SEARCH: City Spotlight on Florence, Oregon

City Spotlight on Florence, Oregon

by Heather Roulo

The Oregon Coast is a well-known destination for anyone living in a western state. Unlike Washington and California, the state of Oregon passed the Oregon Beach Bill in 1967.

The bill ensures beaches along the Pacific Coast remain accessible to the public, making the white sand and basalt outcroppings a perfect place for a family vacation.

Located in the center of the Oregon Coast, Florence is particularly known for America’s largest sea cave and the sea lions that come to lounge on the rocks inside. For a fee, visitors can take an elevator…

Read more in our Winter 2021 #Wellness issue.

SEARCH: Meditations on the Fridge

Meditations on the Fridge

by Emerian Rich

Tarika Lovegarden is the author of The Meditations on the Fridge book, a series of five weekly personalized 1:1 mindful eating meditation sessions, combined with nutritional coaching.

Readers are guided through everyday and challenging food situations so that they can master their food choices and enjoy their bodies, without being influenced by internal and external forces.

What inspired you to write The Meditations on the Fridge? As a recovering ‘food addict’ that used to struggle with anorexic tendencies and obsessive-compulsive exercise habits, desperately trying to control my weight, I’ve tried countless support groups, diets and hired personal weight loss coaches throughout my life. Being a life-long meditator and teacher, I dedicated years to creating meditations to help people maintain their weight mindfully through meditation.

How have the meditations you created helped in your own life? Since I started creating and practicing specialized guided…

Read more in our Winter 2021 #Wellness issue.

SEARCH: Poem – Mind, Body & Soul

Mind, Body & Soul

by Oksanna Normandeau

This is a meditation meant to help keep center and remind yourself of your greatness
from within.

On this day, I would like to guide you
In some self-affirmations you can say
To remind yourself,
Today is a beautiful day.
And to get you relaxed
For the spoken word coming your way

So stop the stressing,
Relieve the tension.

Place your right hand over your belly,
Your left hand over your heart,
And close your eyes gently.

Take this time, right now,
To fully feel yourself in this present moment.
Hone in on it,
From your head down to your toes.

Read more in our Winter 2021 #Wellness issue.

SEARCH: Weight Loss Vs. Weight Lost

Weight Loss Vs. Weight Lost

by Suzanne Madron

Twenty pounds doesn’t seem like much until you look at the photos. It’s also hard for me to see that I’m down twenty pounds and know I still have twenty more pounds to go.

For me, it was important to not look at the big picture in my weight loss journey, at least not at first. My weight has been an issue my entire life, either perceived or actual. Middle age hasn’t helped my outlook.

Three years ago, I decided that at five feet and two inches tall, carrying 180 pounds was not healthy for me. My joints ached, my back hurt, and I couldn’t even think about climbing stairs without getting winded. It was a spiral I had seen my mother travel…

Read more in our Winter 2021 #Wellness issue.

SEARCH: Getting into the Spirit

Getting into the Spirit

by Lillian Csernica

“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Although practical matters of everyday life often get in the way, spirituality is yet another component that should also be considered when it comes to quality of life for people who have Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and may be key in handling stress and increasing neuroplasticity.

In 1943, American psychologist Abraham Maslow published A Theory of Human Motivation. Known as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, which are often depicted as a pyramid, the five categories of human needs include physiological (food, clothing, and shelter), safety (such as financial security), love and belonging, esteem (personal and career achievement), and self[1]actualization. The highest level of self-actualization is…

Read more in our Winter 2021 #Wellness issue.

SEARCH: Why Wait?

Why Wait?

by Heather Roulo

Fitness comes in many forms. Like the person who fixes up their house just to sell it, you’ll wonder why you didn’t make changes sooner:

Sleep when you’re tired. Keep a regular sleep schedule, typically 7-9 hours for an adult. If you get tired during the day, take a 15-20 minute nap. You will feel refreshed without causing insomnia at night.

Set boundaries. Sometimes you don’t want to go out or work overtime. Your relationships will be healthier if you simply say ‘no.’ You can be sympathetic, empathetic, and nice while respecting your own needs.

Exercise regularly. Move your body. If you don’t, you eventually may not be able to.

Quit bad habits. You probably know what they are. Indulge in too much alcohol? Smoke? Take a look at the thing you’re afraid to give up.

Be less self-conscious. Stop worrying whether your mosquito bites show when you wear shorts or who hears you sing…

Read more in our Winter 2021 #Wellness issue.

SEARCH: Lemon Garlic Broccolini

Lemon Garlic Broccolini

by Brian & Patricia Dake

Winter is a season of heavy foods. Meat and starches abound, which make it difficult to maintain our healthier summer weight. We are always on the lookout for healthy foods available year-round.

We love tasty, original vegetable dishes that we can add to holiday meals or just enjoy on their own throughout the colder months. Like many of us, we’ve started making an effort to find nutrient-rich foods, beneficial to our health. These so-called “superfoods” have become quite popular in recent years. We were delighted to learn that broccolini, a relative newcomer to the…

Read more in our Winter 2021 #Wellness issue.

SEARCH: A Flight into Being

A Flight into Being

by Camellia Rains

There are many things that happen in life we can’t explain and sometimes something happens to take us down an unexpected path. Such a wondrous thing happened to me when I was twenty-one. Admittedly, at that time I was lost. I was at college and I wanted to change majors but didn’t know to what.

During this time, I began to think about my ancestry. My mother is Guatemalan and Mayan. Ever since I was little, the Mayan capital of Tikal held great mystery for me. As a young woman, I kept thinking about how, despite our heritage, no one in our family had ever visited the site. The idea of going there kept coming into my thoughts. I got the overwhelming feeling something was waiting for me there. What, I did not know, but…

Read more in our Winter 2021 #Wellness issue.

SEARCH: The Heart of the Matter

The Heart of the Matter

by Elliot Thorpe

“Hey, let’s go for a run!”

“Do you mind if I just finish this pack of high-saturated-fat content potato chips first?’ I replied, balancing the TV remote on my knee so I didn’t have to stretch for it. “And my large over-sized tumbler of non-specific branded fizzy pop, filled to the brim with sugars and coloring, will go flat if I don’t drink it all up now.”

Just the thought of both those comestibles gives me a gut ache, let alone the implications of what they could do to my arteries. That said, if I’m honest, the notion of going for a run pretty much fills…

Read the rest in our Winter 2021 #Wellness issue

SEARCH: Author Spotlight on Oksanna Normandeau

Author Spotlight on Oksanna Normandeau

Location: Spanaway, Washington

Tell us about yourself: Poetry was first introduced to me in my childhood years with Shel Silverstein’s, Where the Sidewalk Ends. It continued on into my adulthood as I read through the semesters in college. It wasn’t until I was in my 20’s that I went through one of my most influential transitions of my life where I turned to it for my own therapeutic means. I haven’t stopped writing since.

What do you find inspiring about writing poetry? The possibilities with each creation are boundless. If you think about all of the ways one can form a writ ten piece—free verse, spoken word, haiku, etc—it is mind blowing what we can come up with…

Read more in our Winter 2021 #Wellness issue.