Mindfulness-Based Gut Healing

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About
Womb & Pelvic Healing
Holistic Coaching
- Moon Consultations
- Embodied Babe Coaching Series
Workshops & Online Courses
- Portland Workshops

Coming 2019

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HI! I’M JEEVAN 💗⠀
Happy Sunday, loves! I haven’t introduced myself in a while, so I thought I’d share a little bit about who I am, where I come from & what I do. I’d also love to hear about who YOU are, where you come from & what brings you here. From the 💗 of this human, I’d love to hear from the 💗 of you.⠀
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My name is Jeevan (JEE-vun) and I am the daughter of a Punjabi Sikh immigrant dad and 2nd generation Ecuadorian-Puerto Rican mama. My story begins on the island of Manhattan, where I was born. My youngest youth was spent in the Bronx and even in India for several months, as an infant. You can imagine the shock when we moved from being near my beautiful, diverse family in the city to two hours upstate - to a white, working class & conservative part of NY. ⠀
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It didn’t really hit me until my 1st day of kindergarten when I looked around the room and noticed that EVERYONE had really light skin. Even at 5 years old, I felt myself now as “other.” Those years were hard for many reasons, including the racism and cultural difference. But I am grateful that I got to grow up with the forest as my backyard & a big body of water down the road.⠀
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I’ve lived in Portland for almost half my life now, moving here 17 years ago. I’ve spent time abroad, as well, for extended periods - in India, Mexico & Spain. Years writing music and poetry. Always a deep interest in our bodies.⠀
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It wasn’t until my Saturn Return where life got “turned upside down” - in a series of traumatic events. It was then that the Universe picked me up from my tracks and placed me on the trajectory I am now - as something I always wanted to pursue, but thought I’d wait until my “next life.” I realized that this WAS my next life, so I went back to school to become a natural medicine doctor.⠀
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And here I am today! I have 4 years of providing holistic womb + pelvic healing in my private practice. And last year I graduated with my doctorate in East Asian medicine. ⠀
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My practice is founded on the principles of embodiment, empowerment, beauty & unconditional loving acceptance. It is such a deep honor to support my patients & clients.⠀
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So much more to share! But we’ll get there in time. ☺

BALANCING OUR GUTS ⚖️⠀
The more I learn about our bodies and medicine, the more impossible it becomes to not consider the whole person. This couldn’t be more true for balancing our digestion. ⠀
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One reason I love working with Dr. Isabel and Zeyah Roge so much is that we balance each other out - bringing diverse perspectives to the topic of gut healing, rooted in our own learning and clinical experiences. ⠀
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We look at gut healing through the lenses of East Asian and naturopathic medicines, somatic psychology and trauma healing, nutrition, yoga and touch. Each of us brings her expertise, all coming together with the shared belief that: “To heal the gut is to heal the whole.” We also strongly believe in sharing knowledge and self-care skills to empower people in their own gut wellness journeys.⠀
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I am so, so, so excited for our workshop next Saturday 2/23! We will be teaching about the gut and nervous systems through listening and direct hands-on experience. There will be so many practical gems of knowledge to support digestion. There will be movement and self-massage, high quality nutritionally dense snacks made locally by @joule_crafted_nutrition and @groundbreakingbread, and even sound healing. We still have space! Registration is on our website guthealingintensive.com - we definitely recommend signing up soon in case it gets sold out.⠀
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Last thing: We hope you can join us at 4pm PST today (Friday 2/15), while we do our third and final Instagram live before our big workshop next weekend in Portland. Meet us over at @guthealingintensive ⠀
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Lovely image by @_lauraberger_

SELF-LOVE IS REVOLUTIONARY 🌷⠀
A client asked me recently if I have ever struggled or had a hard time. And I shared with them a little bit of my history:⠀
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There were many, many years where I felt like someone looking in on the world from the outside. I felt strange in my own body and didn’t know that I belonged. I would describe those years as feeling isolated, lost and sad. Looking back now, it makes sense to me how I could have felt this way, given the constellation of wounding. It took getting held up at gunpoint (TWICE) and a roll-over accident to wake me up to this truth. I heard a voice say:⠀
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“You belong here. You could never NOT belong here because you come from here. You are made from the Earth and she loves you and wants you here. By virtue of being alive, you have a right to exist.” ⠀
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It was that turning point that completely shifted my sense of myself. “Confidence” was no longer something I had to pretend or try to build. It was the clear inner knowing of who I am and where I come from. It was feeling myself connected to my ancestors and to our oldest ancestor - Earth. (It is actually really humbling - this kind of confidence.)⠀
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“Self-love” became a fierce commitment to myself - to STAY with myself, to stay TENDER towards myself, to stay CURIOUS and KIND. ⠀
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Today I want to remind you that YOU belong here. And to feel your belonging in your bones. You are meant to be here. Your being here is a gift. Love is all around you. Your self-love is revolutionary and will heal the collective.⠀
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Image by @recipesforselflove

STRESS & THE GUT 🧘🏽‍♀️⠀
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Reposting from @guthealingintensive ⠀
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Do you recognize when you’re feeling stressed? What do you notice in your body? Does it show up as a rapidly beating heart? Or maybe in your digestion?⠀
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Our guts are very much influenced by stress and our emotions… AND, it turns out, how we handle stress and “digest” our emotions are strongly influenced by the gut! We now know that there is definitely a two-way street between gut health and emotional wellness. ⠀
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Stress can show up in a variety of ways in our digestion - from stomach aches to a change in bowels, from inflammation to indigestion. It also works the other way around. There is increasing evidence that our gut microbiota (the balance of microbes in our guts) may influence our emotional well-being. ⠀
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In one research study from 2016, published in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology, medical students were given either a fermented probiotic-rich drink or the placebo. The outcome? “Students given the fermented milk showed lower cortisol levels, increased serotonin levels, and fewer GI symptoms typically associated with stress and anxiety than students in the control group.”⠀
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There is so much we are still learning, and much that traditional systems of medicine have long known. At our half-day workshop on February 23rd, we’ll be diving into these topics and more.⠀
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In the meantime, we invite you to join us @guthealingintensive today at 4pm as we interview Zeyah Roge @somiyogi on the mind-body connection as it relates to gut health. Excited to see you then!⠀
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Art by @ellenvonwiegand

THE HEART - GUT CONNECTION 💗⠀
You know those butterflies you get in your stomach - whether you’ve been nervous or excited? Or that clenching and twisting when something is not right or an unwanted surprise? Have you ever been super stressed and noticed this having a huge impact on your appetite? Or found yourself feeling more calm and settled after a good meal? ⠀
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From a Chinese medicine perspective, this is because our Hearts & Guts are super connected and share a long history together. ⠀
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So many cultures around the world, including my own, consider food as an expression of love. Food even becomes a spiritual offering, placed at altars to the divine, for saints or for ancestors.⠀
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In East Asian medicine, the element that governs our digestion is Earth. Earth carries deep symbolism, such as stability, home and rhythm (all great to keep in mind, as we are now in an “Earth” year). ⠀
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The organs affiliated with Earth are the Spleen and Stomach, but way back in the day, you know what organ it was? The Heart! This means that, at some point, both the Heart and the digestive organs have sat at the center of the 5-element wheel. This central place is the place that all other organs organize around. If the organ at the center (our digestive organs and, in ancient times, our hearts) is not in balance, everything in the body is “off.”⠀
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For this reason, when we’re talking about gut healing, we also are talking about healing our emotions and our “spirits.” There is so much to say on this topic - of our emotions and nervous systems, food and digestion - an ongoing, unfolding conversation. ⠀
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Join us at 4pm tomorrow (Friday 2/7) over at @guthealingintensive and @somiyogi (@dr.isabelsweitzer will be back with us next week!), as I interview Zeyah on the Heart-Gut connection, through the lenses of somatic psychology, movement and cultivating body love. We will be diving into some of the richness of this topic and Zeyah will be guiding a self-abdominal massage! Hope to see you there. ⠀
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Beautiful art by @andreabfarina

REST IN THE WINTER OF OUR CYCLES ❄️⠀
Happy lunar new year, everyone! We woke up to snow this morning in Portland, an invitation from nature to move slowly, like nature does. Today marks spring in the lunar calendar, arriving with the reminder that sometimes the most movement churns underground. I’ve been tracking the daylight the last 5 years and always notice the quality of light shifts at this time of year, as we start to tilt closer to the sun. 🌞⠀
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Today’s topic is on rest and the winter of our cycles. If yang is in perpetual motion, rest is when it slows down and nestles into the cocoon of yin. Since East Asian medicine is based on the principles of harmonization and balance, we say that if there is too much activity, then let’s invite in more rest. 🛌⠀
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Deep rest is associated with the yin of Winter, the Kidneys, the New Moon and, in the framework I use, the bleeding time of our cycles. 🌑⠀
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Tell me: How do you spend the first week of your cycle, while you’re bleeding? Do you continue doing things as you do the rest of your month? Does your body slow you down with its messages of pain or fatigue to rest? Do you feel pressure to “suck it up” and keep going for work or family? I am really curious - what does the first week of your cycle look like in your life?⠀
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It is wild to me how little this society honors our moon time. For thousands of years, eastern medicines have known that this is an important time for us to do as little as possible and tend to our bodies and hearts. Could anything be more anti-capitalist than bleeding? ⠀
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As I’ve said before, we cannot produce like machines because we AREN’T machines. We’re living, breathing beautiful bodies of flesh and spirit and breath. We are dynamic and alive. We are warmth bodies. We are the seasons of nature embodied in human form.⠀
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The next time you are in the winter of your cycle, I encourage you to pause and reflect on what your body is asking for. And then see if there’s any way to give it that. “You are not weak for needing time to rest.” 💗💗💗⠀
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(Image by @morganharpernichols)

Oregon Board of Massage Therapists License #21370

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