written by Alex Pillion MSW, LSW

Throughout history and across the globe, nature and its offerings have been considered a form of medicine, nourishing our bodies and souls in a symbiotic friendship unlike any other relationship. Nature is, in and of itself therapeutic because of the many mental and physical benefits we receive from engaging with it- we work with plants as forms of medicine like many indigenous cultures have done for millennia, and we spend time in nature to recharge our emotional batteries. Nature is also a free opportunity for developing a mindfulness practice, allowing us the space to notice, observe, and practice non-judgment and feel its loving and relieving effects.

Have you ever noticed that when observing nature, it is less common to place a value-based judgment on what we see around us as often as we place these types of labels on ourselves? For instance, when observing a tree, do we ever judge the tree for how it is rooted to the earth, or if it has curling or straight branches, or if its leaves are lush or scattered on the earth? We may find ourselves labeling the observations we make, sure (“The tree is an oak” or “Those leaves are swaying in the breeze”), but the essence of these observations do not leave us with the heaviness that often comes when we apply certain labels to ourselves. Nature provides us with opportunities to reframe how we engage in the practice of observing, allowing us to learn that coming from a place of curiosity and non-judgment will not drain us of our energy but allow us time to learn and explore.

The next time you find yourself out in nature, consider participating in a mindfulness activity like this:

• Sit quietly in a place you feel safe to close your eyes, and listen for as many bird calls as you can hear singing around you. How many can you hear? Can you recognize any of the calls? Are the songs simple calls, melodic songs, or some combination? Do they ebb and flow? Are the birds calling and responding to one another, or offering solo performances?
• Now consider how you might apply the way you engage with that activity as you sit and observe your own mind and body. How might you apply the curiosity you used to listen to the birds to your own being? How might you reframe the judgments you make about your own body and mind to include love and compassion? What would it feel like to sit quietly with yourself and listen to the call of your own body, non-judgmentally taking in the information and sitting and listening for more to come?

There are infinite lessons nature can teach us about how we process information around us, how we accept what is, and how we listen for the music that is in and outside of us. It also leaves room for us to consider how we treat the natural world around us and how this reflects back to us how we treat ourselves and others. Nature truly is medicine, for all of us.

Interested in learning more about how to incorporate mindfulness into your daily life, connect with someone on our team.
​

by Nathalie Edmond, Psy.D.

Think about all the experiences you have had that brings you to this moment in time. Some combination of nature and nurture has shaped you who you are and how you navigate the world.  With each new season in our life comes new challenges and opportunities.  Some seasons are about rest and other seasons are about growth or starting over. Which season are you in?
 
I am encouraging mindfulness of what part of yourself you allow to drive the bus in your daily life.  If you tend to be anxious, how can you use skills to manage your anxiety so it informs your decision making but doesn't drive the bus.  If you tend to be insecure, how can that insecurity be a passenger on the bus but not driving the bus. You can observe the thoughts, feelings, images, action urges and proceed through life mindfully.

I encourage you to balance rest and effort.  Respect your nervous system.  Continue to build resilience and adapt to the unexpected surprises that life brings. Cultivate joy and embrace imperfection.

I find this transition from summer to fall stressful.  Moving from the ease of summer to the intensity of fall and a new academic year is intense for me.  No matter how much I resource and plan there is always a week that is challenging.  I continue to work on riding the wave of this transition.

I invite you to think about how you approach these seasonal changes at work, school, and/or home.  Who is driving the bus? Is that who you want to be driving the bus?  For example, knowing you are stressed and having it be a passenger on the bus to inform your decision making  is incredibly helpful but letting your stress or anxiety drive the bus is probably not that helpful.

What might you need to include in your self care plan?  More sleep, more fun, playtime, dance, creativity, focus, exercise, meditation, yoga, knitting, time with friends, downtime....

What supports do you need to navigate the next couple of months of the election news cycle?

If you need some support navigating this season check out our team at Mindful and Multicultural Counseling.

by Nathalie Edmond PsyD, RYT-500

It’s the new year, new season.  The world invites you into refocusing your energy and creating resolutions or goals or intentions.  Aren’t they all really the same thing; it's just how you approach them?  I love the freshness of January or any new season really.  It is a time to make a commitment or promise to yourself.  You can go down the path of intensity and self criticism if you are less than perfect in achieving your goals or you can see it as information. Perhaps the goal was too big, maybe not right for this time, maybe it doesn’t align with how your nervous system is talking to you. What if you picked an intention instead of a goal? What if you focused on a value you want to deepen or be more congruent with. It could be your guide for a season or the year.  If we focus on values and intentions there is nothing to fail.  An example could be if you choose to focus on health this year or season.  Maybe you meditate on health throughout the year.  See opportunities for healthier choices? See where it is difficult to have health and be curious about why that is.  A resolution or goal might focus on losing weight or going to the gym. You can see how you can not accomplish the goal of losing weight or going to the gym which might lead to disappointment and giving up on your goal a few weeks into the new year. What if we make small incremental changes in our life or move more towards radical acceptance or a sense of ease or contentment, reconnect to our natural rhythm rather than what we think we should do and be.
 
I am inviting you into deepening your relationship with meditation.  A meditation challenge has a tone of goals and you are either successful or not. An invitation is just opening to curiosity about how this may fit into your life and as you practice meditation noticing what arises.  Explore the different ways meditation can show up in your life.  There are so many different practices out there to help support you.  Perhaps you need a few minutes a day of silence or being in the flow of some activity you love.  Maybe you want to step onto your yoga mat and do some stretching, intentional breathing, a restorative pose, or sun salutations.  Maybe you love the sound of music or chanting.  I was leading a seminar a couple of months ago and I asked the therapists in the room what they mindfulness meditation as and this is some of what they said.
What is mindfulness?  What is meditation?

• Awareness and attention to the present moment without judgment
• Purposeful attention to the present moment
• Being aware of ourselves within our body and all those body feelings
• Inner wisdom
• Attunement to current present moment and self in the present moment
• How and what core mindfulness skills (DBT version of mindfulness)
• Doing things one mindfully in the moment
• Nonjudgment; doing things effectively
• Observing, describing, using all five senses
• participating fully in the moment
• Meditation is a way to get to mindfulness
• Deeper level of consciousness
• Focus on internal processes as things come up
• Take a deep breath
• Noticing patterns
• Focusing and refocusing
• Settling
• Turning towards resistance and discomfort; leaning into whatever arises
• Allowing yourself to be vulnerable
• Letting go of control/noticing strategies for control
• Openness
• Tapping in
• Play
• Exploring
• Practicing gratitude
• Being in the flow
• Noticing parts of self
• Cultivating compassion
• Emptying the mind
• Gently redirecting
• Just noticing
• Refocusing
• Building awareness
• Noticing the way the mind wanders or explores
• Celebrating the fluctuations of the mind
• Saying yes to life
• An invitation

I love how Lorin Roche, a meditation teacher who focuses on the rhythms of meditation in everyday life, invites us to find a practice that we look forward to.  He normalizes that having a to do list while meditating is an act of love. When we slow down what most needs tending to rises to the surface.  Perhaps we can heal by addressing what rises to the surface.

If we approach meditation as a practice we can't fail.  We begin again every time we show up.  Every cycle of breath. Perhaps turn your attention to the process, the patterns rather than the outcome.  We learn from the past and we move forward more mindfully, maybe with more wisdom and clarity.

Learn more about meditation here..  Check out one of the guided recordings or the 7 day meditation invitation on the youtube channel. Every day we explore a different type of mediation practice. Want to move as part of your practice; join our free gentle yoga class the 2nd Friday of the month at 7 pm EST.  Register here.  Want to do yoga on your own time? Purchase our library of yoga sessions by contacting us.  Sign up for our newsletter to keep up with our offerings.  Learn more about the team at Mindful and Multicultural Counseling in Ewing, NJ.
 
May you be well. May you feel nourished.  May you have not only enough to survive but enough to thrive.

Emily Suzuki, MA

Fear is a familiar presence in therapy. Therapy is an invitation to explore our growing edges, the places that feel uncomfortable and scary. Often, that’s where our work begins and where we find the greatest growth.
 
Exploring fear is in the very DNA of the therapeutic relationship. Fear comes up often in therapy, and is present even before we seek out and take what we sometimes perceive as a risk, in asking for support. When we begin working with a therapist, someone who is initially a complete stranger, we may at first be guarded and protective of opening up and being vulnerable. Naturally, a dose of fear shows up to help us assess whether or not the person and relationship is safe and can be trusted.
 
As we build a relationship of trust, in which the therapist offers the reassurance that their support is rooted in compassion, non-judgement, deep and active listening, clients begin to feel safer. Within the net of safety and trust, client and therapist can begin to explore the layers of fear that may be showing up, both in the therapeutic relationship and in the client’s life.
 
Fear is an essential survival response to physical and emotional danger. When we experience a threat, our brains are wired to act in self-protection. This process has served us as far back as our ancestors, who had to navigate much greater physical threats.  Their survival level instincts turned on in the face of serious danger without so much of a thought, and their survival supported the evolution that led to our being.  Check out video about our triune brain by Dr. Nathalie Edmond at the end.
 
In our modern world, we may not be dodging tigers or samurais like our ancestors, but none the less, there is plenty of ways to feel unsafe in our society. While fear is a universal human emotion, each individual’s experience of it and relationship with it varies greatly. The intersections of one’s social location, identification with race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and ability, shapes our experience and threat to one’s safety. For those whose identities intersect marginalized groups, fear is a lived experience in a wholly different way than it is for those in the dominant groups. The insidiousness of systemic racism and white supremacy, is a system of power that is rooted in fear, in which police brutality is an everyday danger to those who are BIPOC (black, indigenous and people of color) and oppressed, and as a result creates and breeds more fear.
 
Fear shows up in so many ways, and can be a response to even small or imagined threats. Our nervous system kicks in with a fight-flight-or freeze response, always in service of our protection. However, this process can become so sensitive that it can be activated in moments when it’s not helpful to run, fight or freeze, and when turning towards and engaging whatever feels scary is more purposeful.
 
This is a place where we can develop a deeper understanding of our fear. Turning our attention inward and towards the fear, we can start to ask questions, and learn more about it. What is it truly afraid of? When is it showing up and getting in the way? How is it perpetuating old patterns and habits of not engaging with ourselves and others? In what ways might it be creating more pain and suffering?
 
When we feel safely held within a therapeutic relationship, one that is built on trust and safety, we can begin the process of inviting our fear into the room with us. Through noticing and gaining greater awareness of our fear (mindfulness), we can then practice disrupting the moments when fear attempts to turn us away from the work we need to do and instead, learn when it’s okay to trust, and bravely, lean into it.  

Learn more about the therapists at Mindful and Multicultural Counseling can help you transform your fear.  Read more about us here. Give us a call to begin the healing journey.