Mindful Eating: Nourishing the Body and So Much More
A few months ago, I began training in teaching Mindful Eating. I did it for personal reasons- I wanted to feel better about my own eating, and end the suffering that overeating causes me. So, last June, I went to Great Vow Zen Monastery in northwestern Oregon, to study with Jan Chozen Bays, who wrote the book Mindful Eating, based on her eating practices at the monastery. What I discovered through Mindful Eating were natural, simple ways to bring the qualities of mindfulness into my daily life…
Read More
When Children Are Sick: Pediatric Hypnotherapy
As currently practiced, hypnotherapy most often involves teaching a child how to self-hypnotize in order to control bad habits, physical symptoms, and other conditions. The child learns to use relaxation techniques and mental images—similar to a daydream or fantasy—to enter an “altered mental state”. Once in this altered state, the therapist makes suggestions aimed at producing the desired change in behavior, anxiety level, or symptom intensity. These may range from recalling times of feeling happy and well in a child with chronic pain, to thinking of the body as a “computer” that the child can “program” with his or her mind…
Read More