Then I attended a Dialectical Behavior Therapy training, and the trainer used the word mindfulness to describe a strange activity we did with a raisen (you will learn more if you take an MBSR course) I wasn’t sold, but I was intrigued.

Then I read “Full Catastrophe Living” by Jon Kabat Zinn, and what he was describing put words to what I was seeing and feeling working with clients, colleagues, and resources in community mental health. I further accessed my own well of resilience by practicing mindfulness. I integrated what I was learning into my own teaching of DBT skills with good effect. I took an MBSR course. I learned it is possible to cultivate this capacity to be present, and harness its power to wake up to and with life. I learned that despite my generally “good life” and positive outlook, I wasn’t already, naturally awake and being myself most of time. With surprise, and sometimes disappointment, I discovered how moment to moment awareness can transform painful emotions, thoughts, and experiences. So, I picked up the thread that had been stitched into my life at times of joy, peace, sorrow, and overwhelming anger, and I started sewing.

Brainbellyheart.com as you find it now is one of the pieces of this cloth I have been sewing. A fabric I have sewn together piece by piece, via writing, reading, practicing, researching, training, and most importantly, showing up and participating in my life moment by moment. I hope one or two of the words, stories, facts, or offerings on these pages resonate with you and if so, I invite you to pick up a thread.