying towels up to four times before washing. Hand towels see more frequent use, so change every other day. Longer wear makeup stays longer on a washcloth; to prevent reintroducing germs to the face, use a facecloth only once. All-natural cleaning products are easy to find or make. For some tips, see Tinyurl. com/LovelyEcoLoo.
In the Bedroom From sheets and bedding to a fluffy robe, choose eco-friendly organic cotton in white, or colored with environmentally safe, non-metallic dyes. Blue light from a smartphone, computer, tablet or TV can foster sleeplessness. “I keep all devices out of my bedroom and block all unnatural light,” says Leslie Fischer, an eco-minded mom and entrepreneur in Chicago, who reviews mattresses for adults and babies at SustainableSlumber. com. “I sleep on a fantastic mattress that won’t fill my room with pollution.” A good pillow is a necessity. Citrus Sleep rates the Top Ten Eco Options at Tinyurl.com/NaturalPillowPicks. Mattresses should be replaced every eight years. In the U.S., an average of 50,000 end up in landfills each day. California law requires manufacturers to create a statewide recycling program for mattresses and box springs. An $11 recycling fee, collected upon each sale, funds the Bye Bye Mattress program. Connecticut and Rhode Island also recycle them. “An alternative is extending mattress use with a topper,” says Omar Alchaboun, founder of topper-maker Kloudes, in Los Angeles.
What and Where to Recycle Find out where and what to recycle at Earth911.com. Enter the item and a zip code or call 1-800-cleanup. Going green is money-saving, environmentally wise and coming of age, which makes eco-friendly products easier to access. Earth Day is a perfect time to make simple changes that can have long-lasting and far-reaching results.
A cloudy day is no match for a
sunny disposition. ~William Arthur Ward
Connect with the freelance writer via AveryMack@mindspring.com. April 2018
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INTO THE WOODS Nature Helps Kids Build Skills and Character
A
by April Thompson
movement is afoot to get kids grounded in nature. Wilderness awareness programs, also known as primitive skills or Earth-based education, teach life-changing survival skills that build courage, compassion and camaraderie. “We help youth experience a true aliveness in nature. Kids gain knowledge of the outdoors and increase awareness, confidence and self-reliance, while having fun, positive experiences,” says Dave Scott, founder of the Earth Native Wilderness School (EarthNativeSchool.com), in Bastrop, Texas. They often go on to enthusiastically share what they’ve learned about natural flora and fauna with their families.
Experiential Learning
Youth engaged with organizations like this one enjoy gaining nature-oriented survival skills, such as making bows, baskets, shelters and fire. “By making a bow out of a particular type of tree, children discover what type of habitat the tree prefers and how to harvest it sustainably. Indigenous skills like animal tracking also help them relate to wildlife and develop empathy for animals,” says Scott. 26
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“When you learn to trust rather than fear nature, you’re more likely to take care of it,” adds Rick Berry, founder of 4 Elements Earth Education (4eee.org), a Nevada City, California, nonprofit that helps kids and adults connect with planet Earth via immersion in nature. Leaving room for spontaneity and improvisation is important. While infusing indigenous knowledge into their curriculum, wilderness programs emphasize universal principles such as deep understanding of local environments and life’s interconnectedness. “Fire making is for everybody. Shelter making is for everybody. We are all caretakers of the land,” says Berry. Physical and other challenges, such as walking blindfolded through the woods, heighten sensory perception while building confidence. “The landscape is a great teacher with its uneven ground and obstacles, posing an opportunity to learn agility, practice balance and ultimately, expand awareness,” says Simon Abramson, associate director of Wild Earth (WildEarth.org), in High Falls, New York. Nature-immersion programs like Wild Earth’s further help kids sharpen their
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observation skills through activities like learning to identify birdsongs and trees. During a popular activity called “sit spot”, children learn to sit quietly, listen and observe from a specific location they may revisit over the course of a day or year to witness nature’s varied beauty. Another time, they may try “foxwalking”, creeping silently and slowly, or test their “owl vision”, using peripheral vision. For younger kids, instructors may incorporate such skills into a game like “coyote or rabbit,” where by staying still, they can avoid detection by a predator. Kids learn to listen both to nature and their own inner voice, which can be challenging in the midst of dominating peers and authority figures. “We build on the tradition of vision quest, in taking time to get quiet in nature and hear what the heart is saying,” says Berry. Activities may be patterned after natural cycles of the seasons, the four directions and diurnal rhythms. On a bright morning, emphasis is on high-energy, outward-facing activities; day’s end brings a pause to reflect, glean and share what participants have made and learned.
Lasting Life Lessons
Mother Nature’s lessons can be hardearned, but the outdoor trials that kids experience are often their most honored and memorable moments. Whether youths try out a wilderness program for a season or stay on for years, Earth-based learning can have an enduring impact. They help foster healthy relationships not only with the Earth, but with other people, according to Samuel Bowman, a program coordinator with the Wilderness Awareness School (Wilderness Awareness.org), in Duvall, Washington. Team-driven activities like building a communal shelter can help kids learn how to work through conflict, listen to others and appreciate differences. “The kids that have come through our programs prove to be creative problemsolvers prepared to handle just about anything. They have focus and commitment, and tend to be service oriented,” observes Abramson, noting that 60 percent of their instructors are alumni. “Thinking back on kids we’ve worked
Hurst Photo/Shutterstock.com
healthy kids
with, you can often see their wilderness journey reflected in their paths as adults, how they are making choices with their heart and pursuing their passions,” concludes Berry. Connect with April Thompson, in Washington, D.C., at AprilWrites.com.
More Wilderness Resources
T
hese resources will help parents and educators connect with quality, nature-based learning.
Coyote’s Guide to Connecting with Nature (CoyotesGuide.com) is an inspirational publication for teachers, mentors and parents based on ancient worldwide cultural wisdom, including mythic animal stories, nature-based ceremonies and survival tools. The Tracker School (TrackerSchool.com), founded by wilderness expert Tom Brown in 1978, offers 75 classes on wilderness survival skills and a list of tracker clubs and affiliates across North America and beyond. Tom Brown’s Field Guide to Nature and Survival for Children is another respected resource. Children & Nature Network (ChildrenAnd Nature.org) connects children, families and communities with nature through evidence-based resources and tools, broad-based collaboration and grassroots leadership. This international initiative was co-founded by Richard Louv, renowned author of Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. Earth Skills Alliance (EarthSkills Alliance.com) is a collective of youth program leaders dedicated to Earth skills instruction. Its annual conference and other platforms share best practices and experiences.
DR. J. DREW LANHAM
ON BEING A• C ORARE BIRD LORING THE • CONSERVATION CONVERSATION
THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 2018 / 4 - 5:30 PM AQUINAS COLLEGE PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
Dr. J. Drew Lanham, ornithologist, conservationist and distinguished professor, will share engaging personal stories to help address issues related to the environment, social justice and bringing nature into the urban experience. This self-proclaimed “rare bird” is a widely published scientist, author and poet with work appearing in numerous academic and literary journals. Aquinas College Performing Arts Center 1703 Robinson Road SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan Lecture is free and open to the public Reception and book signing will follow. RSVP to aquinas.edu/wegespeaker
22nd Annual Wege Foundation Speaker Series
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Nature’s Remedies How Animals Self-Medicate by Sandra Murphy
Every species embodies a solution to some environmental challenge, and some of these solutions are breathtaking in their elegance. ~Linda Bender, Animal Wisdom: Learning from the Spiritual Lives of Animals
F
rom birds and elephants to dolphins, animals, whether by instinct or learned behavior, have discovered ways to cope with parasites, pests, aches and pains. This science of self-medication is called zoopharmacognosy (zoo for animal, pharma for drug and cognosy for knowing). At home, a dog or cat that eats grass is practicing it to eliminate parasites or hairballs. Donald Brightsmith, Ph.D., of Texas A&M University, directs the Tambopata Macaw Project in the lowlands of southeastern Peru, studying the many macaws and other parrots that gather clay to eat as a supplement. First thought to help remove toxins from their bodies, clay adds needed sodium to their diet, researchers now believe. A pregnant elephant in Kenya’s Tsavo
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Park was observed by ecologist Holly Dublin, Ph.D., to travel miles to find a tree not normally eaten. Four days later, the elephant gave birth. Dublin discovered that Kenyan women make a drink from the same leaves and bark to induce labor. While studying Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) in the Sabangau peat swamp forest in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, primatologist Helen MorroghBernard, Ph.D., of the University of Exeter, UK, observed an orangutan chew the leaves of a plant that were not part of its usual diet until it formed a lather. The orangutan spit out the leaves and used the lather much like humans apply a topical pain reliever. While animals have been known to eat certain plants when ill, hers may be the
We feel the answers for the future will be found in the past, not in chemical factories. ~Ira Pastor first sighting of an animal creating a salve. Nearby villagers grind the leaves to make a balm for sore muscles and inflammation. Morrogh-Bernard believes humans learned this topical application from apes and passed it down through the generations. In the Red Sea, bottlenose dolphins rub against bush-like gorgonian corals covered by an outer layer of antimicrobial mucus that may protect them from infection, according to dolphin researcher Angela Ziltener, of the University of Zürich, Switzerland. “It’s amazing how much we’ve learned, but forgotten,” says Ira Pastor, CEO at Bioquark Inc., in Philadelphia, a life sciences company developing biologic products to regenerate and repair human organs and tissues. “We live with other organisms which from a health and wellness perspective are much further advanced than humans. No other species tries to cure with any single solution. Nature employs multiple options. We’re not appropriately imitating nature yet. We need to do more.” Cindy Engel, Ph.D., of Suffolk, England, author of Wild Health: Lessons in Natural Wellness from the Animal Kingdom, says, “Animals rely on plants to provide them with the essentials of life, making their health intimately dependent on plant chemistry to provide everything they need to grow, repair damage and reproduce.” She continues, “Wild animals carry diseases that affect livestock and humans. It’s sensible to explore why they’re successful in fending off the worst effects in order to find ways to improve our own health, instead of just trying to eradicate the disease. We can learn from behavioral self-help strategies animals employ.” Accomplishing this is more difficult than ever, she believes, because today’s severely shrinking habitat makes it hard to find truly wild animals and plants. “Over the last 100 years, we’ve done a horrible disservice to all life by destroying
habitat and exploring only a small percentage of what nature has to offer,” agrees Pastor. “As patents expire, pharma has to change. It’s important to develop botanicals. We’re advised to vary our diet and exercise, yet take the same dose of the same pill daily. We’ve studied dead organisms under microscopes, but living organisms, even as small as microbes, can communicate helpful positive reactions.” Western medicine has strayed from what nature offers to keep us healthy. Now is the time to take care of both the planet and all living beings on it. “We’ve discarded thousands of years of evidence,” says Pastor. “We cannot destroy the bounty of possibilities.” Connect with freelance writer Sandra Murphy at StLouisFreelanceWriter@mindspring.com.
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community spotlight
Being Human from a Bird’s-Eye View Event spotlight: Lecture and Book Signing with Dr. J. Drew Lanham by Marlaina Donato
“I
believe the best way to begin reconnecting humanity’s heart, mind, and soul to nature is to share our individual stories,” writes author and scientist Dr. J. Drew Lanham in his recent book, The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature. The Clemson University professor hopes that his words also inspire others to see themselves “colored in nature’s hues.” An esteemed ornithologist, Lanham melds conservation, compassion and the human experience through the eyes of the songbird. “I’ve always been inspired by flight. A bird’s ability to fly represents freedom and choice. When a bird flies from central America to my back yard, the world is brought to my doorstep, and that world is an expansive place with finite resources,” says Lanham who grew on a farm in South Carolina. “My parents were both science teachers and farmers. We raised our own food and drank water from our own springs. It was an immersion in nature
from day one,” he recalls. The author’s fascination with songbird ecology distills science and personal philosophy into a riveting approach to how we can look at the world through the eyes of our feathered friends. “Everyone has a connection to birds–whether it is as seemingly unrelated to the chicken on our plate or a pigeon flying across our path in the city. We are all less than 6 degrees of separation from nature; what we put into our mouths, the water we drink and the air we breathe are our commonalities. Each bird is a miracle of adaptation of survival and persistence,” explains Lanham who understands how culture connects to conservation, and common divisions based on things such as socioeconomics or gender are prisms that bend our perception of nature. Lanham brings poetic passion to both his lectures and his classrooms. “New ideas and new minds are a fountain I renew myself in; my students teach me that I am
616.834.2480
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WoodAndSaw.com
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more a student than a teacher, and that I teach through learning and learn through teaching,” he says with conviction. Lanham’s upcoming lecture on April 12 at Aquinas College Performing Arts Center in Grand Rapids is presented by the Wege Foundation Speaker Series and will address issues related to the environment, social justice and bringing nature into the urban experience. It will also highlight the surprisingly simple cohesive elements of culture and community. “A large part of what I do is to try to help people understand there are stories to be told, and these stories are unifying,” says Lanham. “It all boils down to coexistence and empathy. From a bird’s eye view, we see the common cause—that like the birds, we need to persist, too. We are range partners. We are all breathing the same air. If we take care of wild things, we take care of ourselves.” Lanham’s lecture, On Being a Rare Bird, will be held Thursday April 12, 2018 at 4 p.m. and will be followed by a reception and book signing. Seating is limited. To register for this free event by April 5, visit: aquinas.edu/wegespeaker. To learn more about Lanham’s research on songbird ecology or his writings, visit JDLanham. wixsite.com/BlackBirder. Aquinas College Performing Arts Center is located at 1703 Robinson Road S.E. in Grand Rapids See ad page 27. Marlaina Donato is a frequent contributor to Natural Awakenings magazine.
How to Meditate by By Ashley Carter Youngblood, LMSW, LMFT, CADC
L
ast month I wrote “What is Meditation?” about a topic that has become increasingly popular. Hopefully, since the last article you have designated your meditation space, identified an amount of time you can start committing, and have gotten eager to explore this practice.
Your Posture
The first question you may be asking is what to do with your body. As I explained in my original article about meditation, there are an endless number of ways to meditate. Find what works for you. Some choose to lay down in what those who do yoga may know as “corpse pose”: laying still but relaxed on your back with your hands at your sides. This may work for some but, to be honest, it tends to put people to sleep. Do not get me wrong – if you are practicing meditating you will fall asleep. But, meditation is about falling awake, not falling asleep. Some choose to walk to meditate, travelling through a wooded area or a created labyrinth. If you choose to do walking meditation, it is not about the pace. It is about your intention. Keep it slow. Feel your breath and your weight transiting between your feet. Stay alert and upright; aware of how your body feels moving through space. If you prefer to sit, as most do, the focus will also be on keeping your torso erect enough so that you are alert, but not too rigid. Meditation explores balance so find the balance between relaxation and tension as you sit. You can sit on the floor or on a pillow cross-legged or, as is preferred for those who deal with chronic pain, in a supportive chair with your feet flat on the floor. Wherever you sit, place your hands
gracefully on your knees or have one hand resting in the other in the middle of your lap, as the image accompanying this article demonstrates. Be aware of how your body settles. Find a relaxed posture that conveys dignity. When you realize that your posture has slowly faded from your original intention during meditation, simply bring your awareness to regaining your original posture. As to where you look, I encourage people to keep their eyes open. While it can be easier to focus with our eyes closed, it is also easier to drift off into unreality, as opposed to focusing on the present moment. So, if you choose to challenge yourself in sitting meditation, find a gentle gaze several feet in front of you or choose to face a wall to eliminate distractions. Be aware of where your gaze rests. As with the rest of your body, practice being as still as possible, not making yourself uncomfortable but, all the while, practicing being present when you are not particularly comfortable in body or in mind.
The Content
When meditating, often people will use “mantras”, either sayings considered holy (sometimes in another language) or even a word like “Breathe” that helps to facilitate awareness. Still others use certain prayers, Bible verses, or tools like a candle so that they can be reminded of the power of the breath as the flames move with inhales and exhales. Whatever your school of thought, one concept that is consistent is the focus on the breath. Meditation is not about relaxing or clearing your mind. It is about awareness of whatever is present. So, begin by bringing awareness to your breath – the rate, temperature, and location (e.g. at your nostrils, in your throat).
The breath is a thing of beauty because it will always be there, representing a steady rhythm in our spirits that can ground us in the present moment. It is because of the wave of the breath that I am personally most attracted to meditating with nothing but my mind. While guided meditations can be helpful for some, I have found it often distracts people from the present moment and is contrary to the power of meditation to teach coping with whatever easy or difficult thing arrives in the present moment. Instead, I have found that it is most helpful for people to simply observe their mind and what pops up. Treat your thoughts and emotions like passing clouds in the sky, returning to the breath and the awareness of the body as they drift. Just observe. There is no need to meddle. Be a scientist who is curious about their experiment but knows they cannot interfere or else their experiment would not be genuine.
The Practice
Whatever tools you use, meditation is not a time to further criticize ourselves. You will become sleepy. You will have to practice dealing with discomfort when your foot falls asleep. Your mind will drift. You will sing songs in your head. But, the beauty of the mindfulness is that being aware that you are not being mindful is mindfulness! So, you cannot go wrong. Just practice. Over time, it will become more natural. You will be able to meditate longer without feeling too uncomfortable. You will even find yourself applying your skills of mindfulness when waiting in line or taking a shower. You cannot escape awareness. It will find you. And, that is the whole point! On your path, wherever it leads you, I do hope that you find awareness. Use meditation resources (anything by Jon Kabat-Zinn is good) and research different approaches. Explore what meditation has to offer. I promise you will not be disappointed. Ashley Carter Youngblood is both a licensed clinical social worker and marriage and family therapist who practices in Kalamazoo. Her specialties include a holistic approach to women’s issues, anxiety/trauma, mindfulness, and couples counseling. Find out much more about her at her website, Kalamazoo-counseling.com See ad page 37. April 2018
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calendar of events ALL MONTH LONG BVI School of Ayurveda Accepting Applications: Ayurvedic Consultant Certificate Program. Webinar and On-Site Courses, one weekend a month. State Licensed. NAMA Member. The Sambodh Society, Inc. 6363 N. 24th St., Kalamazoo. Info and Catalog: AyurvedaMichigan.org or 269-381-4946.
Why Supplement? Class – 6:30-7:30pm. Supplements may be an essential part of a wellness plan. Join Dee Kohley, RPh and learn the best supplements to replace deficiencies in diets and how supplements can be used to create vital energy. Free. Bluewater Wellness, 17212 Van Wagoner Rd, Spring Lake. Register: BlueWaterWellnessTeam. com.
WEDNESDAY APRIL 11
Balance Blood Sugar, Increase Metabolism and Lose Weight! Seminar – 6:30-7:30pm. Dr. Ramona Wallace will address how to use functional medicine to balance blood sugar and how it can lead to an increased metabolism and ultimately weight loss. She’ll discuss how to achieve optimal weight, health, energy and vitality. Free. Bluewater Wellness, 17212 Van Wagoner Rd, Spring Lake. Register: BlueWaterWellnessTeam.com.
Rainbow Therapy Weekly Class Series for ages 13 -18 – 5-7pm. This 9-week class is designed to give proactive support to those struggling with dayto-day pressures of anxiety and depression through a holistic approach. Tap into the seven main energy centers of the body, known as the Chakras, teaching ways of understanding, coping, and developing emotions throughout troubled times. $275, fee includes all materials needed. The Remedy House, 5150 Northland Dr NE, Grand Rapids. Register: 616-443-4225.
SATURDAY APRIL 7
THURSDAY APRIL 12
WEDNESDAY APRIL 4
SoulCollage Workshop – 1-4:30pm. Come receive instruction and guidance to make the most of the SoulCollage investment. This class is designed for those new to SoulCollage as well as those with experience with Ruth Zwald as facilitator. $35, supplies included. 3493 Bluestar Highway, Saugatuck. RSVP: RuthZwald@gmail.com. April EcoTrek Adventure at MCWW Nature Trail – 9-10:15am. This class is led by Cari Draft and Lisa VanDonkelaar. $10 drop-in or bring a friend and each pay just $5. Muskegon County Wastewater Management System’s John J. Helstrom Nature Trail, 698 N Maple Island Rd, Muskegon. RSVP: Cari@EcotrekFitness.com.
SUNDAY APRIL 8 Eckankar – 10-11am. “Moving Forward on the Spiritual Path” ECK Light and Sound Service is the second Sunday each month. Free. Dominican Center at Marywood, Room 4, 2025 E Fulton, Grand Rapids. Info: ECK-MI.org, eck.mi.info@ gmail.com, 269- 370-7170.
MONDAY APRIL 9 Spirituality: A Dimension of Patient Care In Holistic Healthcare – 6:30-8:30pm. Turning to faith and spirituality for answers, strength, and hope in times of illness and trauma isn’t new. What’s new is growing evidence recognizing that spirituality influences clinical outcomes. This session offers theoretical and practical understanding of the role of spirituality in healthcare. $50, includes Continuing Education Hours (CEH). Dominican Center at Marywood, 2025 Fulton St East, Grand Rapids. Register: dominicancenter.com/events.
TUESDAY APRIL 10 Rainbow Therapy Weekly Class Series for adults – 10am-12pm or 5-7pm. This 9-week class is designed to give proactive support to those struggling with day-to-day pressures of anxiety and depression through a holistic approach. Tap into the seven main energy centers of the body, known as the Chakras, teaching ways of understanding, coping, and developing their emotions throughout troubled times. $275, fee includes all materials needed for each project. The Remedy House, 5150 Northland Dr NE, Grand Rapids. Register: 616-443-4225.
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The 2018 Wege Foundation Speaker Series – 4pm. On Being a Rare Bird: Coloring the Conservation Conversation. Joining us for a conversation will be Dr. J. Drew Lanham, ornithologist, conservationist and distinguished professor. Lanham will present about how culture and ethnic prisms can bend perceptions of nature and its care. Aquinas College Performing Arts Center Grand Rapids. Lecture is free and open to the public. Reception and book signing will follow. RSVP by April 5, 2018 to Aquinas.edu/WegeSpeaker.
SATURDAY APRIL 14 Spring Into Health Expo – 9am-2pm. Come for a fun-filled day with distinguished health and wellness vendors, fashion shows, clothing, food, jewelry, skin care, cleaning, and more. The first 25 people to arrive at 9am and the first 25 to arrive at 12pm, will receive a free Chico bag! Like us on Facebook. Sign up and receive a bonus prize - facebook.com/springintohealthexpo. Lower level of Partners in Dental Care, 2565 Forest Hill Ave SE, Grand Rapids.
SUNDAY APRIL 15 West Michigan Spirit Faire – 11am-5pm. Consult with intuitive readers and holistic health practitioners. Experience angel messages, Reiki, massage, palmistry, gemstone readings, astrology, phrenology, henna art and more. Shop for crystals, runes, jewelry, tarot cards, books, soaps, essential oils. Come enter door prizes, enjoy free lectures and free parking. $5. DoubleTree ballroom, 4747 28th St. SE, Grand Rapids. Info: WMichSpiritFaire@ gmail.com.
MONDAY APRIL 16 Reiki Share – 10am-12pm, 6-8pm. Being offered twice in one day! Come check out what Reiki is all about and have a mini session done. Open to those that know Reiki and those that don’t. Donations welcome. The Remedy House, 5150 Northland Dr NE, Grand Rapids. Register: 616-443-4225.
TUESDAY APRIL 17 Essential Oils Class – 6:30-7:30pm. Come join Morgan Buck of Focused on Wellness and learn about essential oils and their benefits. Immediately following is the Women’s Health Make & Take class where
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essential oil roller balls are offered for $5. Bluewater Wellness, 17212 Van Wagoner Rd, Spring Lake. Register: BlueWaterWellnessTeam.com. Clinical Acupressure & TuiNa Massage Program – 9am-4pm The first three hours will be a lecture and the rest of the day is practicum. After completing this State of Michigan certified, 40 weeks massage program you will be able to: Take the state massage board exam to become a licensed massage therapist 3790 28th ST SW, Suite B, Grandville. Info: AOAHA.com.
WEDNESDAY APRIL 18 Sound of Soul – 7-8pm. Experience singing HU, an age-old, universal name for God, for inner calm, healing the heart, and expanded awareness. Third Wednesday each month. Free. Dominican Center at Marywood, Room 4, 2025 E Fulton, Grand Rapids. Info: ECK-MI.org, HU4Heart@gmail. com, 269-370-7170.
SATURDAY APRIL 21 Reiki I & II class – 9am-5pm. Introduction to Reiki class. Learn how to become attuned to the universal energy, how to give treatment to self and others, and meet your Reiki guide. $250, the fee includes a $50 deposit due at registration. Register by March 17. The Remedy House, 5150 Northland Dr NE, Grand Rapids. Register: 616-443-4225. Inspire! Topic: Housing – 10am-1pm Inspire! is a monthly community event that creates an opportunity to grow spiritually and ethically, exploring specific areas of concern and highlighting ways in which those concerns are being addressed. The class starts with an opportunity for reflection, healing and growth. Then there’s a challenge to use the health and wholeness by helping address the needs of the community. This event is participative and experiential. Free. 714 Columbus Ave, Grand Haven. Info: 616-414-9111.
SATURDAY – SUNDAY APRIL 21- 22 Reiki I & II Weekend Workshop – Learn about the sacred healing art of Reiki at this weekend long beginner class. $250/person. Bluewater Wellness, 17212 Van Wagoner Rd, Spring Lake. Register: BlueWaterWellnessTeam.com.
SUNDAY APRIL 22 The Healer Within Workshop – 11am-2pm. Come learn something new and tap into your power to heal from within. Led by Marcia Schrotenboer of West Michigan Qigong and inspired by the book, The Healer Within, by Roger Jahnke, this workshop teaches how to use traditional Chinese Mind-Body-Spirit practices to release the body’s own medicine and access inner peace and well-being. Four simple Medical Qigong techniques will be demonstrated and practiced. $30. Bodhi Tree Yoga and Wellness Studio, 208 W 18th St, Holland. Pre-register: westmiqigong.org, 616-335-0723.
MONDAY APRIL 23 The Healing Power of CBD Oil – 6-8pm. Come learn all the wonderful benefits being proven by CBD products from someone who has been working in the industry for many years, Shelbe Ogburn. Get questions answered by a local expert. Must pre-register by April 20. $25. The Remedy House, 5150 Northland Dr NE, Grand Rapids. Info: 616-443-4225.
WEDNESDAY APRIL 25 Grow Your First Garden – 6:30pm. Urban Roots is a Grand Rapids non-profit with a mission to cultivate durable and resilient families, communities, and ecosystems through urban agriculture. Starting a garden can seem overwhelming if never been done before, but it doesn’t have to be. Learn how to grow food at home in any amount of space. Program will be held rain or shine, and take place indoors and out. Please wear closed-toe shoes and bring a bottled water. Parking is available across the street from the farm. Free. Urban Roots, 1316 Madison Ave SE, Grand Rapids. Info: Commreq@GRPL.org.
THURSDAY APRIL 26 In-Office Workshop – 6:30-8pm. “Your DNA Is Not Your Destiny... Dinner is!” Attendees will create their own personal functional prescription with Dr. Wallace. $30. Bluewater Wellness, 17212 Van Wagoner Rd, Spring Lake. Info: BlueWaterWellnessTeam.com.
FRIDAY APRIL 27 Free Dinner & Movie Night – 6-9pm. Join us for a Community-wide dinner & movie! Pizza will be served from Marco’s Pizza. Bring a dish to share if you’d like or just come as you are to enjoy dinner at 6pm. Then at 7pm, watch the movie. Free. 714 Columbus Ave, Grand Haven. Info: 616-414-9111.
SATURDAY APRIL 28 Composting You Can Really Do – 1:30pm. Urban Roots is a Grand Rapids non-profit with a mission to cultivate durable and resilient families, communities, and ecosystems through urban agriculture. This class focuses on realistic and achievable ways to divert waste and decrease contribution to the waste stream. Come learn about collection services, worm bins, Bokashi, and yard compost piles in this very fun and lighthearted class. Program will be held rain or shine, and take place indoors and out. Please wear closed-toe shoes and bring a bottled water. Parking is available across the street from the farm. Free. Urban Roots, 1316 Madison Ave SE, Grand Rapids. Info: Commreq@GRPL.org. World Tai Chi / Qigong Day – 10 am. Join others in the community gathering in unison with the world to celebrate “one world-one breath” in a simple easy to learn Qigong meditation practice. In all the craziness and stress in the world, this is one simple healthy practice that helps find health, peace and wellbeing. No special attire and no special skills required. Come for free t-shirts and snacks. Sponsored by West Michigan Qigong, Freedom Village, Holland and Bodhi Tree Yoga and Wellness Studio. Free. The Splash Pad, 8th St, Downtown Holland.
SUNDAY APRIL 29 Meditation Class – 3-3:45pm. Students will be led through a meditation sequence by Sherry PetroSurdel. This class will be accompanied by Native American flute music. $10. Bodhi Tree Yoga & Wellness Studio, 208 W 18th St, Holland. Info: MiBodhiTree.com
save the date Save The Date Events
Must be submitted online each month at NaturalWestMichigan.com. Events priced $80 or more require a corresponding display ad. There is a $40 charge per listing, up to 50 words. Current advertisers, distribution sites or nonprofits, use this listing in place of your two free listings.
save the date SATURDAY, May 5
Spring Celebration & Psychic Fair – 11am-6pm. Spring is here! Come receive a free mini-cleanse. Enjoy our vendors, healers, readers featuring Reiki, Illuminata, aura reading, mediums, tarot and oracle card readers, and a vast array of unusual items made by the vendors. Free. 8887 Gull Rd, Richland. Info: ChoicesUnl@Gmail.com.
save the date FRIDAY – SUNDAY, June 1-3
7th Annual Midwest Women’s Herbal Conference: Conference speakers include Tieraona Low Dog, M.D., Isla Burgess, Dr. Jody Noé and many more. Come for a gathering of the feminine; a wide spectrum of Internationally acclaimed herbalists and earth-based speakers, plant walks. Over 60 workshops and plants walks. Plus a kids’ camp and Teen Camp. Includes pre-conference classes, workshops and walks, singing, dancing, meals, swimming, and red tent communal space. Camp Helen Brachman, Almond, WI. Info: MidwestWomensHerbal.com.
save the date SATURDAY, August 18
Health & Wellness Fair Building Healthier Communities – 12-4pm. “Celebrating Health Centers: Home of America’s Health Care Heroes,” this event will include: blood pressure screenings, diabetes checks, oral exams, height, weight, sickle cell screening and BMI’s. There will also be live entertainment, plenty of door prizes, food, vendors, and Zumba & Dancing and more. Muskegon Family Care, 2201 S. Getty St, Muskegon Heights.
Coaching gives you an accountability check for your personal and professional goals. We assist you in developing a timeline, establishing a plan and keep you motivated in reaching your goals! 4 Small Business Development 4 Major Life Crisis and Change 4 Weight Loss & Fitness 4 Relationships 4 Budget Management & Reorganization 4 Decluttering Your Home and Life
Get started today!
Find us online at LIAConsulting.org/coaching
Call: 616.433.6720 or Email: PamGallina@LIAConsulting.org
April 2018
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on going events
Center, 6189 Lake Michigan Dr, Allendale. Info: visit us at HeartsJourneyWellness.com or info@ HeartsJourneyWellness.com
NOTE: All calendar events must be received via email by the 10th of the month and adhere to our guidelines. Email NAcalendar@NaturalAwakenings.com for guidelines and to submit entries. No phone calls or faxes, please. Or visit NaturalWestMichigan.com/submit-calendar-events/ to submit online.
Nourishing the Lakeshore – 7pm. Meetings the second Tuesday of each month. Open to the Public! Formed to provide education on the health enriching benefits of traditional diets, to increase access to clean, nutrient dense foods, and to teach traditional preparation and storage methods. Nourishing the Lakeshore of West Michigan is a chapter of the Weston A. Price Foundation serving Ottawa, Muskegon, and Oceana counties. The main purpose is to act as a resource for local, clean, nutrient dense food. We also provide informational meetings on health related topics, often those which are politically incorrect. Nourishing the Lakeshore respects that everyone is at a different point on the path to better eating. Our goal is to educate and enrich the wellness of our community. Location: The Century Club on Western Ave, Muskegon. Info:Meetup.com/Nourishing-the-Lakeshore-of-WestMichigan-Weston-A-Price
Sunday
Tuesday
Meditation-Self Realization Fellowship – 1011am. Every Sunday we gather to meditate, chant, & explore the wisdom of the Hindu/Yoga tradition as taught by Paramhansa Yogananda. Free will offering. Marywood Center 2025 Fulton, Grand Rapids. Info: Fred Stella 616-451-8041, GrandRapids.srf@ gmail.com, GRSRF.org
Faith and Yoga – 4-5:30pm. Yoga is a supportive spiritual practice. This class focuses on both the inward journey and the physical practice. If anyone is new to yoga, experiences tight muscles, would like to be more mobile, be flexible, and build some strength in an easy, non-threatening way, then join this gentle-serenity yoga class that integrates a variety of breathing and mindfulness practices. Donation. Calvin Reformed Church, 937 W Norton Ave, Muskegon. Register: BlueHorizonsWellness. com, 231-755-7711.
Sunday Worship and Youth Services – 10:30am. A warm and inviting New Thought Spiritual Community, inclusive and accepting of all, honoring diversity, for those seeking spiritual truth. Unity of Grand Rapids, 1711 Walker Ave. NW, Grand Rapids. Info: UnityGRoffice@gmail.com or 616453-9909. Celebration Services – 10:30am. Join us each Sunday for our Sunday Celebration Service. Unity is a positive, peaceful path for spiritual living. We offer spiritual teachings and programs that empower a life of meaning, purpose, and abundance in all good things. We seek to discover the “universal” spiritual truths that apply to all religions. Unity Center for Spiritual Growth, 6025 Ada Dr SE, Ada. Info: office@Unitycsg.org or 616-682-7812. Hot Yoga – 5-6:15pm. Sweat with this active, energetic, athletic style of yoga with traditional poses in a hot room. Not recommended for people with heart or lung conditions or those not engaged in regular exercise. $12 drop-in. Hearts Journey Wellness Center, 6189 Lake Michigan Dr, Allendale. Info:HeartsJourneyWellness.com or info@ HeartsJourneyWellness.com Spirit Space Sunday Worship – 10:30am. An interfaith, non-denominational gathering place for worship and spiritual enrichment. Join for inspiring messages called Reasoning’s. Spirit Space, 3493 Blue Star Hwy, Saugatuck. Info: 616-836-1555 or Spirit-Space.org Sunday Series – 6pm. Explore spirituality, universal truths, self-mastery and balanced, positive, loving and joyful living with The Coptic Center and their ongoing offering of enlightening ministers, teachers and guest presenters. Love offering. 0-381 Lake Michigan Dr, Grand Rapids. Info: TheCopticCenter.org
Monday 3rd Monday Support Group – 7-8:30pm. This support group is available for parents, guardians and caregivers of teenagers and pre-teens facilitated by Nicki Kubec, LMSW. Free. Momentum Center, 714 Columbus Ave, Grand Haven. Info: 616-414-9111. A practice of A Course in Miracles – 7-8:30pm. Learn miracle-mindedness. Got joy? This is how to have it. Hint: You already do. All are welcome. Free. Fountain Street Church, 24 Fountain St. NE, Grand Rapids. 616-458-5095.
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Chair Yoga – 10:30-11:30am. Chair Yoga uses a chair for greater support and stability within the practice. With an emphasis on the breath, alignment, and moving at one’s own pace. Chair Yoga brings simplicity to the practice and easeful connection with the healing and restorative benefits yoga offers. Taught by Kathy Julien, certified yoga instructor. $10/session. Dominican Center at Marywood, 2025 Fulton St East, Grand Rapids. Info: DominicanCenter.com, 616-514-3325. Lunchtime Yoga – 11:45am-12:30. This class is about relaxation and refreshment to help provide extra energy to get through the day! Lunchtime yoga is a great way to kick start the mind to focus on the future tasks at hand. All Levels welcome and encouraged. $10. Bodhi Tree Yoga & Wellness Studio, 208 W 18th St, Holland. Info: 616-392-7580, mibodhitree.com. Tibetan Buddhist Meditation/Study Group – 7:15-8:30pm. Explore in a practical way the practices associated with Tibetan Buddhism, including concentration, mindfulness, analysis and visualization. Free. Jewel Heart, 1919 Stearns Ave, Kalamazoo. Info: Call 734-368-8701 or 269-9441575 or email: GregSupa@gmail.com A Course in Miracles – 6:30-8:30pm. A Course in Miracles is a complete self-study spiritual thought system. It teaches that the way to universal peace is by undoing guilt through forgiving others. The Course focuses on the healing of relationships and making them holy. It expresses a non-sectarian, non-denominational spirituality. Offering. Unity Center for Spiritual Growth, 6025 Ada Dr SE Ada. Info: www.Unitycsg.org, zahrt.aj@unitycsg.org, 616-682-7812. Gentle Hatha Yoga – 7:45-9am & 9:15-10:30am. With Mitch Coleman. Drop-ins welcome. White River Yoga Studio, 8724 Ferry St, Montague. Info: 231-740-6662 or WhiteRiverYoga.com Beginning Yoga & Meditation – 9:30-10:45am. This class will introduce you to basic postures, breathing techniques, and mindfulness with an emphasis on building body awareness. Gentle yet relaxing in nature, you will leave feeling relaxed, rejuvenated and having a greater sense of health and well-being. $12 drop-in. Hearts Journey Wellness
NaturalWestMichigan.com
4th Tuesday Support Group – 7-8:30pm. Free support group for family members, caregivers and loved ones of individuals with mental illness. Free. Momentum Center, 714 Columbus Ave, Grand Haven. Info: 616-414-9111. A Course in Miracles – 9:30-11am. A complete self-study spiritual thought system. It teaches that the way to universal peace is by undoing guilt through forgiving others. The Course focuses on the healing of relationships and making them holy. It expresses a non-sectarian, non-denominational spirituality. Unity Center for Spiritual Growth, 6025 Ada Dr SE, Ada. Info: Unitycsg.org. 616-682-7812. $20 off BioMeridian Assessments – Food allergies, environmental allergies, organ function and real food menus and shopping lists for families that are healthy and kid-approved. Grand Rapids. 616365-9176. IntegrativeNutritionalTherapies.com.
Wednesday The Law of Attraction Speaking Club – 6:308pm. A Chartered Toastmaster Club. Do you want to become a confident public speaker and strong leader? We provide a supportive and positive learning experience in which members are empowered to develop communication and leadership skills, resulting in greater self-confidence and personal growth environment that allows you to achieve your goals at your own pace. Toastmaster Dues. Unity Center for Spiritual Growth, 6025 Ada Dr SE, Ada. Info:office@Unitycsg.org, 616-682-7812. Yoga for Veterans and First Responders (Military, Fire, Police, etc.) – 5:30-7pm. Enjoy yoga for 50 minutes followed by a guided iRest Meditation. These practices help support one’s wellbeing on and off the mat. iRest Meditation has been shown to reduce symptoms associated with PTSD and trauma. The instructors are trained through Warriors at Ease. Donation. 1991 Lakeshore Dr, (in Lakeside shopping district) Muskegon. Register: BlueHorizonsWellness.com, 231-755-7711. Meditation – 6-7pm. Every Wednesday we meet in our meditation room from 6-7pm. We begin and end meditation time with live, native flute music. Join us for the full hour or any part of the time. Call 616-836-1555 for more info or visit our meditation page to learn more. 3493 Blue Star Highway, Saugatuck. Info: Info@Spirit-Space.org.
Thursday Conversations of the Heart: Honoring Fear – April 19, 26. May 3. 6:30-8 pm. Anyone living in a state of deep-seated disquiet realizes anxiety and dread can claim the individual. With a greater understanding of personal fear, one can honor emotions and past experiences, living life inspired by deeper spirituality with empowerment to live more fully. $60. Dominican Center at Marywood, 2025 Fulton St East, Grand Rapids. Info: DominicanCenter. com/Events. Chair Yoga – 1:30-2:30pm. This class incorporates movements and breathing exercises designed to assist with relaxation and increase mobility, balance, and strength. A chair and other props are used to safely modify this class for all fitness and mobility levels. This class is a great gentle option for those who use a cane or walker, have limited mobility, or have recent injuries. 208 W 18th St, Holland. Info: MibodhiTree.com, 616-392-4269. Restorative Yoga – 7-8pm. Calm the mind and nourish the body with Restorative Yoga. Restorative poses are held on a mat and deeply supported with yoga props. The practice seeks to balance the physical, mental, and spiritual while also experiencing profound rest and relaxation. Taught by Kathy Julien, certified yoga instructor. $10/session. Dominican Center at Marywood, 2025 Fulton St East, Grand Rapids. Info and register: DominicanCenter. com, 616-514-3325. Gentle Yoga – 5:30 - 6:30pm. This gentle class offers a peaceful session to gradually build strength and range of motion. With this quiet practice, experience how mindful movement and breath work can deliver much needed nurturing, rest, and clarity. Taught by Kathy Julien, certified yoga instructor. $10/session. Dominican Center at Marywood, 2025 Fulton St East, Grand Rapids. Info and register: DominicanCenter.com, 616-514-3325. Chair Yoga – 4-5pm. Chair Yoga uses a chair for greater support and stability within the practice. With an emphasis on the breath, alignment, and moving at your own pace, Chair Yoga brings simplicity to the practice and easeful connection with the healing and restorative benefits yoga offers. Taught by Kathy Julien, certified yoga instructor. $10/session. Dominican Center at Marywood, 2025 Fulton St East, Grand Rapids. Info: DominicanCenter.com, 616-514-3325. Emotions Anonymous – 12-1pm. This is a 12-step program for recovery of mental and emotional illness. Free. The Momentum Center, 714 Columbus Ave, Grand Haven. Info: 616-414-9111.
Friday Gentle Yoga – 10:30-11:30AM. This class is designed with every “body” in mind. Appropriate for those wanting a softer, nurturing, slow paced, well supported and relaxing practice, this class includes carefully orchestrated movement, controlled pressure and well measured stretches. The postures are approached in gradual steps with time to focus on breathing and repetition. With an individualized approach, this class is a compassionate, noncompetitive environment that’s welcoming to all. All levels welcome and encouraged. 208 W 18th St, Holland. Info: MibodhiTree.com, 616-392-7580.
3rd Friday Narcan Training and Distribution – 12-2pm. Red Project offers Free Narcan Training and Distribution for those interested. This event is held the Third Friday of every month from 12:00pm-2:00pm. Free. The Momentum Center, 714 Columbus Ave, Grand Haven. Info: 616-4149111 or Office@ExtendedGrace.org
Saturday 1st Saturday QiGong Class – 3-4pm. Instructor Raymond Wan teaches about internal energy, self-healing breathing exercises, and meditation techniques. Participants are encouraged to wear comfortable clothing, bring a cushion or pillow to sit on, and to not eat a big meal one hour before class. Donation based. Academy of Alternative Healing Arts, 3790 28th St SW Ste B, Grandville. Info: AOAHA.com or 616-419-6924.
3rd Saturday Inpire Event – 10am-1pm. April topic Housing . Everyone is invited to this collaborative community event. Brunch/lunch served. Registration not required. Extended Grace, Momentum Center, 714 Columbus, Grand Haven. Info: 616-502-2078 or online ExtendedGrace.org Hot Yoga – 7:30-8:45am. Sweat with this active, energetic, athletic style of yoga with traditional poses in a hot room. Not recommended for people with heart or lung conditions or those not engaged in regular exercise. $12 drop-in. Hearts Journey Wellness Center, 6189 Lake Michigan Dr, Allendale. Info:HeartsJourneyWellness.com or info@ HeartsJourneyWellness.com Gentle Hatha Yoga – 9:15-10:15am & 11-12:15am. With Mitch Coleman. Drop-ins welcome. White River Yoga Studio, 8724 Ferry St, Montague. 231740-6662. Info: WhiteRiverYoga.com Sweetwater Local Foods Market – 9am-1pm. A double-up bucks and bridge card market. Hackley Health at the Lakes building on Harvey St. Located inside during inclement weather. Muskegon. 231-861-2234.
Distinctive Health & Wellness Vendors
SPRING INTO HEALTH EXPO
APRIL 14, 2018 9:00 AM – 2:00 PM Health & Wellness Expo
• Be prepared to explore a new interest, reignite your health, and shop for a great find. • Plan to visit a variety of exclusive vendors and learn about unique opportunities to improve your health and wellness. • Enjoy healthful food, hand-made gifts, and select fashions. • Transform into an eco-model for a moment or more with Clothing Matters and discover how good clothing can be. Sponsored by: Advanced Thermal Imaging, Harmonic Wellness and Reflexology, BioMag Balance and Natural Impressions
Register for tickets and receive a perk from expo sponsors!
Facebook.com/SpringIntoHealthExpo
Be a model with Clothing Matters Fair Trade Tasty Food Quality Gifts Jewelry Drawings for fabulous prizes Live models by Marie La Mode
LOWER LEVEL 2565 Forest Hills Ave.
Grand Rapids, MI 49546
Contact Julie Bennett for details
616-724-6368 April 2018
35
The Path You Have Always Wanted! Inspire a world of health! Your diploma in Massage Therapy, Natural Health or Holistic Doula is here.
Naturopathy
(each year 600 hours)
Natural Health Educator ............... 1st Year Natural Health Therapist............... 2nd Year Natural Health Practitioner ........... 3rd Year Certified Naturopath ..................... 4th Year
4th Year Graduates are Eligible for Doctor of Naturopathy National Test & Title
Massage Therapy
Therapeutic Bodywork Practitioner 1 Year
Holistic Doula Practitioner Doula ..................6 Months
All Classes Meet on Weekends
Friday: 5-9pm and Sat & Sun: 9am-6pm Naturopaths: 1 per month - Massage: 2 per month
Individual Classes:
(989) 773-1714 • Mount Pleasant, MI Contact@NaturopathicInstitute.info
Herbology - Aromatherapy - Nutrition Live Food Preparation - Light Healing Touch Reflexology - Homeopathy & Much More!
Over 20 Years of Experience • Licensed and Accredited • NaturopathicInstitute.info
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West Michigan Edition
NaturalWestMichigan.com
community resource guide
EMF RADIATION PROTECTION
Connecting you to the leaders in natural healthcare and green living in our community. To find out how you can be included in the Community Resource Guide email Publisher@NaturalWestMichigan.com to request our media kit.
ACUPUNCTURE GRAND WELLNESS
Vikki Nestico, R.Ac. Located at Renewal Skin Spa 6080 28th St. SE, Grand Rapids 616-940-1177 • GrandWellness.net Grand Wellness uses the wisdom of traditional Chinese medicine to provide holistic healing and natural pain relief. Call to schedule a free consultation to discuss how acupuncture may be an effective treatment for you.
ASTROLOGY KAREN S. KLEMP MA.
Astrology/Numerology 220 Savidge, Spring Lake 616-916-0121 KlempK@yahoo.com KAREN220.com Over 20 year ’s experience. Readings available in her office, by skype or by phone. Also available for lectures at solstice gatherings. Make an appointment by phone, on the website or stop in and visit Thurs through Sat 11am–5pm.
BUILDING/CONSTRUCTION WOOD & SAW
Andrew Gielczyk Licensed Builder 616-834-2480 • WoodAndSaw.com Wood & Saw is focused on creating a sustainable high quality of life for our clients. Building simple, costeffective, energy-efficient, toxic-free homes and remodels that achieve the healthiest possible indoor air quality. See ad, page 30.
CHIROPRACTIC CARE DYNAMIC FAMILY CHIROPRACTIC Dr. Ronda VanderWall 4072 Chicago Drive, Grandville 616-531-6050 • DynamicChiro.com
Family owned and operated in the heart of downtown Grandville, Dynamic Family Chiropractic focuses on lifestyle improvements through living a maximized life. A safe and natural approach to health through the combination of exercise, nutrition, detoxification and chiropractic care.
THE GLEASON CENTER
Dr. Dan Gleason 19084 North Fruitport Rd, Spring Lake, MI TheGleasonCenter.com 616-846-5410
An alternative, holistic approach combining chiropractic and kinesiology as well as the latest in metabolic and hormone testing. Using a variety of techniques, we work with our patients to determine the scope and duration of care that’s right for each individual.
COFFEE SHOP / FAIR TRADE JUST GOODS GIFTS AND CAFE’ 714 Columbus, Grand Haven 616-414-9111 justgoods@extendedgrace.org www.extendedgrace.org
Just Goods Gifts and Cafe’ is located within the Momentum Center for Social Engagement. Fair trade and social cause merchandise. Local baked goods and beverages. Open 9am to 6pm M-F and 10am to 2pm Sat. A creative space for community integration and the end of stigma. See ad, page 19.
COLON HYDROTHERAPY HARMONY ’N HEALTH
Mary De Lange, CCT, LMT 1003 Maryland Ave, N.E., Grand Rapids 616-456-5033 • HarmonyNHealth.net Certified therapist since 1991 offering colon therapy in a sterile and professional environment. Using a holistic approach, colonics relieve constipation, diarrhea, gas, bloating, poor digestion, back pain, body odor and more. See ad, page 14.
COUNSELING INNER PEACE COUNSELING, PLC
Ashley Carter Youngblood, LMSW, LMFT Owner/Therapist 4155 S 9th Street, Suite D, Kalamazoo, MI 269-254-1211 • Kalamazoo-Counseling.com Ashley Carter Youngblood is a licensed therapist who provides a holistic approach to counseling by empowering others to d i s c o v e r h o w o n e ’s i n n e r wisdom can contribute to the healing of the mind, body, spirit, and relationships.
PROTXS EMF SHIELDS & H2O DROPS Clara Vanderzouwen clara.vanderzouwen@gmail.com PROTXS.com/?AFMC=22 616-481-8587
PROTXS contains a proprietary blend of natural products that efficiently reflect, absorb and mitigate the harmful biological and technological impacts of invisible RF/EMF/Wi-Fi radiation. Living Healthy in a Wireless World. “All who touch Protxs will be blessed” Dr. Mike Halliday.
ENERGY HEALING TONYA NICHOLS, RPH
Certified Energy Medicine Practitioner 332 S Lincoln Ave, Lakeview 989-352-6500 Info@THCOFLakeview.com THCOFLakeview.com Do you feel like you have no energy? Do you feel disconnected and out of balance? Let Tonya help you find your center again. Combining Emotional Clearing with Full Spectrum Healing, Tonya helps her clients to remove emotional, mental, and energetic blocks that are keeping her clients stuck and preventing them from reaching their full potential for a healthy, happy, and meaningful life. See ad page 14.
ESSENTIAL OILS BE YOUNG ESSENTIAL OILS
Clara Vanderzouwen • 616-481-8587 BeYoungth.com/partners/claravz Independent Sharing partner clara.vanderzouwen@gmail.com Be Young Essential Oils are exclusive E.O.B.B.D. guaranteed 100% pure & safe for your entire family and pets! Wondering what to use? Just call or email me, I’m here to educate you!
MOONDROP HERBALS, LLC
Cottage of Natural Elements 351 Cummings, NW Grand Rapids 616-735-1285 • MoondropHerbals.com Your local source for all things natural and botanical. Essential oils, bulk herbs, tea, hand-crafted bath & body products, raw ingredients, containers, local artwork, unique gifts. Practitioner discounts. Space rental and artisan consignment. See ad, page 21.
April 2018
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YOUNG LIVING ESSENTIAL OILS Marilyn York Independent Distributor # 489656 877-436-2299 myYL.com/naturalhealth4u
Essential Oils – Revered for thousands of years for their naturally-enhancing support of body, mind, and spirit. Become a Young Living Essential Oils Member/Customer, and/or an Independent Distributor. See ad, page 39.
HAKOMI THERAPY KEN PORTER CST, CHT 3355 Eagle Park Dr. NE Ste. 107, Grand Rapids 616-262-3848 BodyAndSoulGR.com
Hakomi Therapy can truly change your life. It’s a mindfulnessbased, experiential therapy for transforming the unconscious patterns that keep you from the love, joy, and fulfillment you deserve. Offered with exquisite care and attentiveness.
HEALING SERVICES THE REMEDY HOUSE
Jodi Jenks Natural Health Practitioner, Reiki Master 616-443-4225 TheRemedyHouse.org Certified in bodywork, lymphatic drainage, raindrop therapy, CranioSacral, reflexology, iridology, natural health consultations including a zyto bio-communication scan. Emotional clearing with essential oils and energy work, reiki, Energy Touch. See ad, page 5.
HEALTH / WELLNESS CENTER THE HEALING CENTER
332 S Lincoln Ave, Lakeview 989-352-6500 Info@THCOFLakeview.com THCOFLakeview.com Naturopathic/Holistic Practitioners and retail health store. Natural health consultations, classes, oils, herbs, homeopathy, hypnosis, foods, candles, crystals, books, CDs, massage, reflexology, emotional clearing, foot detox, DOT/CDL health cards for truck drivers. See ad, page 14.
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West Michigan Edition
VITALITY HEALTHCARE
Dr. Steven Osterhout 5717 Oakland Drive, Portage 269- 323-4473 - DrOchiro.com Vitality Healthcare offers a cutting-edge approach to medicine. We integrate the best medical approaches with the most advanced natural therapies to address the underlying causes of poor health. We offer: Physical and Functional Medicine / Chiropractic and Massage / Metabolic and Hormone Evaluations / Nutrition and Detoxification / Food Sensitivity and GI Issue Testing / Medical and Natural Weight Loss. Our highly-qualified team of doctors, nutritionists and therapists have extensive training to serve all your healthcare needs.
HUMAN RIGHTS/ SOCIAL JUSTICE EXTENDED GRACE
barbara@extendedgrace.org 616.502.2078 • ExtendedGrace.org Extended Grace is a nonprofit grassroots social lab that builds community while solving problems. It does so through: Community Conversations including Inspire! and Deeper Dive events and Town Hall Meetings on Mental Illness; Mudita Gifts; Pilgrim Spirit Tours cultural immersion experiences; Momentum Center for Social Engagement; Just Goods Gifts and Cafe’. See ad, page 19.
LGBTQIA COUNSELING DILSWORTH COUNSELING AND THERAPY SERVICES
Sue Dilsworth, Ph.D, E-RYT 500, C-IAYT 6189 Lake Michigan Drive, Allendale Sue@drdilsworth.hush.com 616-307-1617 • HeartsJourneyWellness.com Counseling services tailored to meet the needs of the individual. Through various treatment modalities including Cognitive Behavioral, Mindfulness and EMDR, individuals will have an opportunity to explore personal challenges in an open, receptive, and supportive environment. Member WPATH. Most insurance accepted including Medicare and Medicaid.
LIFE COACH LIA COACHING AND CONSULTING
Pamela Gallina, MA CMC PamGallina@LIAConsulting.org 616-433-6720 • LIAConsulting.org/coaching Pam works with highly– motivated individuals as they aim for their highest self. Focusing on Small Business Development, Major Life Crisis and Change, Weight Loss & Fitness, Relationships, Budget Management & Reorganization, Decluttering Home and Life. Helping you to achieve your very best life! See ad, page 33.
NaturalWestMichigan.com
MASSAGE THERAPY DYNAMIC FAMILY CHIROPRACTIC & MASSAGE THERAPY Jaci Timmermans, MT 4072 Chicago Drive, Grandville 616-531-6050 DynamicChiro.com
Offering Swedish massage with integrated techniques, chosen specifically for your unique body. Relieve those tired and sore muscles and rejuvenate. Call for on-going monthly specials and discounts.
HARMONY ‘N HEALTH
Mary De Lange, CCT., LMT. 1003 Maryland Ave. NE, Grand Rapids 616-456-5033 HarmonyNHealth.net
Over 24 years of professional experience and trained in a complete range of modalities. Whether you are seeking relaxation, renewal or treatment for a specific condition, Mary will help find an approach that is helpful for you. See ad, page 14.
MIDWIFERY FULL CIRCLE MIDWIFERY SERVICE, INC.
Patrice Bobier, CPM Hesperia: 231-861-2234 FullCircleMidwifery.com Jennifer Holshoe, CPM Grand Rapids area: 616-318-1825 WestMichiganMidwifery.com In private practice since 1982 – specializing in home birth and a team approach. Over 1,600 births attended. Offering midwifery care that maintains a family-centered, safe birth experience. Empowering women to stay healthy during pregnancy, give birth naturally and parent in the best ways. Free initial consultations including prenatal check-up.
SALON SERVICES LONDON STUDIOS SALON
Sally Ann Loew, Hair Artist/Educator Organic Colour Speciality 6455 28th St. SE, Suite 1, Grand Rapids 616-299-1796, LondonStudiosSalon.com London Studios Specializes in: Organic Color Systems, Color Corrections, Multidimensional Hair Color, Restorations for Vo l u m e a n d L e n g t h , Organic Keragreen Keratin Treatments, European Cutting Techniques, Natural Hair Extensions, I n t e g r a t i o n , B r i d a l S e r v i c e s , We d d i n g Consultations and other services. See ad, page 7.
SCHOOL / EDUCATION BVI SCHOOL OF AYURVEDA Ruth Small, Ph.D., Director 269-381-4946 Ayurveda@SambodhSociety.us AyurvedaMichigan.org
School of Ayurveda. State licensed. Certificate program for healthcare professionals, doctors, nurses, yoga teachers, wellness educators, massage therapists, holistic health specialists, chiropractors, dieticians and those seeking to learn selfhealth-care. Instructors highly qualified (B.A.M.S.).
SPIRITUAL GATHERINGS UNITY SPIRITUAL CENTER Unity of Muskegon 2052 Bourdon St., Muskegon
Gather to nurture your Sacred Self on Sunday’s at 11am. We host a variety of classes and workshops on all areas of holistic living. For more information, visit us online at UnityMuskegon.org or call 231-759-7356.
THERMOGRAPHY ADVANCED THERMAL IMAGING OF WEST MICHIGAN Julie Bennett 616-724-6368 AdvancedThermalImagingllc.com
Thermography is a safe, tested, painless, and effective procedure providing information for breast cancer risk assessment, breast cancer prevention and early detection, possible hormone imbalance, thyroid dysfunction, diabetes, musculoskeletal inflammation, and neurological problems.
NATUROPATHIC INSTITUTE OF THERAPIES & EDUCATION 503 East Broadway St, Mt. Pleasant 989-773-1714 Contact@NaturopathicInstitute.info NaturopathicInstitute.info
Educational programs offered: Natural Health Program: four years (one weekend a month); Massage Therapy Program: one year (two weekends a month); Holistic Doula Practitioner Program: six months (one weekend a month). Individual classes available. See ad, page 36.
classifieds Fee for classifieds is $1 per word\per month. To place listing, email content to Publisher@naturalwestmichigan.com. Deadline is the 15th of the month.
VOLUNTEERS Volunteer Instructors – Mental illness is a community issue and it requires a community solution. The Momentum Center for Social Engagement offers social and recreational activities for people with mental illness, addictions and disabilities. We are seeking people willing to share their skill, hobby, vocation, or interest with our members once a month or as often as available. We welcome yoga, tai chi, exercise, dance, self-defense, cooking, sewing, and so much more. Extended Grace, 714 Columbus, Grand Haven. Info: Call Jenna, if you want to be part of the solution, at 616-414-9111 or email office@extendedgrace.org
April 2018
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