I am greatly inspired by Ali Duncan of Urban Sanctuary a non-profit in Denver, Colorado. She is a yoga instructor who incorporates social justice into every fiber of her healing work. Healing and social justice cannot be separated. You can learn more from her inspiring video on yoga and social justice with this link. I feel so connected to what Ali is saying in this video because food and birth justice have become so close to my heart in my 20 year journey in the health and wellness field.

Ali is fundraising for the Urban Sanctuary located in five points Denver. Her building is called the Douglass Mortuary BECAUSE in the 1800 Fredrick Douglass family owned a mortuary in Five Points in her building. You can support Ali’s non-profit work and initiatives here.

I am so grateful for practitioners who use their voice and platform for speaking truth. I get so uncomfortable when a truth I don’t want to hear is presented to me. My next response is, breath, lean in, and say thank you. Thank you for being straightforward. The engaged spiritual activism/health justice perspective is the medicine of the times. The world needs more truth and less sugar coated manipulation, more of this kind of discussion.

Food justice is a core value here at Selkskin. As the GrowHaus in Denver, Colorado states, “Healthy food is a right, not a privilege.”

My solo tai chi/yoga practice is sacred to me and I do it daily. I invite my clients to develop a daily solo practice as well. I look to my solo practice as an honest, daily mirror. Below is my approach to yoga/tai chi/movement.

“...The practice of yoga that leaves no dimension of the self behind.”

“If somebody comes into my clinic and talks about any ethnic group in a disparaging way, I cannot NOT see it as disease. Any treatment I give is going to necessarily be political.” ~ Lonny Jarrett

Yoga is unity and social justice. And injustice and discrimination is the imbalance that needs to be focused on! Another person who has hugely inspired me is Lonny Jarrett. He has been a leading scholar in the field of Chinese medicine since 1980. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine and a founding board member of the Acupuncture Society of Massachusetts. He teaches and publishes widely on the inner tradition of Chinese medicine and Chinese pulse diagnosis. Mr. Jarrett holds a Master’s degree in Neurobiology and maintains his clinical practice in Stockbridge, MA. He is the author of Nourishing Destiny and The Clinical Practice of Chinese Medicine. His articles and texts are available on the Web at www.spiritpathpress.com.

Healing and discrimination contradict each other. We need to heal injustice to heal any disease. That gives me chills. I think that’s exceptional.

I’ve seen and have people in my community who wouldn’t get this. If people can look at the world today and say that whatever we have here currently is unity, we are lying to ourselves. Because this is not unity.

Unity is having these conversations. And that includes identifying where the world is not currently functioning. And calling that out.

And, I agree with Ali and Lonny, we need allies to get behind the social justice movement. I loved something I learned in college at Naropa University which presented that racism is white people‘s concern. Sexism is men’s concern. Homophobia and transphobia are straight people’s concerns. And obviously, it’s not limited to only the person in a place of privilege to be concerned about transphobic behavior for instance, and yet I hope you get what I am saying here. What I hear in this: we need people in power, folks with institutionalized power to take responsibility to be working towards justice for all. I want to be using my voice to move towards liberation and to invite other white people to stand for justice for all. 

Any form of injustice or discrimination is disease. 

And being uncomfortable is a great practice, especially around where we have privilege ~ to be uncomfortable in those spaces! If more of us could sit in the discomfort, and move through it, we’d be able to have more helpful discussions on how to move towards a world where justice for all is the standard of perfection. Where justice is normalized. 

Avoiding injustice and disunity is not going to make it go away!

Let’s heal the world together. Let’s heal the disunity in ourselves. “Juntos somos fuertes” “Together we are strong”

I live the sincere prayer, may all beings be free from suffering and the root of suffering. May all beings know peace and the root of peace.

I am also deeply inspired by Sadie Schultz of the Woodbury Apothecary. She teaches me so much about herbalism and I am so exciting to be able to easily connect my community with her as I work and participate in fun community events with her. She leads bi-monthly moon circles to connect us to the power of those cycles and offerings. She also offers the Woodbury Apothecary, loose leaf herbs you can buy by the ounce, tinctures, much more, and 1-2-1 herbal consultations with clients at Clear Creek Wellness Co. (CCWC) in Idaho Springs, CO where I see clients, practice, and often we lead fun workshops together like how to make Elderberry Syrup where you take home a jar. She is exceptionally intelligent, helpful, and extremely professional. I am blessed to count her as a part of my clan.

Text me at 720-722-0094 to learn more or to come to one of our events!

We like to do tai chi/yoga/martial arts and to take a bike ride or a hike together on the weekends. We are currently fundraising to raise money for BIPOC, LGBTQIA, and for folks who cannot easily afford mountain bikes. We want to encourage the expansion and normalization of health, cycling, and wellness for BIPOC and LGBTQIA.

Douglas Adam's "So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish”

He hadn't realized that life speaks with a voice to you, a voice that brings you answers to the questions you continually ask of it, had never consciously detected it or recognized its tones till it now said something it had never said to him before, which was "Yes".

I would be so happy if more people felt extraordinary in their bodies. I believe that the body is a whole entity with vital pieces that work together. We function best when all the parts have what they need. This will be different for each person's individual nutritional needs. Bio-individuality means that we all need certain foods, relief from the stressors of the modern world, and a balance of good fats, proteins, and carbohydrates in unique amounts and with different approaches that will benefit us. What works for one may not work for another. Stressors can be in the form of emotionally difficult situations, the chemicals that we breath in from pollution everyday, or a diet that is taking more than it is giving. What we do all have in common is that we are inundated with toxins of many kinds and that we need beneficial nutrition for every cell to detox and to let nutrients in. 

My philosophy is inspired by Chinese medicine as you can see from the five elements picture above. I use the five element to help me to understand the signs and symptoms your body is expressing. These signs and symptoms give me information about what organs need help. For instance, chronic eye infections can indicate a stagnant liver. And if the liver is overburdened digestion will suffer. The stomach and spleen will have a hard time getting what they need. I ask questions in my new client paperwork that helps me to listen to you and your body. The body is always honest.

We face many environmental toxins/stressors from chemicals like pesticides, from the products we use (body wash, perfumes, lipstick, etc.), the water we shower in and drink, and from the foods we ingest (that are not organic or that have been overly processed). With nutrition therapy I aim to give you the tools to support your body to be as functional on a foundational level as possible. From a physiological and anatomical perspective we can asses what is going on and learn the support your body may be craving. I want to support you with nutritional knowledge to feel as vital as you can. It is not our fate to feel tired and cranky most of the time. American culture has normalized fatigue and taught us to spend lots of money on things that won’t necessarily heal the root cause of our signs and symptoms. I do not recommend that you stop taking any drugs you are taking as I am not a licensed physician and I do not diagnose or treat disease. I hope I can help to support your current health and your biochemistry with nutritional therapy. I am thankful for the doctors and nurse practitioners in your life! I wish to supplement the work that you do with you medical and health care professionals.

You body will look and feel great. You are capable of listening to your body and giving it what it needs to thrive. We don't have to accept aging as a gradual decline or a decreased appreciation for happiness and laughter. I do not believe maturity has to mean depletion of energy, deficiency, and disease. Through nutritional therapy we can support your body’s innate abilities to heal on a foundational level. We can encourage the prevention of imbalances and other circumstances that may be aggravating certain deficiencies. Most of us experience bodily discomforts that can steam from a poor diet of processed foods, stress, and toxins. It doesn't have to be this way. Vitalism is real.

Ultimately, I believe that body sensations, feelings, thoughts, and what you have gone through are interconnected.  If I cannot help with your concerns or a certain matter in question, I would be happy to refer you to other health care practitioners that may be able to help. I would like to try and help you find another resource if something is outside of my scope of practice.  

As a nutritional therapist I want to give you the gift of time. I want to give you the time to go over how your body feels, what you would like to address, and your relationship to food and consumption. I want to support your ability to listen to your body and provide you with educational resources that speak to your questions and concerns.

Hopefully you will find selkskin to be a place of gratitude and appreciation with a special focus on: vitalism, whole, local, fairly traded and handled, sustainable, properly prepared, organic, delicious food!

Here’s to this life. It truly is short and hopefully it is sweet!

On Eating and Drinking ~ Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

      Then an old man, a keeper of an inn, said, "Speak to us of Eating and Drinking." 
      And he said: 
      Would that you could live on the fragrance of the earth, and like an air plant be sustained by the light. 
      But since you must kill to eat, and rob the young of its mother's milk to quench your thirst, let it then be an act of worship, 
      And let your board stand an altar on which the pure and the innocent of forest and plain are sacrificed for that which is purer and still more innocent in many. 
      When you kill a beast say to him in your heart, 
      "By the same power that slays you, I to am slain; and I too shall be consumed. 
      For the law that delivered you into my hand shall deliver me into a mightier hand. 
      Your blood and my blood is naught but the sap that feeds the tree of heaven." And when you crush an apple with your teeth, say to it in your heart,
      "Your seeds shall live in my body, 
      And the buds of your tomorrow shall blossom in my heart, 
      And your fragrance shall be my breath, And together we shall rejoice through all the seasons." 
      And in the autumn, when you gather the grapes of your vineyard for the winepress, say in you heart, "I to am a vineyard, and my fruit shall be gathered for the winepress, 
      And like new wine I shall be kept in eternal vessels." 
      And in winter, when you draw the wine, let there be in your heart a song for each cup; 
      And let there be in the song a remembrance for the autumn days, and for the vineyard, and for the winepress.