Dr. Amy Saunders is one of the leading integrative medicine doctors in the area. We had profiled her ten years ago, and we wanted to check back in with her, and see how she had viewed Covid, and hear her current points of view on her medical practice and providing integrative care. We also were hoping to talk with her about the influences which shaped her becoming the attuned, committed and deeply caring physician that she is known to be.
Posts filed under Health
Hygge-- Create a Cozy Winter
Hygge, pronounced “hoo-gah,” is a Danish word that can most readily be described as a sort of coziness, although it’s more than that. It also comes from the word hugga, which is related to the word hug and means to comfort and console. So, it’s little surprise that it’s what keeps the Danes the happiest people on the planet even though they endure frigid winters with little daylight. Sunrise in a Copenhagen winter can be as late as 9:00 am while sunset can arrive not long after by 3:30 p.m.
Random Acts of Kindness: The Things Women Still Can’t Talk About And Why We Sometimes Have to Invite Ourselves In
I am fortunate to live on a street that’s close to downtown, where I can sit on my front porch and, for three seasons of the year, anyway, I can hail all my neighbors as they pass by. I can get to know their names and their dogs’ names, too. I see the same pairs of women walking or running together and talking.
A Sprinkle of Laughter, A Smattering of Grace – Applying Laughter in Challenging Situations
There’s an old school pop song where the lyrics say, “The men all pause when I walk into a room.” After a certain age, those lyrics take on a whole new meaning. What I hear now is MEN-O-PAUSE. I’ve gotten Men-o-pause when I walk into a room. And that’s when I began to take a non-traditional approach to trudging through the trenches of menopause—by sprinkling it with humor.
From Nature to You--Remedies for PMS and PMDD
Every month, I know when it's that time in my menstrual cycle: the time to cue up sad movies and bust out the dark chocolate. There are signs my luteal phase has arrived, and it used to make a grand entrance, but I learned ways to dampen its arrival.
Sustainable Health: The Seven Steps Blueprint for Optimal Health
Over the 29 years of studying and practicing nutrition, I have developed a seven-step blueprint for optimal health. My expectation is that patients will start to experience positive physical changes within a few weeks when following this regimen. As an example, I just helped a patient reverse her terrible heartburn 100% and get off the prescription drugs in four months.
Wreck It to Repair It — How Rage Rooms Are Helping People De-Str
“There are all sorts of people out there,” said Rachel Crawford, co-owner of Destruction Depot, “...some people do yoga, some people meditate, and sometimes people just need to break things.”
Are You Sabotaging Your Self-Care?
By Christy DeBurton
What comes to mind when you think of the term ‘self-care?’ Many people think self-care involves a lot of time or money. Others believe that self-care is selfish. These ideas are completely false. Simply put, self-care is essential for you to be the best version of yourself. It isn’t about getting weekly massages or taking candle-lit bubble baths (though these can be part of it if you choose). It isn’t about neglecting your responsibilities or ignoring the needs of others. The real essence of self-care is being true to who you are, so you are living the life that you want to live, and not the life other people want you to live. It’s about making choices from a place of love and connection rather than guilt and obligation. But that love has to start with loving yourself first—and not all of us are so good at doing that—so we end up sabotaging our self-care. A while back, I went on my own self-care journey, examining the obstacles that were getting in the way of taking better care of myself. Here are some things I learned along the way.
Give yourself permission to take time for self-care. Let’s face it, no one else will. We all want someone else to say to us, “You’ve been working so hard. You’ve been under a lot of stress. Why don’t you take the day off and just relax?” Most likely, this is never going to happen. Even if you do have someone like this in your life, ultimately you have to be the one who gives yourself permission to take time for self-care. So why do we have such a hard time doing this? Because we’ve been raised in a society that tells us we always need to be more, do more, and have more. Because we’ve been raised in families that pass down conscious and subconscious beliefs that we are not worthy, that we don’t deserve what we really desire, and that we need to take care of other people’s needs before our own. Take a moment to examine this in your own life. Do you feel obligated by certain people to do things that you really don’t want to do? Do you tell yourself you don’t have time for self-care because you just don’t feel like you deserve to take time for yourself? Or are you worried about what other people will think if you do? What kinds of messages are you telling yourself about your worthiness as a human being? Examining those conscious and subconscious beliefs is the first step. Once you’ve done that, try putting into practice either or both of these helpful techniques:
“Who says so?” Any time you catch yourself thinking that you don’t have time to relax or do yoga or some other form of self-care because you have to check off one more thing on your never-ending to-do list, question that ‘voice in your head’ by asking yourself, “Who says so?” I guarantee you will be amazed at what other voices besides your own (maybe it’s the voice of perfection, or guilt, or your mother!) you are listening to. Is listening to those voices in your best interest? What if you listened to your own voice instead? Once you’ve asked yourself this question, or separately on their own, you could ask the following two questions.
“How do I feel right now?” and “What do I need to do to take care of myself?” In my work with clients, I have come to realize that most people are not good at checking in with themselves to see how they’re feeling throughout the day. We can’t take better care of ourselves unless we take the time to contemplate how we’re feeling and what we need. Getting into the habit of asking myself these two questions has made a huge difference in my life, and I am confident it can in yours, too. I encourage you to write these questions on some sticky notes and put them in places where you’ll see them—like on your bathroom mirror, work desk, or car dashboard—throughout the day. Then, every time you see them, take a moment to pause and ask yourself how you’re feeling and what you need to do to take care of yourself. The trick is that you need to pause long enough to really ‘hear’ the answers, and then go do what you need—without apology!
I had to work at it for quite a while to get to the point where I felt comfortable making time for self-care every day, so let me be the first to say it won’t be easy. You’ll most likely get resistance from those close to you who have certain expectations. But those who truly love you and want what is best for you will understand. And those who give you a hard time? You might want to examine why you want people like that in your life.
Because I benefited so greatly from taking my own self-care journey and learning to implement techniques like the ones above, I created a compact but powerful online course, Stop Sabotaging Your Self-Care, to help others who are ready to make self-care a priority. In this course I guide you on a journey of self-discovery to examine the obstacles that stand in the way of you taking better care of yourself and teach you tools like the ones above to help you cultivate greater awareness around your self-care needs. I’ve included thought-provoking exercises, journal prompts, weekly meditation and yoga practices, and more. You can find out more about this course at yogaroomannarbor.com/online-courses-self-care.
Finally, because I found it helpful to have some supportive people tell me that I did, in fact, deserve to make time for my own self-care, let me pass that support on to you. The world needs your gifts. But you will only be able to shine if you take good care of yourself first. It doesn’t have to be anything elaborate: even taking a 15 minute walk every day can make a world of difference. I promise if you do, you will feel so much better and those around you will also receive the benefits of your new-found sense of well-being, too. You absolutely deserve it, so give yourself some time for self-care today.
Christy DeBurton is a Holistic Yoga and Wellness Educator with 25 years of experience. She helps people feel better inside and out through yoga, meditation, wellness retreats, online courses, and more. She can be reached at info@christydeburton.com.
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Psychotherapy has undergone massive shifts and transformations since its inception in the early 20th century. By the 1980s, modalities such as cognitive, psychodynamic, and dialectical behavioral therapies were firmly planted as the gold-standard of the field.
Healers of Ann Arbor: Psychologist Christi Bemister—Healing Trauma and Chronic Pain
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone in chronic pain, myself, who doesn’t have a history with trauma,” Christi Bemister said as she opened up a weekend retreat on trauma and chronic pain. The retreat covered the work of healing the mind and body together through the Realization Process created by Judith Blackstone. “They’re very intricately related, because chronic pain is actually a brain issue versus simply a physiological one. It’s a very complex issue,” she added.
Tell Every Amazing Lady These Five Lessons
I am a T.E.A.L. survivor. T.E.A.L.® stands for Tell Every Amazing Lady about ovarian cancer. It is an organization (and national movement) started to help women identify signs and symptoms and urge them to seek medical help in its early stages, because ovarian cancer is often overlooked until it is too late. When it declares itself with debilitating symptoms, usually in stage III or IV, the prognosis is poor, so in an attempt to get the information out there, I share my cautionary tale.
Cooking with Lisa
Lisa Viger Gotte is a Chelsea resident passionate about plant-based cuisine and loves showing others how simple, delicious, healthy, and joyful it can be. A vegan diet improved her own physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health and she’s seen it do the same in others! She is also an artist, cookbook author, MSVA Vegan Life Coach, and RYT 200 yoga teacher. You can learn more about her and find more tasty recipes at planted365.com.
Leaps of Faith: Arogyaveda
At the end of a quiet lane, I found the building where Pradeepa Ryasam invited me to meet her. I had asked if she could share her experience as a new business owner offering holistic wellness services at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic. As I walked toward the building, I noticed rabbit footprints in the new snow, and several birds greeted me before Ryasam had a chance to open the door to introduce herself.
Sustainable Health: Enhancing Detoxification-- A Path to Lifelong Wellness
The idea of enhancing detoxification to improve health has been known and practiced in the natural healthcare community for decades. Herbs, saunas, activated charcoal, juicing, and body wraps are just a few of the ways practitioners and patients have sought to rid the body of toxins and waste more efficiently. These different approaches have gone in and out of fashion, and with the advent of social media you can find any number of people claiming they’ve got the perfect shake, supplement, or potion for everyone to achieve a cleaner body. Let’s face it, some of them are scams, but the theory is sound—help the body detoxify and you’ll have more energy, clearer skin, better bowel elimination, and avoid chronic illness later in life.
Wintering Within
As I write this the days are lengthening, the sun riding high in the sky, and the expansiveness of summer stretches before me—though the days seem to be filling fast. So much to cram in here, in Michigan, where summer is the fleetest season: lake time, picnics, parties, peony blooms, and cicada chirps, fireflies and star showers, light until late in the evening and 4 a.m. birdsong. Long, hot, humid-filled days and hopefully, lots of water play. But you will be reading this after all that has passed, and the days shorten. I am always surprised how soon the dark comes in late August, how quickly the dusk rises, how the trees begin their color change, their leaf drop.
Staying the Course: Committing to Love for Life
The world we live in today is filled is so many uncertainties. Social and civil unrest, uncontrolled gun violence, and the never-ending saga called the Coronavirus, are all changing the lives we knew. All these factors are changing nearly every day—sometimes, by the minute. One thing we can guarantee won’t change is love. No matter who your love partner is, knowing how to love and who to love is very important. More important than that is knowing how to stay committed to the one you love.
Sick of This — Understanding Long Covid and Local Resources for Recovery
Nearly three years after SARS-COV2 emerged, we are coming to realize that acute Covid-19 disease is, for many, only the first phase of an ongoing health challenge. For a large percentage of people who have had Covid, fatigue and other symptoms last for months or even years after the initial infection. Officially known as “Post-Acute Sequelae of Covid-19 (PASC)” or “Post-Covid Conditions (PCC),” this constellation of lingering symptoms is commonly known as “Long Covid.”
Go Outside! A How-To Guide for the Urban Family
As we shiver out of another Michigan winter and into warmer weather, I am building my usual short list of activities to keep myself sane. This list has become shorter than usual due to pandemic safety precautions. Ordinarily it would include more frequent visits with extended family and more friend get-togethers. My sticky note sanity plan has become heavier on more practical reminders like “Sleep more regular hours!” “Take Vitamin D!” and “GO OUTSIDE” which is written in all caps.
Sustainable Health: Bacteria and Viruses — Essential to Human Life
Bacteria and viruses have always gotten a bad reputation in our modern society, but these microscopic microorganisms are essential to human life and can quite literally be a key aspect to our optimal health. In fact, trillions of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other microbes live all over our bodies, with the largest concentration in our intestines.
Scratch That! Tips for Cooking Real Meals at Home
Want some good news about the pandemic? Apparently, it’s finally gotten us to cook from scratch and eat at home more often.
Almost four years into my personal journey into motherhood, I have learned that some of my challenges are wildly common. Near-constant sensory and logistical overwhelm, deconstructing of (well-intended) pre-baby idealism, hard-to-communicate grief and resentments, and the occasional dose of blinding hot rage or anxiety. My journey has also been, however, a powerful invitation to a rite of passage through and beyond what author Beth Berry calls “Motherwhelm.”