Prescription for Joy

Dr. D's Prescription for Joy

1) “Road Trip it”: “Sometimes you have to journey out to journey within.”

a. Go somewhere warm; see ‘big nature.’
b. Drive across the country- twice. Sleep outside when possible.

2) Nurture your relationship with Nature:
a. Hike, bike, walk, kayak, ski, etc.
b. Be in silence.
c. Skip school or work & be in nature when no one else is.
d. Notice nature- even from your window.


3) Serve other, serve others, serve others:
a. As much as humanly possible, share your financial, emotional, physical resources with others.
b. Schedule it into your week, like any other event.
c. More than anything else, this will open up the door to joy.

4) CREATE/ENJOY music, the arts:
a. Concerts-Ipod-Cds: Listen, dance, move.
b. Sing in the shower.
c. Join the world drumming ensemble- make music with others.

5) Play like a kid/ play with kids:
a. Ride a swing & swing REALLY high.
b. Volunteer with children.
c. Color with crayons.
d. Get a pick-up game of football, Frisbee, baseball together

6) Get healthy- stay healthy.
a. hydrate like crazy; ten glasses a day is not too many.
b. eat whole foods; eat something that looks like what it is called: fruit not fruit roll-ups.

7) BREATHE, SURRENDER to God, PRAY
a. Learn to notice your breath and posture all day long. Take time to pause.
a. PRAY DAILY- fortify yourself each day like a daily vitamin.
b. Start slow (Pray 5 minutes a day); then slow down (2 min a day); work your way up slowly.
c. Make it a part of your essential daily planning.

8) Go “Unplugged”
a. Go tech free for a day;
b. shut off your cell phone, laptop, Ipod, etc. just for one day. See how you feel. Do it again.

9) More fun, less stuff
a. Give up consuming for awhile
b. Give your stuff away.

10) Take a fast from the Fast Lane!! Take a day off; schedule it now.

Storytelling and the Importance of Coffee Diplomacy

"The stories people tell have a way of taking care of them. If stories come to you, care for them, and learn to give them away as needed. Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive. This why we put stories in each other's memory. This is how people care for themselves (and each other).

---Barry Lopez

"Writing becomes an act of Compassion toward life, the life we so often refuse to see because if we look too closely or feel too deeply, there may be no end to our suffering. But words empower us, move us beyond our own suffering, set us free.

This is the sorcery of literature: We are Healed by our Stories."

---Terry Tempest Williams

I often place these quotes at the top of my Sociology course syllabi, especially for my Cultural Diversity or my Environmental Sociology classes. These passages came alive for me the year that I created and worked on Project H.O.P.E. (helping other people and the earth), a community collaboration project between the small university where I worked and the tiny Catholic school located in the same town.

The goals of Project H.O.P.E. were to facilitate and enhance community ties between the university and the grade school as well as to provide hands-on, community-based instructional opportunities for both sets of students. We planned to educate our constituents about the Pennsylvania Environment and Ecology standards by building and planting a large native plant garden at the entrance of elementary school, creating an enormous mural of indigenous plants and animals inside, and by fixing up their playground. Our final goal was to “Pay it Forward,” to literally use the good will generated from the little children we were working with to send funding and help to a community in Mississippi whose homes and lives were lost during Hurricane Katrina.

In order to meet our goals, we needed to raise several thousand dollars for materials as well as to make a donation to another Catholic school in Waveland, Mississippi that had been destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. In that community, 90% of the people had just lost their homes and businesses.  Their community was completely destroyed but they were determined to start over, together. We wanted to lend a hand.

One of the tenets of Project H.O.P.E. was that we valued using local businesses. So for several months, I went out with my then 1- year old daughter Kailasa, and one of my students Michelle, to solicit monetary or in-kind donations from local businesses. We met these folks in their storefronts, or just as often in the back of their homes or on their property. Almost universally, we were invited in for a ‘cup of coffee.’ How could we refuse such hospitality? We needed to engage in coffee diplomacy.

We quickly realized that part of the ‘exchange’ was to sit and listen to people’s stories, and often to share ours. Most people want to give, but often they first need to be heard. They wanted to share their history with either the university or the grade school, and talk how they were personally connected to the communities we were working with. Some of them had their own stories of lost homes, or lost lives. Sometimes, it was as seemingly tenuous as their aunt’s daughter used to work at one place or the other back in the 1980s, but it was vitally important to them that their story be known.

We recognized that they were interested in our story as well: how did Project H.O.P.E. come about; what was motivating a bunch of undergraduate students to take on such an immense project? We revealed how a small group of 15 sociology students travel

ed to the grade school purely to complete an exercise assessing their resources and needs. When they came back to my class, they all insisted that we figure out how to follow through on the evaluation and actually create the changes that the school so clearly needed. Thus, Project H.O.P.E. was born.

Though at first, we merely wanted request a donation and simply obtain the goods or money that we needed. In the end, this coffee diplomacy was an essential part of our community collaboration. We had to plan to give not just our dollars but also our TIME.  By listening to these stories and sharing our own, we were weaving together the tapestry of this joint venture and making the bonds between the members even stronger than before. We became the keeper of the stories and it is our duty to keep telling them.

Everyone needs Stories. Stories can Change your life. Stories can Heal and give HOPE. Hope takes roots in the mind. 
Hope grows in the Heart. Hope is born into the world.

Five Steps to Completing Community Projects for Social Change

Do you see a problem or issue in your community or organization? Are you interested in making some changes in your community or organization? You can use the following five steps to help you guide on your journey toward social change.

1) Assessment: Assessing the community or organization's needs and resources.

a. What are a community's resources (finances, people, physical and material resources, structural layout, community map, individual's time);
b. What are the community's needs?
c. What organizations are connected to and support this organization or community?
d. You can use Social Mapping: Asset Mapping and Social Network Mapping. Where are the natural and material assets located; what kinds of natural social networks already exist? What the natural pathways for resources? Where are the highest concentrations of community resources? Where are the areas of lack?
e. Identify community characteristics:

• i. Aspects of material culture (dress, architecture, food)
• ii. Cultural values, symbols, norms for behavior, language, beliefs/attitudes

f. For community participation in the assessment:

• i. Assure complete voluntary participation
• ii. Protect anonymity when you can. If not, maintain rigorous standards of confidentiality.

g. RESEARCH other similar projects to get ideas for how to proceed.

2) Develop goals and objectives: These two are the guiding forces for your entire project. You will need to refer to these for each action you take.

a. After compiling the data from your assessment, you can analyze the results looking for core themes and patterns. Summarize the quantitative and qualitative data in order to discover the needs of the community. Afterwards, write goals and objectives for each of the community's needs that you are able to address with the current project.

b. Some questions you should consider are: what problems can be reasonably addressed with the current community members and potential collaborators? Is this the right season (literally spring, summer, fall or winter) to tackle this problem? How should we prioritize projects?

3) Planning: In this part, you are answering the question, how can this community be mobilized?

a. Assemble a core team of leaders that will coordinate the entire project. Keep this team relatively small: 4-6 members. The core team needs to be organized, committed and most of all enthusiastic.

b. Create a plan and timeline: Sketch out a time line with appropriate dates, spaced well to accommodate fundraising needs;

c. Make sure your plan meets your goals and objectives; revise if necessary.

d. Create teams (with community organizers, collaborators, and participants) who will tackle specific parts of the project; try to work with individual's strengths.

• i. When contacting collaborators, volunteers and participants, know the culture of your community. Do phone calls work better than email in this situation? Can we use Facebook to organize meetings?

e. Hold regular core team meetings for planning.

4) Fundraising:
a. In pairs, go to local community members, national organizations, local businesses or any other potential funder and ask exactly for what you need; nothing less.

b. Take time to listen to your potential funder; most people want to give; they just want their own story to be heard first.  practice coffee diplomacy

c. Organize FUN fundraisers, based on the theme of your project, if possible.

5) Take Action: Put your plan into action to meet your goals and objectives.
a. Organize the necessary short-term volunteers and plan for work parties or work sessions, whichever your particular requires.

b. Always have an agenda or work plan and a presider. You need one point-person at each work party or work session who knows the overall plan, someone people can turn to with questions as they arise.
c. Have snacks and water. You can get these donated for your event.

d. If possible, show up with gifts for participants and recipients.

e. Hold ceremonies and hold rituals (Have a project Launch party, an opening ceremony, closing ceremony, blessing of land, project blessing, any ritual that your project calls for)

f. Keep it fun; You need a 'fun raiser' at each work party, someone whose sole job is to keep things enjoyable for the participants.

g. Applaud yourself (send press releases to local newspapers, high schools, churches). Get the word out! And celebrate your community project along the way.

h. Send periodic feedback to participants through Facebook, email, e-newsletters; keep enthusiasm high!

There is one last ingredient that can make your community project especially successful and rewarding: pay it forward. Partner with the community you are serving to look for another community that needs the help of all of you. As part of your community project, together make a donation of money, resources, or time in their direction.
Finally, keep your team energetic with an inspiring mission and message! Come from the heart and the urge to serve and surely social change will come to your community.

How to Cultivate Mindfulness through Your Connection to Nature

There is weather in Seattle, not just rain. Someone told me, when I first moved there, that all the glorious sunshine we have for days on end all summer long, would simply end one day. As if someone turned the faucet on and forgot to turn it off.

Puget Sound

Well, it does rain in Seattle, but not just any rain. There are MANY different kinds of rain in the Pacific Northwest. Sometimes, we are wrapped in a damp blanket of drizzle. It took awhile after I moved there, but the rain and I are finally developed a relationship. We bonded.


Sometimes, it is simply a steady springkling, not too hard. The kind of rain that when it hits the hood of your REI-Gore-Tex-Rain-Jacket, it sounds just like rain hitting your tent as you sleep in the rainforests of the Olympic Peninsula in western Washington.

I often spent the day at Seward Park, the only state park left within the city limits of Seattle that still has old growth forest. Seward Park sits on a peninsula of sorts that juts out into Lake Washington, so it is surrounded by water on three sides. Well, make that four sides- water from above as well. You can walk the perimeter of the park, along the lake, and you can walk in the midst of the forest on trails that take you back a hundred years or so into wilderness, into wildness.


Bald eagles still nest at Seward Park and I often saw one. Since many days are shrouded in mist, sometimes I could not really tell if it was an eagle or not, but I could tell that it was an enormous soaring bird. That is one of the benefits of Seattle weather...it blurs the real with the surreal...so my bird becomes an eagle for me, if only for the day. A small gift to soothe my soul.

The rain here protects us, reminds us to retreat every once in a while, to slow down, to be present in each and every moment. November rain provides the advent of our season of contemplation. The rain is a reassurance, a constant. You know that no matter what you do each day, the rain will be there- comforting- like an old friend. In Seattle, you can rely on the rain.


Before I lived in Seattle I lived in the high desert of Walla Walla, WA. I remember writing to my grandparents on the east coast: “We don’t get weather here. It’s just sunny, blue sky everyday. I’ve been here two months and I have not seen one cloud yet.” I said this, almost as a complaint, wishing for just a little bit of dark relief from the relentless sun. 

Columbia River Gorge

I discovered the meaning of Big Sky when I moved to eastern Washington. The rain gets trapped on the west side of the Cascade Mountains, so eastern Washington is a veritable desert. I learned to appreciate the many different shades of brown: deep, rich earthy browns- the color of the fields when the dirt has been turned over after the harvest. Golden light brown, the color of the wheat as it sways silently across the Palouse, juxtaposed with the bright sun and deep blue sky, where you can see for miles and miles in any direction. No large evergreen trees, not many trees period, but lots of sagebrush. You grow to love sagebrush when you live in the open desert.


There is so much healing in our connection to nature, in our connection to the landscape around us: so much mystery and peace. I experienced this myself over a decade ago when I moved to Washington state. I was drawn to the wide-open spaces and I cherish them. For 15 years in my Sociology classes, I assigned the wonderful book Refuge by Terry Tempest Williams. One of the themes of the book is our healing and spiritual connection to nature, and the importance of having a sense of place, a connection to the land. A dear environmental sociologist friend first shared this book with me, and my life has never been the same. He has since died from lung cancer, though he never ever smoked. He was a “down-winder,” a victim of the nuclear testing ground of Hanover, WA to the west of Walla Walla.


Over the years, my students have come from a wide variety of ages and backgrounds, but they all have resonated with the idea of a spiritual connection to nature. Almost every person has had a story of a sacred encounter in nature. Some described how a love of the ‘outdoors’ was often cultivated in them from childhood on. We discussed how connecting with the Earth, for some unknown reason, brings us into a larger, deeper connection with our God and brings us into a deeper connection with our inner self, our soul.


Living out in the Pacific Northwest, you have no choice but to connect with your surroundings. The contradictions in the landscape between the east and west side of the state speak volumes, and you are propelled to become mindful of who you are and become aware of where you are.

Mt. Rainier and Seward Park to the left

When it is not raining in Seattle, the Cascade Mountains call to you from the east and the Olympic Mountains call to you from the West.

Mt. Rainier, a 14,400 foot volcano looms valiantly above the city, humbling and awing us all at once. On a sunny day, Mt. Rainier causes more traffic jams than a fender bender...one simply must stare and Pay Attention. The beauty we find in nature reminds us of that as well- to be Awake in our lives to the beauty in others.

 
These have been the themes that nature has taught me so far: to become awake, to pay attention to the mystery of life, but to also remember to retreat, slow down, and reflect. My connection to the land, and to nature, has provided me with these life lessons and so I honor God and what He has created in return.

How to Have Beautiful Skin

Did you know that many nutrients that are crucial to excellent brain function are the very same nutrients that give us vibrant, radiant skin? Read the following story to hear how they are connected.

I love to do research, not every does. In fact, some people dread it. But I have fond memories of combing through the library stacks to find articles relating to my dissertation topic and then spending hours reading them to find the threads of commonality. So, when I was faced with the onset of a (rather unslightly) facial skin condition this past fall, what does someone like me do? RESEARCH! And lots of it.

I was officially diagnosed with rosacea and peri-oral dermatitis, but I was not satisfied with the standard treatment for these diseases (oral and topical antibiotics). I know from my years of studying natural health that the skin is an organ of elimination, like the kidneys and digestive tract. And if something is showing up on your face, it usually means that something pretty important is happening on the inside. Moreover, a skin rash is quite literally inflammation, so I needed to get to the cause and the cure for inflammation. What I found out changed my approach to this problem completely.

Did you know that many nutrients that are crucial to excellent brain function are the very same nutrients that give us vibrant, radiant skin? I was so surprised to discover in my research that it all starts in the WOMB: the same layer of tissue from which the brain is derived is also the source of the skin! So, naturally, there is a very strong connection between the two structures in our bodies.

So, what are those nutrients that feed both the brain and beautiful skin?

To keep this simple I will only tell you part of the answer. In other articles, I will relate more about the anti-inflammation eating plan, which covers more of what you'll need to eat for maximum brain function and beautiful skin. The following four nutrients will minimize wrinkles, smooth out skin tone, reduce sagging, and add overall glow to your skin. To find much more detailed information and additional resources on this topic, I suggest you read Dr. Nicholas Perricone's various books on skincare from which I derived some of the facts listed below.

1)            Water. You have heard this a hundred times, but I have tried it for myself: the minimum amount of water needed for beautifully hydrated skin is eight glasses a day. I think ten glasses is even better. Not only does water hydrate skin, but it also flushes harmful toxins out of the body, toxins which are causing skin to look old and sallow.

2)            Good fats. It is a myth that a fat-free diet is good for you. You need to ingest good fats in order to burn and release the bad fats that you have consumed, even in the distant past. The good fats consist of essential fatty acids such as flax oil, oils found in fish especially salmon, and olive oil. You can also add coconut oil, avocado, and raw nuts to your food plan. Think about it: you can't have delightfully soft skin without some oil lubricating your system.

3)            Antioxidants. Any fruit or vegetable with very bright colors tends to have high levels of anti-oxidants, but choosing berries such as blueberries every morning with breakfast keeps it simple. And of course, ingest lots of Vitamin C (3,000-6,000 mg), a water soluble anti-oxidant found in many fruits and vegetables. Finally, alpha lipoic acid is considered to be the mother of all anti-oxidants because it is water and fat soluble and very powerful. It is hard to obtain this one via foods, so a high quality supplement is best.

4)            DMAE. Eating salmon (only wild Alaskan salmon contains DMAE) on a daily basis is a good idea because it is the highest source of this natural compound. DMAE is not only excellent for memory and overall brain health, but can actually lift the skin on your face naturally, greatly minimizing sagging.

Try to consume these four food items each day and notice the change in your appearance over the course of a few weeks. While you are feeding yourself high-quality brain food, you are also nurturing your skin. Personally, I started eating canned Wild Alaskan salmon for breakfast each day, covered with ground flax and chia seeds (yup, like the Chia Pet, which happen to be super high in iron), sprinkled with flax or olive oil and sea salt, and a small side serving of blueberries. An unconventional breakfast, yes, but it wakes me up better than coffee ever did.

Finally, you can put it all together by applying these nutrients to your facial skin. Many products are available that contain Alpha Lipoic Acid, DMAE and Vitamin C for topical application. I have literally seen the redness and rash disappear from my face through this regimen. I hope it helps you too!

Singing from the Heart

Today my son’s 5th grade class sang to the elders at a local nursing home. Later, I saw their music teacher who said the concert was fantastic and that several audience members were so touched that they cried. I know those tears. I call that kind of crying “truth crying,” when you are hear something so pure, that you are reminded of the truth of who you really are, and of the love in your own heart.

I knew their concert would be great even before I heard about it at pick-up today. Yesterday, I was lucky enough to accompany this same class on the pig heart dissection field trip, where the lab instructions read to cut the pig heart in half like a bagel (a bagel??? not quite). I don’t know what it was about this lab that got the kids singing. Maybe it was being told that the pig heart is most similar in size and type to the human heart. Maybe it was just touching and holding an actual heart in their hands. Whatever it was, on the way home, they gave the six adults on that school bus a spontaneous dress rehearsal of their concert.

Though they sang loudly, they were not shouting the lyrics like many children their age do. And they were actually in tune with each other, which was very pleasing to the ear. The pure love and joy emanating from their voices completely lifted my spirits and I found myself unable to stop smiling, even while trying to sing along with them. That is the power of music; music is the messenger from the abode of the Heart.

So, I know what those elders felt like today. They were responding to these children giving so freely of themselves, singing directly from the Heart.

Thank you Park Forest Elementary for giving our children the opportunity to help other people in this way!

The Mother's Day Report Card: Acknowledging Invisible Labor

This spring, I watched with great pride and admiration as my children brought home stellar reports cards and received glowing remarks from their teachers; my husband received the same during his annual review at work. I am a stay-at-home mom now, after 14 years as a sociology professor, and I thought, “Where is my report card? When do mothers get evaluated and their good work acknowledged?”

So, this year for Mother’s Day, I have asked my family to make me a report card, to literally create one on the computer with all the pertinent categories (outlined below) and then give me some grade and a narrative report (I want the real deal!). Just coming up with the myriad categories for them to use was an instructive exercise for me; even I was unaware how much invisible labor I accomplish on a daily or weekly basis.

In any given family (or community or organization), it is wise to consider what works needs to get done for the household to run well and then divide it up fairly amongst family members. It seems best to play on people’s strengths and utilize their particular talents. This method works to some extent, but there is always a residual category that is called invisible labor, which includes repetitive tasks that are unpaid, usually undervalued, and most often done by women. Invisible labor is denoted as such because it goes largely unnoticed by those who benefit most from it. Invisible labor also includes mental and emotional work, which are inherently obscured.

Here is a list of examples of invisible labor: Remembering to make (and keep) doctor, dentist, eye doctor, and veterinary appointments for each member of the family; Arranging for playdates for children, and making time to get to know the parents/mothers of said playdates; Remembering that the car/van inspection is due this month and scheduling the appointment; Buying thank-you cards for teachers, grandparents, etc and then supervising children actually writing those thank you cards; Noticing that the cable bill is wrong and spending 25 minutes on hold waiting to talk to the cable company; Keeping up correspondence with out of town extended family members (sending out photos of kids; alternatively, updating the family blog); Reminding the children to take their vitamins, allergy medicine, etc; Sensing that something is wrong with your children at school, and spending an afternoon or two trying to figure out what it is.

Invisible labor alone deserves its own report card; the women who do invisible labor deserve to brought into the light and their work openly acknowledged as a important part of the running of any household (or any organization for that matter). Imagine for a minute what would happen if all the mothers in the world or women in general ceased- even for just ONE day- doing all their hidden tasks? I do not think it is too drastic to say that some households, communities, and organizations might literally stop functioning.

So, if you choose to make you mom a Mother’s Day Report card, here are some categories to consider (not in any particular order). Each category carries with it some invisible labor.
A) Food-related: cooking, grocery shopping, lunch-making or remembering to update lunch money at school.
B) Housecleaning: vacuum, dust, bathrooms, kitchen, basement, etc. etc.
C) Laundry: washing, putting away, changing sheets regularly.
D) Outside: gardening, growing food, herbs, flowers.
E) Health: scheduling doctor/dentist/eye doctor visits; taking children to them, scheduling exercise for family, cooking whole foods.
F) Stuff: buying household stuff (i.e. clothes for kids, towels for the bathroom), getting rid of stuff (i.e. organizing yard sales), cleaning out stuff.
G) Community Work: scheduling playdates, dinners with other families, making phone calls.
H) Activities: children’s sports, activities, family events, birthday parties.
I) Repairs: household, autos, items.
J) Vehicles: repair, maintenance, filling with gasoline.
K) Love: snuggling, reading books, playing catch.
L) Other: things that only your mother does.

Honor your mom or the women in your life today with a glowing report card! Better yet, decide which chores you can take over for her this year!