What do you love? What brings you pleasure, joy and delight? Savoring the small moments of pleasure is my key to happiness. I adore spending time with the friend who snapped this photo. I love these sunglasses on me. I feel glorious with the sunshine after a stretch of rain. I take delight on this walk around Lake McIntosh and all the smiles that greet me along the path. At Modern Mind, health includes discovering what you love ❤️.
Author Archives: ModernMindMD
Happy Father’s Day
This is my AMAZING dad- what an inspiration you have always been and are today, my love for you grows with each day! I am sending a deep bow of respect to all the dads who have attended my Mindful Birthing classes, all those who’ve attended prenatal visits, and Fathers everywhere. In challenge and in connection, our loving presence is a gift.
Finding Sweetness
Locums travel brings me to places where there is a need. In this recent assignment in Danville, Illinois, I made friends, I took care of patients, and was touched by their stories…and I picked the sweetest strawberries I’ve ever tasted.
Meet Dava Money
I have many teachers, near and far, over the years. Dava is near and dear, and her generosity toward our community is unwavering. I wish to share with you her upcoming class and various offerings. I have participated in her Authenticity Series, which has contributed to me showing up for myself and others in ways that are fulfilling and freeing.
dava money, M.Ed., is the Spiritual Leader of Unity Longmont Spiritual Center (member of Unity Worldwide Ministries), an ordained Mindfulness Practitioner in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh, Holistic Coach, Artist and Author who provides Sunday services for Unity, individual coaching, Authenticity Series classes, classes for Highly Sensitive People, spiritual workshops and retreats, marital ceremonies, and memorial services. She has an undergraduate degree in psychology, an M.Ed. in counseling and development, postgraduate work in trauma resolution, family systems and 30 years of spiritual study and was a psychotherapist for several decades. dava is passionate about teaching ways to calm and soothe ourselves, allowing us to remain fully present for life with all its ups and downs.
Dava’s invitation:
Highly Sensitive People (HSP) make up between 20 and 30% of the population and are each unique. Exciting research shows our brains work differently. Some of the qualities we share include being very intuitive, empathic, compassionate, and creative. Our high emotional intelligence makes us good healers and leaders. All these gifts can best be shared with the world when we manage our needs and challenges. I believe our world needs us now.
Join me in an HSP Intro class to discover more and to celebrate who we are.
A new 6-week class is offered online Thursdays beginning April 13 from 5 to 6:30 pm MT (7 to 8:30 pm ET) The classes go through May 18, 2023.
What will you get from this class? To be validated, to experience pride, to develop practical skills, to be supported and to support like hearted women.
In this class learn more about sensitivities, how to manage them and cultivate your gifts. Discover how to set boundaries to protect your energies. Enjoy a community of like-minded women while learning how to calm your anxiety and overwhelm to cultivate greater ease and grace. Explore how you are a gift to this world.
Cost: $120 Register and pay by March 30. Pay through Venmo or by check Contact info: davamoney@gmail.com 720-438-8777
HSP class …is the equivalent of a weighted blanket plus chicken soup. That is, her course just feels calming and healing. It has helped me lead a better, more thoughtful life. I feel more optimistic about my future. ~B.
Meet Jessa Buchalter
March 5, 2023 ~ Yoga & Women’s Circle with Jessa of Live Love Laugh Yoga
Maintaining a combined practice of medicine and meditation is an invitation for me to engage with the splendors of our community. This Sunday, I was 1 of 6 women lead by Jessa Buchalter on a morning of mindful practice, yoga, journaling, and intimate sharing in the backyard Circle. After unifying mind and body in a space that holds all there is, just as it is, the shares were deep and vulnerable.
I reflected on the times that I felt my life was in shambles and there was so much sadness, anger, and blame. In those moments, I was fortunate enough to find resources such as these to lean in to the discomfort and find my power to Remember, Woman, remember you are more than you can see.
I wish we had a photo of our final moments in the Circle, left hand on our own heart, right hand holding the back of the woman to the right…as we cultivated the power to love ourselves and each other unconditionally.
This is a poem Jessa read to us:
Remember, Woman Remember, Woman, you were born Life giver, miracle creator, magic maker. You were born with the heart of a thousand mothers, Open and fearless and sweet. You were born with the fire of Queens and conquerors, warriors blood you bleed. You were born with the wisdom of sages and shamans, no wound can you not heal. You were born the teller of your own tale, before none should you kneel. You were born with an immeasurable soul reaching out past infinity. You were born to desire with passion, abandon, and to name your own destiny. Remember, Woman, remember you are more than you can see. Remember, Woman, remember you are loved endlessly. Remember, Woman, your power and grace, the depth of your deep sea heart. Never forget you are Woman, divine, As you have been from the start. -Reese Leyva
Cheers Jessa, I have cherished our journey of yoga, prenatal yoga, and look forward to co-creating a Menopause Circle in the future!
Cheers to all, may 2023 be year of self-discovery and self-love, remembering and seeing and radiating the luster of who you really are. May you feel nurtured while enriching your unique Circle.
Gratitude
Once a year, go somewhere you’ve never been before. – Dalai Lama
And who knows, a new tradition may greet you. – Modern Mind MD
This year I embarked on 2 new career journeys- this very intimate private practice, Modern Mind Women’s Health, and a medical travel assignment to Billings, Montana. My heart is warmed by all the new traditions of care and caregiving, integrated mind-body measures for health, wellness, & healing and new relationships that have emerged.
This Thanksgiving was spent with my family visiting me at my locums practice in Billings, Montana. The nearby mountain town of Red Lodge was the venue for our homemade meal, and my younger daughter Amelia, our annual Thanksgiving chef, created a new tradition of Thanksgiving brunch charcuterie board. Artistic yum!
May all our blessings abound, this holiday and always.
Have you tuned in to your longing?
This morning I listened to the sound of rain. The sound of rain falling on the Front Range of Colorado is not the most common of sounds. I did not expect for it to be a moment of meditation, though in retrospect, it was indeed. I became intentional about hearing it- paying attention to the sound of the medium sized drops and watching the rain fall onto the backyard garden, grass, fruit trees, rocks and more. I listened as the sound of the drops became louder and then softer. Freshness, renewal, growth – reminding me of a favorite quote from Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh “the tears I shed yesterday have become rain.”
We are often engaged in the practice of meditation without even knowing that we are- perhaps it’s in those moments that we become aware of our longings. When we bring intentionality to the practice, we reap the benefits- and with the growing body of research, this list of benefits is getting longer every day. To me, mindfulness is a quality that can be cultivated to transform our longing into intention.
Now sprouting from a seed watered long ago is the latest offering at Modern Mind Women’s Health. A small group of clients came together for a 5 week series. These are people who, just like me and you, live a full life and yearn to manifest their longings. Eager to dive deeper into the complex web that makes us human, we convened together to tune in, listen and share deeply. We completed Level 1 below.
Mindful Meditation Groups – yet to be named (yes, please help, I’m taking suggestions!) – are sprouting:
- Level 1- From Longing to Intention – a small group for mindfulness cultivation, with practical meditation and mindfulness instruction, focused inquiry, sharing and discussion (5 sessions, $350)
- Level 2- Participants Contributing and Sharing – a supervised group for continuation of intentional practice (5 sessions, $200)
- All levels- Drop In (literally, pausing the day and “dropping in” to mindful meditation practice) – a commitment to deepening practice
What do you need? What do you long for? How would you like to begin? Let us together discover *magic (Mindful Approach for Gynecologic and Gestational Integrative Care). Contact Dr. Jenny Kim: modernmindmd@gmail.com
Mindful Birthing, Mindful Everything
On the 10th Anniversary of the book, a new curriculum for Childbirth Education is flourishing- Happy Birthday “Daisy!”
I wake up reflecting on the blissful 10th anniversary celebration of Nancy Bardacke’s offering to the world, held on July 10, 2022, and her wish for the world and the world’s children. She informed the worldwide community of MBCP teachers and all those who supported her in the creation of the Mindful Birthing Foundation that she has always held on to a note written by a female physician who worked in Nicaragua during the time of the Sandinista revolutionaries. The physician wrote with this aspiration- that although she is taking off her gloves and washing her hands after a birth, leaving a gift of a new person emerging into the world, she is not washing her hands of the duty to provide our people with a new world. In recent years, the world is suffering from a fever, and greed and hatred and delusion are running wild, causing additional layers of individual and global suffering.
The anticipation of birth provides a unique window for all of us- it is a time when the wish to offer our best for a new beginning harnesses the desire to seek out the best in ourselves. Mindfulness provides the tools- the tools for grounding in our inner resilience even in times of chaos.
Expecting couples, let us join together for the next series of Mindful Birthing, to offer not only the best of ourselves to our new being, but also to each other and the world. Inquire today!
VUCA: volatile. uncertain. complex. ambiguous.
Hey, it’s crazy out there! These are VUCA times- Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous. This concept applies to almost everything in our dynamic world. Daunting? No doubt, yes indeed.
But what if we embrace that we are exactly where we need to be? What if we actually incorporate the tools for collaboration and participation that we all have access to? What if we believe that we and our children have the capacity to heal and thrive in VUCA?
Our attention is our most valuable commodity at a time when distractions are fierce. Let us reset in the groundedness and stability that lies within.
At Modern Mind for Teens, we use *magic (Mindful Approach for Gynecologic Integrative Care) to cultivate the practices of heart centered health.
The brilliance of the brain
The adolescent brain is undergoing a phenomenal process called Brain Remodeling; pruning & myelination. Pruning involves removing the connections that are not used, and myelination takes the ones that are left and makes them faster. Whether an adolescent is pursuing an academic or athletic or artistic pursuit, they are likely to thrive with the brilliance and resilience of the adolescent brain. What other skills are needed to thrive in life despite setbacks and challenges? When do we struggle and what do we do in those times? Luckily, all brains have neuroplasticity, the amazing capacity to change and adapt. At Modern Mind for Teens, we cultivate practices for empathy, compassion and connection, so we can learn together in a state of receptivity rather than resistance.
Learn more about the brain’s Neuroplasticity from Rick Hanson, Ph.D.