May Meeting: Nourishing Healthy Kids

Thanks to Monica Corrado of Simply Being Well and Cooking for Well-Being for speaking at our May meeting and rocking our worlds! A more detailed update and photos will come, and notes will be posted on the member group list, but here are the books Monica recommended:


Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon


and

Real Food for Mother and Baby: The Fertility Diet, Eating for Two and Baby's First Foods by Nina Planck

Learing about Internal Balance and Detox

April's meeting offered a great exchange of information on holistic health in general and on detox in particular. Thanks to Dr. Tracy Freeman and Debbie McCabe, Reg. Naturopath, both of National Integrated Health Associates, for sharing such a wealth of knowledge! Detailed notes will go out to members soon, but one thing members and visitors surely came away with was the importance of maintaining the integrity of the gut for any and all health concerns. This includes assuring proper intestinal flora, ensuring active production and efficacy of digestive enzymes and checking for signs of malabsorption of food, food senstivity and yeast (Candida). The doctors maintained that most external issues -- including eczema and allergies -- often stem from a problem in the gut, where more than 80% of the immune system really lives.

Spring cleaning for our bodies!

Spring is a natural time to clean out the clutter -- in our homes and in our bodies, too! Just what do our bodies do with all the chemicals they encounter in our environment? Come to our April meeting and find out!

Our April 23 meeting will feature an MD and a Registered Naturopath who will talk to us about some basics of holistic health with a focus on toxicity. Dr. Tracy Freeman, MD, and Debbie McCabe, Reg. Naturopath, practice at National Integrated Health Associates in NW DC and have special interests in autism, ADHD, allergies, children's health and women's health. The title of their talk is "Holistic Health from the Inside Out: Spring Cleaning for Every Body."

Join us at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 23 at Alexandria's Burke Branch Library, 4701 Seminary Road. Directions at right. Children are always welcome to attend!

Taking a Pause: Mindful Parenting talk

Our March meeting was a wonderful presentation on "Mindful Parenting" by child/family therapist and parenting coach Francine Ronis. Francine began with a description of an upsetting scenario. She had us notice our reactions to her description and then led us through a visualization exercise, after which it was much easier to imagine clear-headed responses. Focusing on the now -- as opposed to an imagined future or to what a situation says about our own pasts -- can really help us to address issues as they are coming up for our kids, without all that baggage and instead just with what we see in front of us.

One strategy that can make a big shift in our relationships with our children (and with anyone else!) is to show empathy by mirroring back to a person what you heard him or her say. It doesn't help to tell someone not to worry, or that they're going to be fine. That just makes a person feel like you weren't listening or don't value his/her experience. Instead, offer just a restatment of whatever the person said, such as "You don't want to (do X)" or give a child the "feelings" language that labels what they are expressing: "It sounds like you are ... " (sad, mad, happy or scared, or some variation of the big four).

There were lots of great tips through Francine's talk and from questions and answers.

For more on mindful parenting, Francine referenced the following books:

• Everyday Blessings: The Inner Work of Mindful Parenting by Myla Kabat-Zinn and Jon Kabat-Zinn
• Parenting From the Inside Out by Daniel J. Siegel and Mary Hartzell
• How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish

Francine teaches "How to Talk" classes and leads Mindful Parenting workshops. Thank you, Francine, for your time!

March 26 Meeting: Mindful Parenting

Our March 26 meeting will feature child/family therapist and parenting coach Francine Ronis speaking on the topic of "Mindful Parenting." Please join us at 7:00 p.m. (note the new start time so that folks can get settled and we can begin the meeting right at 7:15). This meeting and our April 23 meeting will both be at the Burke Branch library location at 4701 Seminary Road in Alexandria. (scroll down for directions on sidebar)

For anyone interested in reading on the topic, Francine recommends the following two books:

• Everyday Blessings: The Inner Work of Mindful Parenting by Myla Kabat-Zinn and Jon Kabat-Zinn

• Parenting From the Inside Out by Daniel J. Siegel and Mary Hartzell

Clicking on the book jackets or links will take you to the books' pages at Amazon.com.

As always, meetings are free and open to the public, and children are welcome to attend.

Chapter needs new meeting space!

Our chapter is looking for a permanent home for our meetings. The ideal location would:
-be free of charge or have a nominal fee (we are a non-profit!)
-have room for 50+ adults and some children in a private space (with at least a door separating our meeting from another public space)
-have ample parking and easy entry to the building
-allow us to have snacks
-be child-friendly/baby-proofed
-have easily-accessible restrooms
-have a sink in the room (not a must, but a definite perk!)
-allow us to reserve a regular meeting day and stick to it (such as the fourth Thursday of the month, or we could pick another day, but it would need to be every ___th ____day). We'd prefer not have a location that might need to bump us for their own needs, and we'd prefer not to have to request the place every single time we need it.

If you know of a location central to Arlington and Alexandria that can accommodate our needs, please contact Vicky at vicky68 (at) comcast (dot) net and Jessica at holisticmomsarlalex@gmail.com or call 703-824-6167.

Fighting Fevers and the Flu in February

Our first monthly meeting was a lively discussion of influences on the immune system and strategies to deal with illnesses when they do come up. Chiropractor Cindy Durakis addressed nutrition and the role of stress in addition to discussing how structural alignment affects ear issues in particular. Dr. Chris Johnson gave a naturopath's perspective on health, including an overview of homeopathy. Both provided some great resources for folks to take home. We also shared an in-house list of a few favorite remedies and healthful strategies from some members. This and more detailed notes from the meeting will be available to members on our chapter email loop.

One thing we didn't have enough of tonight was time! When we look for a new location for meetings after April, we will for sure try to get a bigger room and make sure to book a full two hours. We could have kept talking well after the library closed, and some folks chatted in the parking lot for over an hour. What a great community! Please join us March 26 for a conversation with Francine Ronis on Mindful Parenting.