October 15: Clarity Workshop at St. Francis Library

Health Coaching

Clarity Workshop: Learn to Let Go

  • Thursday, October 15, 2015
  • 6:30pm  7:30pm
  • St. Francis Library 

We all want—and often need—to clear and refresh ourselves of the clutter around us and within us. The connection with our health, the connection with our body, and the things we have in our homes has an impact on our overall well-being.  Come and learn how clutter on many levels can affect your performance at work, with your family and overall living.  Our Integrative Health Coach,  Kerri Weishoff, will be presenting at St. Francis Library at this NO COST event.http://www.stfrancislibrary.org

Emotional Awareness Practice

Emotional Awareness Practice

The essence of this emotional awareness practice is to become intimately connected and honest with how your pain feels in your body.  Connecting the mind to the sensations in the body created by emotional turbulence is a grounding practice that relieves imbalances between the mind and body while also addressing symptoms.  Bring your attention to where the feeling is pronounced, as in a knotted belly, shortness of breath, a flushed face, or tension in the neck.  Acknowledge these feelings and sensations by breathing your awareness into that space. For example, "I am feeling anxious about work tomorrow because there is so much to do. I feel tension and tightness in my chest. Taking a slow deep breath, I will focus on the tension and relax my chest while exhaling." 

Here are questions to ask yourself as a guide to this practice. To begin, focus on a conflict, difficulty, or affliction in your life. As you sense this affliction how does it feel and how does it affect your body? Carefully hold on to this change in sensation and ask yourself:
1. How am I responding emotionally?
2. How have I suffered from my reaction?
3. What does this reaction ask me to let go of?
4. Am I having difficulty becoming deeply aware of my emotional response?
5. Breathe your awareness into your feelings.

Start simple.  Find a difficulty that is bothersome but not too serious, like the stress an untidy partner or an irritation with the cold weather outside.  Practice some smaller discomforts before moving into more serious pain and suffering.  If this exploration begins to work well for small matters and you would like guidance moving ahead with a deeper emotional awareness practice, contact us for help.

Food for Thought: Nutrition for Mental Health

Is there a link between nutrition and mental health?

Come join us at NAMI Greater Milwaukee as Aleisha Anderson, a Licensed Acupuncturist and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioner, and Sarah Philipp, a Certified Holistic Nutritionist talk about the link that connects mental, emotional and physical health. They share how to discover a “happier” place of eating foods you enjoy, feeling satis- fied, and discovering your own connection between nutrition and mental health.

Monday, July 27th
6:30-8pm
NAMI Office
 


Walking Meditation

Summer's warmth and beauty is upon us!  This festive time of year is exciting and often packed with entertainment and social engagements.  Relaxation and time to unwind become increasingly important to balance the excitement and joy we feel.  Without this balance, burnout and loss of emotional control is inevitable.  A simple solution for preventing negative effects from all of this positive stress is walking mediation.  Take a 10 minute walk over a lunch break, before breakfast, or late in the evening with the intention of feeling your steps, unwinding your body, and focusing your mind on thoughts related to sensations you feel on your walk.

1. Get rooted.   Take a moment to stand in one place.  Feet shoulder width apart.  Imagine your heels and toes connecting to the earth below.  Roots are growing between your feet and the ground.  Breath deeply into your belly.  Slowly. Peacefully.  Open your eyes. See what is around you. Hear the landscape. Smell the air. Feel the wind. 


2. Move slowly.  Pick up your feet and step slowly.  Let your hips sway. Pay attention to tension you feel anywhere in your body.  Slow down and allow your natural movements to take over.  


3. Feel your feet.  As you peel one foot off the ground, feel the pressure shift across your foot.  Feel the ground beneath you as you set your foot back down.  Right to left with a slow steady step, feel the sensations in your feet as they navigate the earth.


4. Walk with your rhythm.  This slow pace with loose hips swaying and feet gripping and grabbing the earth with every step will create a rhythmic movement that is unique to you.  Tune into your body rhythm.  Stay loose.  Breath into it. Come back to your body when your mind gets distracted by thoughts or the surrounding environment.  Hear your steps walking in sync with a rhythmic walking beat.  


5. Go without arriving.  You are walking to feel.  There is no rush. No place to be. Be in your body in the moment.  You have a destination that you are guiding your body to.  The walk is not about getting from one place to another.  You are walking to make a deeper connection between your mind and body.  Connecting to the earth will ground your body and provide stability for your mind.  Enjoy the journey.