Natural Awakenings New Haven & Middlesex APRIL 2018

EE R F

HEALTHY

LIVING

Honoring Earth Day Local Events & Celebrations

NATURE’S MATRIX

Strengthening Connections to All Living Things

HEALTHY

PLANET

Animal Wisdom

Pets Can Teach Us If We Pay Attention

KIDS ¤ NATURE

They Thrive in Wilderness Programs

April 2018 | New Haven-Middlesex | NaturalNewHaven.com

April 2018

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April 2018

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letterfrompublisher

HEALTHY LIVING HEALTHY PLANET

“When we heal the earth, we heal ourselves.” ~David Orr

NEW HAVEN/ MIDDLESEX EDITION

Brenda Tate Photography

PUBLISHER Gail Heard EDITOR Ariana Rawls Fine DESIGN & PRODUCTION Gail Heard CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ariana Rawls Fine

Nicole Miale

Sheri Hatfield

SALES & MARKETING Gail Heard DISTRIBUTOR Man In Motion, LLC WEBSITE Chik Shank

CONTACT US PO Box 525 North Branford, CT 06471 Ph: 203-988-1808 • Fax: 203-488-8523 .NaturalNewHaven.com

NATIONAL TEAM CEO/FOUNDER Sharon Bruckman PRESIDENT Patrick McGroder

NATIONAL EDITOR Alison Chabonais

MANAGING EDITOR Linda Sechrist NATIONAL ART DIRECTOR Stephen Blancett SR. ART/MKTG. DIRECTOR Steve Hagewood FINANCIAL MANAGER Mary Bruhn FRANCHISE DIRECTOR Anna Romano FRANCHISE SUPPORT MGR. Heather Gibbs WEBSITE COORDINATOR Rachael Oppy NATIONAL ADVERTISING Kara Scofield Natural Awakenings Publishing Corporation 4933 Tamiami Trail N., Ste. 203 Naples, FL 34103 Ph: 239-434-9392 • Fax: 239-434-9513 NaturalAwakeningsMag.com

As you read through this month’s edition, you will notice the common theme in every article is healing—whether it is through our connection with other humans, through Mother Earth or our beloved animal friends.

We are all aware that these are volatile times, whether it involves the political process, speaking out for human and animal rights, activism for climate change, basic health care entitlements or public safety.

While these are all high priority issues, they cannot be resolved overnight, or as Einstein once said “cannot be solved with the level of thinking that created them.”

The good news is that chaos and pain is a stimulus for healing, which can be lifetransforming for ourselves and everything outside of us. The catch phrase: “You create your own reality” has lost a lot of its meaning and potency because of it overuse— yet it is true. As with any issue that seems insurmountable, we must first take a look at the filter through which we are examining the thing we want to change and ask ourselves why we want to change it. All healing begins with ourselves. Awareness of emotions that drive our thought process and actions will help to guide us toward that healing path.

This awareness is what gave birth to Natural Awakenings back in the early 90s and inspired 80 more publishers, including myself, to continue spreading the message of healing and wellness every month through this publication.

As with every issue, I feel so enthusiastic about our editorial features and upcoming local events that I want to call out each one of them. However, that would take up several pages and too much of your valuable time. Therefore, I will keep it simple my dear readers so you can begin enjoying all of our great reads, check out the practitioners and businesses that are local and accessible, and attend events that interest you.

Each moment is an opportunity for healing, growth and discovery. May this month’s treasure trove of possibilities inspire you to open your mind and heart and take in something new that will enhance your wellness and enliven your life.

And remember… Every day is Earth Day.

© 2018 by Natural Awakenings. All rights reserved.

Although some parts of this publication may be reproduced and reprinted, we require that prior permission be obtained in writing.

Natural Awakenings is a free publication distributed locally and is supported by our advertisers. Please call to find a location near you or if you would like copies placed at your business.

We do not necessarily endorse the views expressed in the articles and advertisements, nor are we responsible for the products and services advertised.

Check with a healthcare professional regarding the appropriate use of any treatment.

Natural Awakenings Magazine is ranked 5th Nationally in CISION’S® 2016 Top 10 Health & Fitness Magazines

Natural Awakenings is printed on recycled newsprint with soy-based ink.

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Happy Earth Month!

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Natural Awakenings is your guide to a healthier, more balanced life. In each issue readers find cutting-edge information on natural health, nutrition, fitness, personal growth, green living, creative expression and the products and services that support a healthy lifestyle.

Contents 16 NATURE’S MATRIX

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Strengthening Connections to All Living Things

20 HEALTHY CLIMATE, HEALTHY PEOPLE Why a Warming Planet is Harming Our Health

24 BELOW THE WATER LINE

How Human Noise Affects Ocean Life

26 TOUCHING THE EARTH The Healing Powers of Going Barefoot

28 WHAT TO LEARN

28

ABOUT LIVING

Pets Can Teach Us If We Pay Attention

30 HORSE WISDOM FOR LIFE

20 18

ADVERTISING & SUBMISSIONS

HOW TO ADVERTISE To advertise with Natural Awakenings or request a media kit, please contact us at 203-988-1808 or email Ads@naturalnewhaven.com. Deadline for ads: the 12th of the month.

EDITORIAL SUBMISSIONS Email articles, news items and ideas to: Gail@naturalnewhaven.com. Deadline for editorial: the 5th of the month.

CALENDAR SUBMISSIONS Submit Calendar Events online at: NaturalNewHaven.com.

Deadline for calendar: the 10th of the month.

REGIONAL MARKETS Advertise your products or services in multiple markets!

Natural Awakenings Publishing Corp. is a growing franchised family of locally owned magazines serving communities since 1994. To place your ad in other markets, call 239-434-9392. For franchising opportunities, call 239-530-1377 or visit NaturalAwakenings.com.

The Wisdom of Returning to Grazing

32 NATURE’S REMEDIES How Animals Self-Medicate

34 CHANGING OUR DIET TO COOL THE CLIMATE Good Food Choices Enable Global Health

36 INTO THE WOODS Nature Helps Kids Build Skills and Character

DEPARTMENTS 6 news briefs 10 health briefs 12 global briefs 14 eco tip 23 wise words 26 healing ways 32 natural pet

12 34 conscious

eating 36 healthy kids 38 calendar 42 classifieds 44 resource guide

April 2018

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news briefs

activities with center staff using the new Education Station trail.

Food and snacks will be available from local vendors. No park admission fee. All ages welcome. For more information, visit Facebook.com/Events/594589547586531. Location: Ansonia Nature and Recreation Center, 10 Deerfield Ln., Ansonia, CT.

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onnecticut organizations, communities and businesses are offering a wide array of Earth Day-related events that will inspire us to be, do and feel better. Here are a sampling from New Haven and Middlesex Counties: Earth Day Kirtan at Avant Garde On April 21 from 7:30-9 p.m., honor Mother Earth and enjoy the transformative power of chanting sacred mantras and songs in a group. The event includes the practice of kirtan, along with the sounds of the harmonium, tabla, guitar and didgeridoo. All are welcome. No music or singing experience necessary. The fee is $20 at the door. For more information and to reserve space, call 203-481-8443, email AvantGardeCT13@yahoo.com or visit Facebook.com/ Events/188170388436725. Location: Avant Garde Salon, Holistic Wellness Center & Boutique, 328 E Main St., Branford, CT. Earth Day Cleanup at Long Wharf Preserve Join Trailblazer, Patagonia New Haven and New Haven Land Trust for an Earth Day cleanup at the Long Wharf Nature Preserve on April 22 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. If volunteers want to bring their own gloves or extra trash pickers, they are welcome to. Bring a water bottle to stay hydrated. Meet at the preserve entrance on Long Wharf Drive (past the Vietnam Veterans Memorial). Parking is across the street where Long Wharf Drive curves under the highway. For more information, visit Facebook.com/Events/173761143255582. Location: Long Wharf Nature Preserve, Long Wharf Dr., New Haven, CT. Earth Day Community Ceremony This Earth Day gather your family and friends to honor the Earth, reconnect to the rhythms of nature, and celebrate being human on this Earth on April 22 at 1 p.m. Mona Moon opens with a ceremony calling in the directions, and honoring the plant and animal teachers in our local ecosystem. There will be a brief wisdom teaching, yogic movement (accessible for all levels), a grounding meditation and a communal Earth altar.

Kelli Joy will lead a traditional fire ceremony. Bring something to sit on, a water bottle, drums, rattles and dance spirit.

Suggested donation is $15 a family. All proceeds go to support The Sanctuary. For information, visit Facebook.com/ Events/143077493025443. Location: The Sanctuary, 59 Bogel Rd., East Haddam, CT. Every Day is Earth Day in Ansonia On April 28 at 10 a.m.-3 p.m., you are invited to honor Mother Earth with the Friends of the Ansonia Nature Center co-hosting this annual Earth Day celebration. Enjoy hikes, live animals, environmental exhibitors, music and more. Join in interactive

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Rocking the Cycling for Rock to Rock 2018

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xplore New Haven by bicycle during the 10th Annual Rock to Rock Earth Day Ride on April 28 with events taking place from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Families, college students, serious riders and weekend warriors are all part of Rock to Rock. There will be a new 5-mile family parade route, complete with banners, floats and more. The routes include 12-mile, 20-mile, 40-mile and metric century options.

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Celebrating Earth Day

All adult riders are asked to set a fundraising goal of $100 or more. A special 10th anniversary bonus fund, created by MFUNd with support from Faxon Law Group, will add $10 for every $50 raised. When you collect pledges, you choose to support any one of over 20 organizations, all working to create a greener and healthier community. Registration fees support the organizing partners who make Rock to Rock run, including Common Ground, Urban Resources Initiative, New Haven-Leon Sister City Project, CitySeed, Inc. and New Haven Parks Department.

Rock to Rock is New Haven’s biggest Earth Day celebration.

Cyclists travel from West Rock and East Rock with celebrations on both sides of the city. Along the way, eat tasty food, hear music, take on environmental service projects, and explore the city’s parks and neighborhoods.

In 2017, 1,177 riders raised $185,000 for more than two dozen local organizations. Over the last nine years, you have helped raise nearly $1 million.

For more information and to register, visit RocktoRock.

DonorDrive.com. Location: Common Ground High School, Urban Farm, and Environmental Education Center, 358 Springside Ave., New Haven, CT.

news briefs

Benefit for Clean Up East Haven and Earth Day Event

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njoy yoga, coffee and community at One World Open Studio, which takes place 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on April 22. The event offers unique opportunities to try different aspects of yoga or meditation, holistic health modalities, and other healing practices. Classes are easy, fun and great for beginners. After class, meet volunteers of Clean Up East Haven and sample coffees in the One World Cafe. At 1 p.m., participate in a community clean up along Foxon Road in honor of Earth Day.

The open studio schedule starts with a flowing warm-up sequence, longer postures and breath work at 9 a.m. with Yang Yin yoga. At 9:45 a.m., Thai yoga will help you safely and easily stretch with assistance from an instructor or partner. Yoga nidra is the practice of complete and total relaxation. Take a guided inner journey at 10:30 a.m. There will be a specialty coffee tasting by One World Roasters at 11:15 a.m., followed by a buffet luncheon at noon.

All activities are donation-based. Proceeds go to Clean Up East Haven, a community group that cares about East Haven and environment.

Location: One World Wellness & Yoga, 967 North High St., East Haven, CT. For more information and to register, call 203-998-5688 or visit OneWorld-Wellness.com.

Branford Home to New Salon

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wner Paul Vincent Rapisarda is opening up his Bellissima Capelli Salon in Branford, Connecticut. Rapisarda is of Italian descent and the second generation stylist in his family. A grand opening will be held during the first week of April (date and time TBA; Visit website: BellissimaCapelli.com Paul Vincent Rapisarda for details).

The salon is offering organic hair color, products and treatments, including coloring, styling, precision haircuts, intensive conditioning treatments, smoothing treatments, makeup and men’s services.

Bellissima Capelli Salon’s hours are Tuesday and Wednesday from 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Thursday from 10 a.m.-7 p.m., Friday from 10 a.m.-8 p.m., and Saturday from 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. It is closed on Sunday and Monday.

For more information, call 203-208-2691 or visit BellissimaCapelli.com. Location: 607 West Main St., Branford, CT. See ad on page 11.

Thousands of Years of Food Wisdom in Twelve Months

The Institute of Sustainable Nutrition

Offering a One-Year Certification Program in Sustainable Health & Nutrition This Innovative School Integrates the Science of Nutrition with:

Practicing Sustainable Gardening Methods

Preparing Traditional Kitchen Medicine

Learning Kitchen Culinary Skills

Identifying Nutrient-rich Wild Plants

Embark on this life-altering journey and be part of the movement to change the paradigm of our food for future generations. Join our experienced staff one weekend a month as you use hands-on education to delve into and explore diverse aspects of how food and herbs enhance the health of your clients, friends, family, yourself and the environment.

Now accepting applications for 2018 -19 | Call 860-764-9070 today! | West Granby, CT | www.tiosn.com April 2018

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news briefs

Learning Healing at Emei Qigong Event

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he Healing Arts of Emei Qigong presents the three-day Level 1 Seminar April 21-23 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The seminar provides an affordable way to immerse yourself in the practice of Emei Qigong, an ancient methodology for healing self and others. Patricia Bolger, Emei Qigong master, who has

if physical therapy might alleviate your symptoms. If these times are not convenient, call to schedule another time.

There are many causes of foot pain, including flat arches, excessively high arches, neuropathy, tendinitis and arthritis.

The foot and ankle contain 26 bones; 33 joints; and over 100 tendons, ligaments and muscles.

For more information and to register for the screening, call 203-315-7727. Location: Physical Therapy Services of Guilford, 500 East Main St., Ste. 310, Branford, CT. See ad on page 29.

Psychotherapy Practice Opens in Guilford

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ancy Butler, MSW, LCSW, is expanding her practice to the shoreline by opening a new psychotherapy office in Guilford, Connecticut. She specializes in work with couples,

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For more information and preregistration, call 203-500-6492 or visit EmeiQigongChan.com. Location: Holistic Therapies Classroom, 15 South Elm St., Wallingford, CT.

Complimentary Foot Screening Offered

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or those experiencing foot pain, it can limit your ability to be on your feet and get things done.

On April 10 and 24 from 4-5 p.m., Phyllis Quinn, PT, will be offering complimentary, 10-minute screenings to examine your feet, hear your concerns and help determine

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offering couples therapy, weekend therapy intensives for individual couples and communication coaching. She also works with physicians, healthcare professionals and those in high performance careers.

Butler’s background includes 25 years as a therapist, consultant, coach and retreat facilitator.

For more information and to make an appointment, call 860-767-0281. See ad on page 44.

Introducing the Family to Organic Gardening

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n Tuesdays from April 24 through June 19, take part in Ansonia Nature and Recreation Center’s Family Organic Garden Program. It will be held from 3:30-5 p.m. with fun, family-friendly activities in the center’s organic garden. Learn about growing a variety of fruits and vegetables. Dress appropriately as you will get water and/or soil on your clothing. The weekly events are free with the potential to take home fresh local produce.

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24 years experience in the Asian healing arts, teaches this seminar. There is also an optional group healing ($30 fee) on April 22 from 3:45-4:45 p.m.

According to Bolger, a majority of students experience immediate health benefits, reflecting the effectiveness of Emei Qigong. Students also report an increase in subtle awareness, intuitive abilities and gain a sense of peacefulness. This allows participants to transform difficult relationships by directing their feelings and actions using the concepts learned in first level.

Wuji Gong, the gentle but potent qigong form learned in Level 1, enables students to generate and store qi and restore health. The classes also introduce a heart-centered philosophy that allows students to clear negative emotions and events from the past to present. For those working with others, Emei techniques protect the practitioner while treating clients. There will be class time for questions, practice and application.

The three-day course is $99 a person. Continuing education credits can be provided on request for NCBTMB.

news briefs For more information, visit Facebook.com/ Events/869956719858610. Location: Ansonia Nature and Recreation Center, 10 Deerfield Ln., Ansonia, CT.

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Accepting Ourselves and Our Strength as Women

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ome join and feel the healing power of deep acceptance at the Women’s Self-Acceptance Circle on April 12 from 6-8 p.m. in Cheshire, Connecticut. Learn about self-care rituals to nourish your soul and celebrate your inner goddess.

You will learn about breath work, yoga, mindfulness and meditation. Empowerment exercises will help you to cultivate self-acceptance and self-compassion. Explore how to be courageous, awake and present with kind attention to thoughts and feelings. Use natural and man-made materials to create soulful expressions.

Nicole Kroeber is a licensed psychotherapist and yoga teacher.

She has an extensive yoga, mindfulness and expressive arts background.

The fee for the class is $45. Registration is required on the website.

For more information and to register, visit NicoleKroeber.com or Facebook.com/Events/167954744015219. Location: Nicole Kroeber Holistic Psychotherapy Services, 288 Highland Ave., Ste. 301, Cheshire, CT.

Understanding Family Constellations

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n April 17 at 6:30 p.m., Holistic Moms Network’s New Haven County chapter will host a presentation on family constellations in Milford. Many of us subconsciously take on destructive patterns of anxiety, depression, broken relationships,

divorce, anger, guilt, loneliness, grief, drug abuse, alcoholism and even diseases as a way of being a part of our family system. Constellations have the power to aid us in breaking these patterns and opening up our hearts to healing.

Linda Palmieri, MFT, has used family constellations, Gestalt therapy, systemic family therapy and Reiki with her own family to deal with pain due to autism, ADHD, anxiety, grief and more.

When she did family constellations, Gestalt and energy healing with her own therapist, her family’s lives changed for the better.

She was inspired to become a marriage and family therapist with a Gestalt therapy certification, family systemic constellations and trauma schooling, and advanced Reiki training.

Holistic Moms Network is a nonprofit support and discussion network that welcomes all people wherever they are on the holistic path in an environment that does not judge. The member chapter, open to the public, meets the third Tuesday of each month at the Woodruff Family YMCA, 631 Orange Avenue, Milford, Connecticut. Children are welcome.

For more information, visit HolisticMoms.org or Facebook.com/ HMNNewHaven.

Massachusetts Medium Visits Monroe

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ave you ever wanted to talk to someone on the other side? Is there someone who has passed to whom you never got to say good bye?

On Sunday, April 22 from 1 to 4pm, June Edward, “The Massachusetts Medium”, will hold A Night on the Other Side Mediumship Gallery in Monroe.

Edward is a psychic medium who has mentored many people trying to find their way back in life, as well as people in high profile positions of power seeking advice and direction.

June Edward She can help bridge the gap between the two worlds, helping individuals connect with departed loved ones, receive important information, facilitate people in the process of passing, and discover what lessons are to be learned in this life based on past life experiences.

Edward also reads Akashic records, angel cards and destiny cards. She performs cord cutting and house clearings and is a Certified Reiki Master. She works by phone and skype for clients who are not local.

For more information about June Edward, visit JuneEdward. com. For tickets: Eventbrite.com/e/a-night-on-the-other-sidemediumship-gallery-tickets-43757088630?aff=es2 Location: Masonic Temple Washington Lodge, 1 Fan Hill Rd, Monroe.

See ad on page 39.

April 2018

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health briefs

Whole Grains Help Us Eat Less DeryaDraws /Shutterstock.com

When overweight adults exchange refined grain products such as white bread and pasta for whole-grain equivalents, they tend to feel full sooner, eat less, lose weight and experience a reduction in inflammation, the journal Gut reports. Researchers from Denmark’s National Food Institute and the University of Copenhagen studying 50 adults at risk for Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease found that test volunteers realized these benefits by eating whole grains, and rye in particular.

Ingesting a combination of five herbs while making healthy lifestyle changes significantly reduced symptoms of polycystic ovary syndrome in a recent Australian study of 122 women published in Phytotherapy Research.

The herbs were Cinnamomum verum (cinnamon), Glycyrrhiza glabra (licorice), Hypericum perforatum (St. John’s wort), Paeonia lactiflora (peony) and Tribulus terrestris (tribulus).

Menstrual cycles returned to normal duration for 55 percent of the women, and significant improvements occurred in body mass index, pregnancy rates, hormones, insulin sensitivity and blood pressure. Subjects also exhibited less depression, anxiety and stress.

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High-Fat Diet Risks Multiple Sclerosis Relapse A high-fat diet increases the risk of relapse of multiple sclerosis in children by as much as 56 percent, reports The Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry.

A multi-university study of 219 children also found that each 10 percent increase in saturated fat as a share of total calories tripled the risk of relapse. Inversely, each additional cup of vegetables per week cut the risk of the disease by 50 percent.

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Herbs Ease Polycystic Ovary Symptoms

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Less REM-Stage Sleep Linked to Dementia Risk

Susane Grasso

People that get less rapid eye movement (REM) sleep may have a greater risk of developing dementia, according to a new study published in Neurology. Following 321 people over age 60 for 12 years, Australian researchers found that those that developed dementia spent an average of 17 percent of their sleep time in REM sleep, compared to 20 percent for others. It also took them longer to get to that dream-generating stage.

REIKI MASTER

Nature Videos Calm Prisoners

Luis Louro /Shutterstock.com

Maximum-security prison inmates in Oregon that spent an hour a day for a year watching nature videos were involved in 26 percent fewer violent acts compared with fellow inmates, and reported feeling significantly calmer, less irritable and more empathetic. The University of Utah study, published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, states, “An estimated 5.3 million Americans live or work in nature-deprived venues. Such removal from nature can result in an ‘extinction of experience’ that can further lead to disinterest or disaffection toward natural settings, or even biophobia (fear of the natural environment). People that infrequently or never spend time in nature will be deprived of the numerous physical and emotional benefits that contact with nature affords.”

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April 2018

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Clear Gain

A study published in the journal Science found that forests across Asia, Latin America and Africa release 468 tons of carbon per year, equivalent to nearly 10 percent of the annual U.S. carbon footprint.

Thus, tropical forests may no longer be acting as carbon sinks and could be releasing more carbon than they store.

Lead author Alessandro Baccini, with the Woods Hole Research Center, in Massachusetts, says, “These findings provide the world with a wake-up call on forests. If we’re to keep global temperatures from rising to dangerous levels, we need to drastically reduce emissions and greatly increase forests’ ability to absorb and store carbon.”

Researchers think nearly 70 percent of this loss of carbon storage capacity is caused by small-scale degradation from logging, drought and wildfire. Researchers say that policies to curb deforestation, reduce degradation and restore the integrity of the land could turn forests back into carbon sinks.

Distributed Power Energy Users Control Own Supplies

Some municipalities spend between 20 and 40 percent of their annual budgets on the energy needed to operate wastewater treatment plants. The city of Thousand Oaks, California, has transformed their biggest energy user into an energy generator.

Across the U.S., energy users of all sizes are taking control of their power supply and relieving stress from the grid.

That’s the idea behind distributed energy. Atlantic Re:think and Siemens have partnered to explore this burgeoning energy revolution. View a video at Tinyurl.com/ TheThousandOaksSolution.

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Solar energy is now the cheapest form of new energy in dozens of countries, with record-setting solar farms being built worldwide. Researchers have been investigating ways to make transparent solar panels that resemble glass that could be used as window panels at the same time as converting the light that shines on them into electricity.

“Highly transparent solar cells represent the wave of the future for new solar applications,” explains materials scientist Richard Lunt, Ph.D., from Michigan State University. “We analyzed their potential and show that by harvesting only invisible light, these devices have the potential of generating a similar amount of electricity as rooftop solar while providing additional functionality to enhance the efficiency of buildings, automobiles and mobile electronics.”

As reported in Nature Energy, his team has developed a transparent, luminescent, solar concentrator that looks like clear glass, covered in small, organic molecules adept at capturing only ultraviolet and near-infrared wavelengths of light. The visible light that enables human vision isn’t obstructed, so we can see through the cell. If scaled up to cover the billions of square feet of glass surfaces throughout the U.S., it could potentially supply about 40 percent of our country’s energy needs.

SVIATLANA SHEINAtterstock.com

Tropical Forests Releasing Excess Carbon

Dirk Ercken/Shutterstock.com

‘Sink’ Setback

Window-Like Solar Cells Could Power 40 Percent of U.S. Needs

Scientists’ Security

France Welcomes Beleaguered Climate Researchers

French President Emmanuel Macron awarded 18 climate scientists from the U.S. and elsewhere millions of euros in grants to relocate to his country for the rest of Donald Trump’s presidential term. Macron’s “Make Our Planet Great Again” grants are meant to counter Trump’s intent on the climate change front following his declaration to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate accord.

One winner, Camille Parmesan, of the University of Texas at Austin, who is working at an experimental ecology station in the Pyrenees charting how human-made climate change is affecting wildlife, says that in the U.S., “You are having to hide what you do.”

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global briefs

Transforming Plastics

action alert

schankz/Shutterstock.com Peter Bernik/Shutterstock.com

Mobile Trashpresso Turns Trash into Tiles

UK furniture and design company Pentatonic has invented the Trashpresso, a solar-powered, mini-recycling plant that transforms plastic waste into usable architectural tiles. Pentatonic doesn’t use raw goods that create excess waste because they are committed to using materials for their products that incorporate some element of recycling, says co-founder Johann Bodecker.

They want their products to be reusable, too, so they don’t use glues, resins, paints or formaldehydes to create them, a philosophy that influences all company decisions.

The Trashpresso can be used in offthe-grid places where traditional recycling plants would be impractical. It sorts, shreds and compresses trash into plastic fibers to create fully formed tiles. The invention has attracted the attention of companies that want to reduce their own contribution to plastic waste and ocean pollution. Starbucks UK, for example, has commissioned Pentatonic to turn their coffee shop waste into furniture, including bean bag chairs produced from plastic bottles and cups.

Top Polluters

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Just 100 Companies Emit Most Global Emissions

In July 2017, historic new research from environmental nonprofit CDP, in collaboration with the Climate Accountability Institute, revealed in The Carbon Majors Report that 71 percent of all global greenhouse gas emissions since 1988 can be traced to just 100 fossil fuel producers. It’s the first in a series of planned publications to improve transparency and highlight the role companies and their investors could play in tackling climate change.

Offenders ExxonMobil, Shell, BP and Chevron are among the highest-emitting investor-owned companies. If fossil fuels continue to be extracted at the same rate for the next 28 years as they were between 1988 and 2017, global average temperatures would be on course to rise by 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of this century, likely causing catastrophic consequences, including substantial species extinction and global food scarcity risks.

Read the report at Tinyurl.com/ CarbonTop100List.

Sway Congress Save Wild Horses Campaign Update

The Trump Administration’s Fiscal Year 2019 budget again calls on Congress to lift long-standing prohibitions on the destruction and slaughter of wild horses and burros. The budget seeks to cut approximately $14 million of the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management Wild Horse and Burro Program by selling as many as 90,000 federally protected American mustangs for slaughter to avoid management costs and supply foreign markets with horsemeat.

So far, citizens have held the line in favor of America’s iconic equine heritage. As Congress discusses appropriations for 2019, we must continue to press our senators and representatives to stand with the 80 percent of Americans that demand protection for these animals.

Make your voice heard today via the online form at Tinyurl.com/ SaveWildHorsesNow.

Horses make a landscape look beautiful. ~Alice Walker April 2018

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cover artist

schankz/Shutterstock.com

Jacob_09/Shutterstock.com

eco tip

Burrowing Owl Stephen Blancett

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over artist Stephen Blancett has been making art since childhood, but his style and subjects are ever-evolving. Animals are a new favorite subject of the artist, who typically paints both abstracts and figures portrayed realistically in form, but in bold, unreal colors. “I’ve always had a love for animals,” says Blancett, a resident of Alva, Florida. “I see a lot more wildlife now that I live near a river, especially fish, manatees and alligators, which inspires me to paint them.”

Burrowing Owl was commissioned for a fundraiser for Abuse Counseling & Treatment (ACT), an organization that assists victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. “It’s a great reward to know that my art benefits another person in some way,” says Blancett, a longtime supporter of ACT.

A former creative director in the advertising and publishing fields with a degree from the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, Blancett serves as national art director for Natural Awakenings. His work has been featured in numerous publications and galleries around the world, including recent exhibitions in Miami, London, Vienna and Strasbourg.

Visit the artist’s portfolio at Blancett.gallery.

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We Need Trees

Arbor Day More Vital Now than Ever

The 147th annual Arbor Day on April 27 encourages tree planting worldwide to replenish lost tree cover including trees wiped out in the recent fires in California and hurricanes in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico. The Arbor Day Foundation (ADF) is committed to providing 5 million trees in these areas alone. More than 3,400 U.S. communities will participate as an ADF Tree City. Visit Tinyurl.com/USATreeCityDirectory for a current list and criteria for new communities to apply.

The ADF Alliance for Community Trees (ACTrees.org) supports treegrowing programs for 200 nonprofit member groups nationwide via funding, information sharing and forging helpful connections. Trees are much more than aesthetics, says Program Manager Dana Karcher, who most recently welcomed Community Greening, in Delray Beach, Florida, and Outdoor Circle, in Hawaii, into the fold. “Trees clean the air, are a habitat for animals, retain storm water and more.” An affiliated nonprofit program online at NeighborWoodsMonth.org encourages tree planting each October.

Billings, Montana, earned the latest Arbor Day Celebration Award after 12 elementary schools there engaged in environmental education stations and 180 volunteers planted and pruned trees. Other recent biannual award winners included California’s ReLeaf program and the Atlanta Beltline Arboretum.

The need was great even before the world’s forests lost 73.4 million acres of tree cover in 2016, a 51 percent increase over 2015, due to poor forest management, climate change-driven drought and fires, says Global Forest Watch.

Hopeful global signs: The largest-ever tropical reforestation project in the Brazilian Amazon aims to plant 73 million trees in the next six years on 70,000 acres. A New Zealand participation goal for the Billion Trees Planting Programme targets planting 100 million trees annually for a decade. In July 2017, volunteers in Madhya Pradesh, India, planted 66,750,000 tree saplings in 12 hours, exceeding the previous record by Uttar Pradesh of 50 million in 24 hours, as part of India’s reforestation pledge of 2 billion new trees by 2030.

A $10 annual ADF membership fee includes 10, six-inch-tall seedlings to plant or to donate to a national forest. Karcher’s paramount planting tip: “Dig the hole twice as wide and the same depth of the root ball. If it’s too deep, it’ll suffocate. Give roots space to grow.”

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Nature’s Matrix

Strengthening Connections to All Living Things

by Brook Adams Law

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any humans begin to feel more alive as the longer days and warmer air of spring invigorate us. This “waking up” we often experience during this time of year is a metaphor for the journey of “waking up” in a larger sense. At some level, we remember that humanity is in fact just one part of the rhythm of nature, connected to the earth and to all living things. Humans, animals, plants and minerals are all intricately interconnected though modern life has separated many of us from that reality.

“We’ve largely lost connection with the sacredness and beauty of life. We’re no longer participants in the flow of life; we’re consumers of it,” says Justin Pegnataro, executive director of Two Coyotes Wilder16

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ness School, which operates in Newtown, West Granby and Killingworth. The stress of work and modern demands—such as paying the mortgage, raising children in a competitive world and the distractions available via technology—can make it difficult to connect with nature in the deep way that our ancestors once did.

We live in a crucial time for life on this planet; it cannot continue as it currently stands. “Humans today, particularly in North America, are living a totally unsustainable lifestyle, but we’re insulated from [the repercussions of] it,” says Pegnataro.

Freshwater is being consumed at a faster rate than it can be renewed. The U.S. comprises 4.4 percent of the world’s population, yet is currently responsible for 18

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percent of the world’s total primary energy consumption. Climate change is causing melting glaciers, rising sea levels, weather extremes, ocean acidification and heavier rainfall, all of which can have catastrophic consequences for life everywhere.

The call to action is clear: humans must live differently if we are to continue to live on the planet. But how do we begin?

The first step may be to reconnect with nature. About 80 percent of Americans live in urban or suburban areas today, yet humans as a species have spent about 95 percent of their time on the planet as hunter-gatherers living in close connection with the earth. Modern life as lived today can create feelings of disconnection and isolation. Reconnecting with nature

helps us rediscover our truer, wilder selves; it also helps us give back to the natural world we are a part of.

“What really feeds and nourishes the human soul is our connection to each other and to the more-than-human natural world,” says Pegnataro.

Once we’ve reconnected with the earth and all living beings on a physical and energetic level, we can then begin to practice more sustainable living from that place of connection. Some local experts provided some wisdom on how to both reconnect with nature and practice more sustainable living.

Give Gratitude to the Natural World

We take so much in our life for granted, especially the natural wonders that surround us.

“We look at the sun and we take it for granted,” says Jessica Hunter, a shamanic practitioner in Bridgeport. “Yet it provides warmth for the planet, light and the ability for life to flourish so we have food and shelter.”

Creating a ritual that conveys our gratitude to the natural world can re-ground us in a space of thankfulness. It can be as simple as looking up to the sun and thinking words of gratitude and appreciation, or it may be a more complex process.

“Come from a place where you can make a ritual that’s personalized to you,” Hunter recommends. “What is truly coming from your heart? Touch into your feelings. The best way to connect with nature is from your own spirit.”

Deana Paqua, a teacher of spiritual and holistic health in Ridgefield, teaches a concept from the traditional teachings of the Andes, called “Ayni”, which means sacred reciprocity.

“In our contemporary culture, we ‘take’ on a grand scale from the Earth and do not give back as a regular conscious practice,” says Paqua. She suggests leaving an offering whenever we take something from the earth. “Offerings can be something as simple as a flower, a small crystal, a piece of hair or seeds. Whether you take a stone during a walk, a shell from the beach, fresh produce from the garden or some

flower clippings, say a few words or a short prayer of gratitude, and leave your offering in the spot of your choosing.”

Mindfully Reconnect with Nature

Each week, spend unplugged, quiet time in nature.

“We’re not separate from nature; we’re a part of it,” reminds Hunter. It is easy to forget that since our lifestyles create artificial separation from nature. Even when we do leave our house or office, we’re often driving, on the phone, listening to music or simply wrapped up in our own thoughts; we don’t notice the world around us.

Hunter recommends simply focusing our energy on the outside world when we want to reconnect with nature. “Sit near a body of water, and smell it, taste it and spend time appreciating it. Take a moment to feel the sun on your face. Even if you live in an urban area, nature is intermingled everywhere. Take the time to appreciate the bird that sits outside your window.”

Pegnataro suggests similarly simple actions, including going out into nature and having a cup of tea or running outside barefoot in the morning grass. “It just might be the doorway to begin a different kind of conversation,” he says.

Set Up Bird Feeders

Even during winter when we often spend more time inside, bird feeders can bring nature to us.

“Feeders aren’t necessarily for the birds,” says Patrick Comins, executive director of the Connecticut Audubon Society. “The feeders are actually for your enjoyment—they’re for you to see the birds and connect with them.”

Comins suggests keeping a list of the birds seen at the feeders and involving every member of the family. Every year is different; a feeder may attract a certain species one year that won’t return for 20 years. “That’s the great thing about nature,” he says. “You can step out your door and find something new every single day.”

Seeing birds up close can help us to better appreciate them, which may prompt us to take additional actions to protect them

and their habitat.

Plant an Organic Garden

Whether in raised beds in a suburban backyard or in pots on the windowsill of a city apartment, planting an organic garden brings us back in touch with dirt and living, growing things.

“Being able to grow something you can eat and sustain is an important part of getting back in touch with nature,” says Hunter. “Plants are a huge part of our planet and a crucial part of sustainability for us.”

Growing our own food decreases our carbon footprint and increases our sense of connection to our ancestors, reminding us that all life is linked. If we add composting food waste to our practices, we can use that compost to feed our garden, seeing the cycle of life even more clearly.

Practice Sustainable Living

Once we’re more firmly rooted in our connection to the earth and all living things, we can move from that place of connection and begin to take action to protect the environment.

“When I hear people say, ‘Just throw that away,’ I always say, there is no ‘away’,” says Daphne Dixon, executive director and cofounder of Norwalk-based Live Green. “The water we’re drinking today is the water that the dinosaurs drank.

There’s no new water and there’s no ‘away.’”

She recommends a practice called “materials management”, or recognizing that everything is material. “I always try to have an awareness of an ideal life cycle for everything.”

Once Dixon finishes using something, she considers the best next phase for that material, whether it’s recycling, donating or reusing it for a different purpose.

Consciously working to decrease the trash we throw “away” is a crucial practice for creating a more sustainable lifestyle.

Conserve Electricity

In North America, we continue to use nonrenewable resources at an unsustainable pace. Simply conserving electricity can go a long way.

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Upcoming Spring Events

Connecticut’s Largest Earth Day Festival Presented by: Pomperaug River Watershed Coalition

WOODBURY EARTH DAY FESTIVAL Over 100 Vendors and Exhibitors l Live Music Food Trucks l Earth-Friendly Activities Raffle l Crafts l Fun For ALL Ages!

Sat. April 21, 2018 l 11 AM to 4 PM Hollow Park, Woodbury, CT Free Admission / Parking l Rain or Shine www.woodburyearthday.org 18

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Companies like HE Energy Solutions complete home energy audits. Their technicians analyze the current use of energy in the home and then replace light bulbs with LEDs, plug holes in baseboards to preserve heat, switch shower heads to low-flow, and add weather strips to doors and more. These measures will lower our footprint while also saving us money on utilities.

Be a Conservationist in Your Own Backyard

“If you have a backyard, landscape a component for birds and wildlife,” says Comins. He recommends creating a nectar garden for butterflies, native bees and other pollinators. Utilizing native plants will benefit more species of birds and insects than non-native ones. Keeping the lawn as chemical-free as possible encourages birds and wildlife. Likewise, creating some structure in the lawn—plants and flowers that help birds transition from the grass up to the tallest trees—can be beneficial.

“Moving from low plants like violets to knee-highs like coneflowers to plants that are waist-high provide cover and foraging areas for birds,” Comins says.

Connect with Local Organizations

Getting involved with local organizations can help us become more active and engaged in our communities. Many local environmental and conservationist groups are banding together to contribute to hands-on projects and advocacy campaigns that can help our actions go much farther than each group might alone.

“In the end, life is going to continue on this planet,” Pegnataro says. “How can humanity responsibly be part of this community of life? How can we ensure the health and wellbeing of future generations of human beings and other beings, too?”

This is the work we are being called to do at this moment in time.

How will we answer?

Brooke Adams Law is a freelance health and parenting writer based in Stratford.

Connect at BrookeAdamsLaw.com.

You can print money to bail out a bank, but you can’t print life to bail out a planet. ~ Paul Hawken

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April 2018

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Why a Warming Planet is Harming Our Health

by Lisa Marshall

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amantha Ahdoot’s son Isaac was 9 years old when he collapsed from the heat while playing clarinet at band camp. It had been a record-hot summer following a mild winter and early spring, and Dr. Ahdoot, an Alexandria, Virginia, pediatrician, had already noticed a string of unusual cases: A toddler had contracted Lyme disease in the once tick-free region of Northern Maine. A teenager had suffered an asthma attack in February, a full month before she usually started taking allergy medicine. A displaced grade-schooler from out of town arrived traumatized after fleeing a hurricane-ravaged home with her family. But it wasn’t until she saw her son laying on a gurney in the emergency room with an IV in his arm that she fully connected the dots.

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“I was aware that the weather had changed a lot since I was kid. But it really didn’t hit home until that day that climate change could affect my health and the health of my children personally,” recalls Ahdoot. “I realized it would be a betrayal of my duty as a pediatrician to sit back and do nothing about it.”

Health Care Alert

Ahdoot, now a vocal climate change activist, is among a growing number of healthcare professionals that have begun to reframe climate change not as a concern for elsewhere or the future, but as a pressing U.S. public

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Ase/Shutterstock.com Boris Ryaposov/Shutterstock.com

Healthy Climate, Healthy People

health issue today. In one recent survey of 1,200 allergists, 48 percent said climate change is already affecting their patients a “great deal” or a “moderate amount.” In another survey of lung specialists, 77 percent said they were seeing patient symptoms grow more severe due to worsening climate-related air quality.

In a sweeping review published last October in The Lancet medical journal, a team of healthcare professionals proclaimed that the human symptoms of climate change are “unequivocal and potentially irreversible,” noting that since 2000, the number of people in the United States exposed to heat waves annually has risen by about 14.5 million, and the number of natural disasters annually has increased 46 percent.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also begun to weigh in with a Climate-Ready States and Cities Initiative to help local health departments brace for everything from the hazardous air quality associated with more forest fires to the spread of vector-borne diseases like Zika and West Nile as the range and season of mosquitoes and ticks expands.

Meanwhile, groups like the newly formed and expansive Medical Society Consortium on Climate & Health, to which Ahdoot belongs, are being proactive. Its doctors are greening their offices, swapping cars for bikes, buses or carpooling, lobbying lawmakers and encouraging their patients to undertake measures to prevent the problem from worsening. In the process, they say, they might even improve their own health.

“We want the public to understand that climate change is not just about polar bears or receding glaciers in the Arctic, but also about our children and our health here and now,” says Ahdoot.

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Flora and Fauna Issues

During the past century, average temperatures have increased between 1.3 and 1.9 degrees Fahrenheit, with annual increases accelerating in recent years as 2012, 2015, 2016 and 2017 all set records for ambient heat. Such rising temperatures, combined with increased rain and record-high atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, can have a significant impact on plants— both those that irritate or nourish us, says Howard Frumkin, a medical doctor who co-authored the Lancet report and teaches environmental and occupational health sciences at the University of Washington, in Seattle.

Wild, allergy-inducing plants like ragweed and poison ivy are flourishing.

Poison ivy is growing faster, larger and more toxic as excess carbon prompts it to produce more of its rash-inducing compound, urushiol. “We are seeing the season for ragweed productivity expanding, with pollen levels rising higher and earlier and lasting longer by several weeks,” advises Frumkin. In 2016, residents of Minneapolis, Minnesota, endured a ragweed season that was 21 days longer than in 1990. Other, desirable crops, like grains, do worse in hotter carbonrich climes, producing less protein and other nutrients, Frumkin notes.

Meanwhile, bugs are thriving, with longer seasons and wider ranges in which to reproduce.

Mosquitoes’ capacity to transmit dengue fever— the world’s fastest-growing mosquitoborne illness—has risen by 11 percent since 1950, more than half of that just since 1990, according to the Lancet report. Further, the tick that carries Lyme disease is now present in 46 percent of U.S. counties, up from 30 percent in 1998. “My physician colleagues used to treat two or three cases a month during tick season,” says Dr. Nitin Damle, a physician at South County Internal Medicine, in Wakefield, Rhode Island.

Five Steps to Take Today

1

Swap tailpipes for pedals: Bike or walk instead of driving, especially for distances of less than two miles, which comprise 40 percent of all car trips.

A study in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives found that if everyone did this in just 11 cities in the Midwest, not only would carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions fall, but it would extend 1,300 lives and save $8 billion in healthcare costs due to better air quality and less sedentary lifestyles.

2

Eat less red meat: Producing

red meat results in five times more climate-warming emissions per calorie than chicken, pork, dairy or eggs, according to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. It also creates 11 times more emissions than the production of potatoes, wheat or rice.

Eating less red meat can also decrease an individual’s risk of certain cancers.

3

Encourage hospitals and doctors’ offices to go green:

The healthcare system is responsible

“Now each of us sees 40 to 50 new cases each season.”

Heat Pollution

Rising heat can also aggravate lung conditions because it promotes the production of ozone, a major lung irritant. With prolonged heat often come wildfires. When one burned for three months in North Carolina in a recent summer, researchers discovered that residents of counties affected by the smoke plume showed a 50 percent increase in emergency trips due to respiratory illness.

Like Isaac, more kids are ending up in hospitals due to soaring temperatures, with U.S. emergency room visits for heat illnesses up by 133 percent between 1997 and 2006. Ahdoot recalls a young football player from Arkansas that showed signs of weakness and fatigue during practice, but wasn’t treated right away. He ended

for about 10 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions, according to a recent study by researchers at the Yale School of Medicine, in New Haven, Connecticut. Boston-area hospitals recently slashed their overall emissions by 29 percent in five years.

4

Plant more trees: As they grow, trees remove carbon dioxide from the air. Being around green space has also been shown to boost mental and cognitive health.

5

Show compassion: Americans,

per capita, emit six times more CO2 than the global average, according to research by Jonathan Patz, a medical doctor who directs the Global Health Institute at the University of WisconsinMadison. In a TED Talk, he observed that U.S. lower-income populations and those in developing countries are often hit hardest by gaseous emissions. “Those most vulnerable to the health impacts of climate change are often the least responsible,” he says. “Doing something about this is a matter of compassion.”

up with heat stroke, kidney failure and pulmonary edema and ultimately required kidney dialysis. “Every summer now, I see the impacts of increasing temperatures and heat waves on kids,” she says.

Climate change can also impact mental health, according to a recent review by the American Psychological Association.

Exposure to natural disasters can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder. Plus, according to research institutions including the University of California, San Diego, and Iowa State University, chronic heat, especially at night, can interfere with sleep and even lead to aggressive behavior.

Then there’s the worry about what to do about it, and whether it will be enough.

“When you talk with people about what is affecting them, climate is definitely one of the things stressing them out,” says Thomas Doherty, Psy.D., a psychologist April 2018

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in Portland, Oregon. “There’s a sense of mystery and powerlessness around it that weighs on people.”

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Mona Sarfaty, a family physician who is now director of the Medical Society Consortium on Climate & Health, attests that 69 percent of Americans are aware that climate change is occurring, and more than half agree that human activities are at least partly to blame. Yet only a third believe it could ever harm them personally. “So much of the early focus was on the receding glaciers and the penguins,” she says.

“People today still think it will affect ‘those other people over there,’ but not them.”

She agrees with the recent focus on imminent health issues, and is encouraged that a growing number of healthcare professionals feel it’s their duty to inform their patients about climate change to mobilize action.

“When you talk about climate change not only in terms of the health impact it has on individuals and families, but also in terms of the real-time benefits of taking action against it, people are a lot more interested in doing something,” says Sarfaty.

For instance, shifting to clean energy sources like wind and solar instead of coal can effect better air quality and easier breathing now. Cycling or walking to work rather than driving can reduce carbon emissions, boost feel-good brain chemicals and keep weight in check. Writing letters to editors or attending rallies to urge lawmakers to pass climate-friendly policies can not only fend off the anxiety and depression that comes with feeling helpless, but also effect real change.

Ahdoot is taking these steps now. She has solar panels on her roof, is assisting the local hospital to reduce its carbon footprint, takes public transportation to work and encourages her kids to walk whenever possible. “I don’t feel powerless at all. I feel empowered and optimistic,” she says. “The more we know, the more we are moved to act. We can all do something small every day to protect our climate.”

Lisa Marshall is a freelance health writer in Boulder, CO. Connect at LisaAnnMarshall.com.

wise words

Paul Hawken Shares a Plan to Reverse Global Warming

by Linda Sechrist

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or author Paul Hawken, a leading environmental entrepreneur working with a coalition of research fellows, advisors and expert reviewers, the climate goal is drawdown, or reversing global warming—the point in atmospheric time when the concentration of greenhouse gases peaks and begins to decline on a year-to-year basis. Hawken edited Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming, a compendium of the 100 most substantive solutions that already exist.

Are you optimistic about achieving the goal?

Why is drawdown the goal?

If we don’t name the goal, we are unlikely to achieve it. To date, language like mitigation, stabilization and reduction has been used to address climate change. These goals are not particularly ambitious and will do little to preserve civilization. Those verbs are about slowing the amount of released gases, but do not reverse them. If you are going the wrong way down a road which heads straight over a cliff, slowing down is not a helpful goal. We need to turn around, and that is what drawdown research is all about.

Why and how did you do the research?

We wanted to know if it was game over with respect to global warming, or could we reverse the buildup of greenhouse gases with techniques and practices already underway? We gathered a qualified and diverse group of 70 researchers from around the world to identify, research and model the 100 most substantive existing solutions.

They modeled the impact the solutions will have if they continue to scale in a rigorous, but reasonable way, and what the cost and profits would be. All carbon data was based on peer-reviewed science. Economic data came from respected international institutions like the World Bank. The goal of the

tion is the most powerful lever available for breaking the cycle of intergenerational poverty while mitigating emissions by curbing population growth.

Ranked seventh, family planning, particularly in low-income countries, impacts world population. For women to have children by choice rather than chance and to plan their family size and spacing is a matter of autonomy and dignity.

Together, these two solutions would account for significant reduction in greenhouse gases by 2050. The United Nations estimates a difference between the high and median population projections in 2050 of 10.8 billion versus 9.7 billion. The difference is almost entirely determined by availability of family planning.

book was to present the findings and describe the solutions in ways that fascinated and informed, accompanied by images that enlivened and inspired.

What are the top 10 solutions?

The top 10 solutions, in order, are: refrigerant management, wind turbines, reduced food waste, plant-rich diet, tropical forests protection, educating girls, family planning, solar farms, silvopasture—the intentional combination of trees, forage plants and livestock as an integrated, intensively managed system— and rooftop solar. All 100 are listed at Drawdown.org/solutions-summary-by-rank.

Did any of the solutions surprise you?

None of the solutions surprised us, but their rankings did. For example, educating girls, number six, has a dramatic bearing on global warming. Women with more years of education have fewer, healthier, children and actively manage their reproductive health. Educated females realize higher wages and greater upward mobility, contributing to economic growth. Educa-

Drawdown is not about optimism, hope or pessimism. It is a reality project. The science on climate change is amazing, if not stunning. It is the best problem statement humanity has ever created, which I see as a gift, not a curse. Global warming is feedback from the atmosphere. The Earth is a system, and any system that does not incorporate feedback fails. It holds true for our body, ecosystems, social systems and economic systems. The knowledge of global warming and its potential impacts is creating huge breakthroughs in energy, transport, agriculture, housing, urbanization and materials. If it wasn’t for the science of climate change, we would be destroying our planet faster than we already are.

Focusing repeatedly on the problem does not solve the problem. Diagnosis is not prognosis unless we give up. The science of what will happen if we do not act has been here for a long time. What Drawdown points out is that humanity is on the case. The plan we refer to in the book’s subtitle is not our plan; we found a plan being activated by the collective intelligence of humanity. This is a different story than one of gloom and doom.

It is a story of innovation, creativity and generosity—that is who we are.

Linda Sechrist is a senior staff writer for Natural Awakenings.

April 2018

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Erin Donalson/Bigstock.com

Below the Water Line

How Human Noise Effects Ocean Life

by Dr. Leesa Sklover

“If we kill the sea, we kill ourselves” ~ David Gallo, an oceanographer at the forefront of ocean exploration

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ifferent levels of noise can affect us each differently. For some, even the sound of a spouse husband snoring can be enough for them to seek a calming sonic refuge to stop the roar in their ears. Although they are not the painful noises of military planes flying overhead, a sonic boom or a shrill fire drill, many sounds in the human world mirror the walls of Jericho coming down with blaring trumpets. Frequency and volume can do great harm. As humans, we are still able to find ways to escape harm24

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ful noise pollution, whether it is a quiet room, a car with our own joyous music or something else. Unlike our eyes, our ears cannot shut out sound without help.

Whales, dolphins, shrimp, turtles and zooplankton cannot escape sonic harm from seismic air blasting, oil drilling and more. This was made possible with Executive Order 13797, signed last year by President Trump in order to expand offshore drilling and exploration in U.S. waters.

Two months after the order was given, a number of Congress members wrote to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke in strong opposition to offshore oil and gas drilling off the Atlantic coast stating. “Opening the Atlantic to seismic testing and drilling

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jeopardizes our coastal businesses, fishing communities, tourism and or national security,” they stated. “It harms our coastal economies in the near term, and opens the door to even greater risks from offshore oil and gas production down the road. Therefore, we ask you not to issue any permits for airgun surveys for subsea oil and gas deposits in the Atlantic Ocean.”

The seismic airguns move across large areas of ocean, sending constant loud blasts signals every 10-20 seconds. These surveys cause disturbance of vital activities of millions living in the Atlantic Ocean, killing and disorienting marine mammals that depend on sound to function. These use echolocation to defend, navigate,

breed and raise young. The elevated alarm responses cause stress hormones and chemicals to build up in the fish we eat.

Marine animals rely on a sonic world to find their way in the dark with song. A deaf whale is a dead whale. Many are found on the shoreline bleeding from their ears because they rise to the surface too suddenly in order to escape deafening man-made sounds. Even those harmed may die slowly. We could lose hundreds of thousands of whales and dolphins as well as critically endangered species like right whales.

Heard with a hydrophone, we can decipher a shrimp’s crackle, a lobster speaking like a cabasa, an orca’s high cry and a dolphin’s whistle. But listening to the earth’s soundscape is nearly impossible today.

David Gallo, a leading American oceanographer, bears witness to the most dramatic topography of earth in the deep ocean. “Oceans do not transmit light as well as they are efficient transmitting sounds. We have arrived, making all sorts of noise without regard for the blue world. We use sonar to map the sea floor, identify submarines and navigate shipwrecks. Global trade by sea involves more than 50,000 ships in the commercial fleet with each making its own painful noise in the home of majestic whales and abundant life,” he explains.

“I know explosions and sound-shock waves, depending on their frequencies, are bad and disturb their perception of the environment; they work differently in echolocation and nonecholocating species,” says Patrick Hof, MD, a research professor of neuroscience and vice chair of the department of neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.

Humpback whales, for example, communicate through a large song repertoire, making up new ones each year. Hof has written about spindle cells found in whales as well as humans, which are involved in sensitive judgments and emotional cues. Whales evolved spindle cells completely independent of humans some 30 million years ago; the cells are twice as long as those found in humans and apes, and whales have more of them than us. Some qualities that we assume make us human, whales have had long before. So how can we can dishonor and kill them?

Ocean advocacy work also involves lone cetaceans, disoriented by noise pollution, that become separated from their pod or home territory. They then travel searching for their lost pod, unable to hear their way home.

We need to do more to protect the ocean soundscape. If all humans could hear the symphony of the ocean, we would put up more of a fight to save it. Sign petitions and find events on World Whale Day (May 22) and World Ocean Day (June 8).

Visit StoptheDrill.org and CSI.org.

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April 2018

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MAY

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Coming Next Month

Natural Care First

~Aristotle

Plus: Life Balance

May articles include: Maintain Healthy Habits Exercise for Menopause Cats Help Relieve Stress Alternative Healing

Touching the Earth The Healing Powers of Going Barefoot

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by Martin Zucker

elanie Monteith, of San Diego, California, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at age 24 and plagued by symptoms for 14 years. Simple daily tasks became challenging. She relied on walking aids and walls to keep from falling. Eventually, she quit her job. Every day tested her survival skills. Then, in late 2017, Monteith tried grounding and it changed her life.

Grounding, also called Earthing, refers to the discovery of major health benefits from sustained contact with the Earth’s natural and subtle electric charge.

Recent research published in the Journal of Inflammation, Integrative Medicine: A Clinician’s Journal, Neonatology and Health indicates that grounding stabilizes the physiology in many ways, drains the body of inflammation, pain and stress, and generates greater well-being.

Grounding can be as simple as going barefoot in nature, including the backyard, for 30 to 60 minutes once or twice a day on surfaces like grass, soil, gravel, stone and

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sand. If this isn’t practical, special grounding mats and pads are available online for convenient indoor use while sitting or sleeping; people with compromised health often benefit from more time being grounded.

The activity restores a primordial electric connection with the Earth that has been lost with modern lifestyles. We wear shoes with insulating, synthetic soles and live and work elevated above the ground.

These overlooked lifestyle factors may contribute to increasing global rates of chronic illnesses. Grounding revitalizes us, akin to charging a weak battery, because our bodies operate electrically and our movements and thoughts are based on electrical signals. We are bioelectric beings.

Eighteen years of grounding research in a variety of indoor settings, plus grassroots feedback from around the world, clearly show that our bodies operate more effectively when grounded. We sleep better, have less pain, more energy and even look better. Here are some of the documented benefits.

WAYHOME studio/Shutterstock.com

In all things of nature, there is something of the marvelous.

Reduction of chronic inflammation “Inflammation is intimately linked to most chronic and aging-related diseases,” says Gaétan Chevalier, Ph.D., a visiting scholar at the University of California, San Diego, who has conducted multiple grounding studies. “Grounding seems to be nature’s way to reduce inflammation.”

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Decreased stress Tracy Latz, a medical doctor and integrative psychiatrist in Mooresville, North Carolina, has found, “Patients with anxiety issues, including post-traumatic stress disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder and depression, often benefit from grounding.”

Improved vagus nerve function The vagus nerve connects with and regulates key organs, including the lungs, heart and intestines. In one study, doctors at the Penn State Children’s Hospital, in Hershey, Pennsylvania, grounded hospitalized premature infants and documented improved vagal function that could potentially boost resilience and reduce complications. “These babies have a lot of health challenges,” observes Dr. Charles Palmer, former chief of the center’s division of newborn medicine. “It seems that they are more relaxed when grounded.” More research is needed.

Within a few months of grounding both day and night, Monteith’s disease symptoms receded dramatically. Her balance and stability improved when standing and walking. She sleeps more deeply and has more energy. An eye issue for which there is no drug subsided. She says her health continues to improve and she looks forward to living each day.

Troy Baker, a recovery consultant for special populations and chief program officer of the nonprofit Adapt Functional Movement Center, in Carlsbad, California, who has been overseeing Monteith’s exercise training schedule, has observed a reduction in the effects of multiple sclerosis since she started grounding.

“Her body is more fluid, not as stiff. She moves much better, with increased energy and stamina.”

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Thick, sludgy blood is a common feature of diabetes and cardiovascular disorders. Several grounding studies have demonstrated a significant decrease in blood viscosity and enhanced blood flow. “Grounding represents a potent circulation booster; a simple, yet profound preventive and therapeutic strategy,” says integrative cardiologist Dr. Stephen T. Sinatra, of Manchester, Connecticut, co-author of the book Earthing: The Most Important Health Discovery Ever!

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For more information on grounding, visit EarthingInstitute.net.

Martin Zucker, a former Associated Press correspondent, has written about alternative medicine for 40 years and is co-author of the book Earthing.

April 2018

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What to Learn About Living Pets Can Teach Us If We Pay Attention

by Mary Oquendo

L

iving is different than life. Living a better life can start with a change as simple as paying attention to your pets because they have their priorities straight, namely love, food, shelter, fun and, maybe, a new stuffed toy. If we pay attention, they have much to teach us about what is really important when it comes to living well.

Dog wisdom: n Let people touch your soul. Give people an opportunity to impact your life. Who knows how someone else might make a positive difference in your life or open you up to new adventures? n Take time to play. Playing improves creativity, productivity and every relationship.

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n Be happy and let everyone know.

Happiness is contagious; spread it around.

Be generous in sharing your joy. n Loyal and faithful. Let your loved ones know they can always count on you. No matter how bad the day is, you know your dog is right there to offer comfort. n Quick to forgive. Hanging onto slights and transgressions eats away at you, not the person who inflicted the damage.

n Stretch before rising. Your muscles and connective tissue will appreciate you for it. You will be less likely to cramp up while playing. n Stop and smell the roses, bushes, grass and so forth. Appreciate the world around you. Take time to look around and see the beauty in the world.

n Love unconditionally. This one doesn’t need an explanation.

n Listen to others. There have been studies linking self-confidence to how well you listen to others. The more you listen, the more you learn and your confidence will grow.

n Don’t judge. Dogs love everyone regardless of skin color, political leanings, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, and anything else that makes people different from you.

n Be clear in your wants and attention.

Don’t make people guess—often times incorrectly—about what you want.

Tell them.

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Let people touch your soul.

Give people an opportunity to impact your life. Who knows how someone else might make a positive difference in your life or open you up to new adventures?

Birds’ Wisdom: n Anytime is a good time to sing and dance. Did you know that when a group of people sings together, they synchronize heart and breathing rates? Singing is a very complex activity in which you can fire up all brain synapses at one time. It’s difficult to concentrate on anything but singing while doing it. It allows you to be fully in the present. Worries and problems fade away. It functions as a form of meditation.

Cat Wisdom: n It’s ok to be pampered. Let other people do for you. Accept that shoulder rub from your significant other. n It’s not necessary to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders alone. Don’t keep emotions bottled up inside. Shred that curtain. nTake care of yourself. It’s not possible to achieve your full potential when your body, mind or soul is in disrepair. n Set standards for life and work.

Personal and professional growth comes from actively participating in raising the standards. n While the list for dogs may surpass that of cats and birds, the lessons are equally important. The next time you are looking for the meaning of life, look no further than your pets.

Mary Oquendo is a Reiki master, advanced crystal master and certified master tech pet first aid instructor. She is the owner of Pawsitive Education and Spirited Dog Productions. She can be reached at PawsitiveEd.com.

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April 2018

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Horse Wisdom for Life The Wisdom of Returning to Grazing

by Carrie Brady

T

ake a moment to jot down at least five things that bring you joy.

Once you have done so, ask yourself if you had trouble with this request or made it more complicated. Did you wish you knew what the goal was so you’d know the “right” answer? Did you second guess or cross out your answers? Did you put something on the list because you thought you “should”? Do you wonder what someone else might think of your list?

If you answered yes to any of these, you are thinking like a human, not a horse.

Humans tend to live in our heads, not our bodies. We overanalyze and judge ourselves, and each other. For a horse, this wouldn’t be a hard question. Horses know precisely what brings them pleasure 30

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and given the freedom to do so, they will choose delight in every moment. They live in the present, fully in their senses; they do not judge. Joy is their default state. Fortunately, if we pay attention, they can teach humans how to live this way.

Humans tend to focus on the past and future; horses stay grounded happily in the present. They are prepared to respond to any situation if necessary, but usually remain resting in the moment, eating and enjoying the sensory delights available to them. This difference between horses and humans is clear to anyone who has seen horses respond to an unexpected loud noise, such as a heavy tree limb falling near their pasture. Horses will jerk their heads up and locate the source of the noise, then watch the branch for a

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moment to see if it poses any threat, and, upon realizing it does not, go right back to eating their breakfast. A human standing nearby would likely spend the next several minutes looking up, worrying what else might fall, and thinking about the terrible things that could have happened if the branch had hit the horses, fence, or truck.

Many humans have adopted fight-orflight as their perpetual way of being. You rush from one thing to another, think about other things while you are doing something else. You may ignore your body until it breaks, and then try to numb the pain rather than addressing the cause. You can deprive yourself of healthy food and live dehydrated despite an abundance of water. Or you sit more than you move, and move in ways you don’t particularly

enjoy while following a “no pain, no gain” motto. You work while you dream of time off, and yet you may fill your time off with more work while you dream of vacation.

So you are not truly here or anywhere.

You’ve scattered your attention. In general, humans give very little thought to intentions for a life they want to live.

Horses are all about attention and intention. As prey animals, it is a matter of survival for them to understand the intention of the other living things with whom they interact. Horses read not only visual body language, but they also pick up the respiration and heart rate of any living creature nearby. They know when a person is acting one way but feeling another; this incongruence makes them uncomfortable.

When you are with them, all they ask of you is your authentic presence in the here and now.

The list you made at the beginning of this article will help you gain some insight into your attention and to set an intention.

Consider these questions: n How many items on your list are part of your daily life? n What is the balance of sensory joys (joys that relate to sight, smell, sound, taste, touch or movement) versus non-sensory joys? The latter could include crossing items off your to-do list, which may give a sense of satisfaction that isn’t rooted in your physical senses. n How many items involve a sense of connection to other living things, nature and spirituality? How many are independent joys?

Horses choose delight every day. And no matter what is going on in the external environment, humans also have the ability to return to grazing for at least part of every day. Slow down out of flight-or-flight into the more peaceful state of rest and digest. Give the body and mind the opportunity to recharge, gain new perspectives and simply enjoy life. Returning to grazing helps you bring the best of you to any situation; it is an especially

important practice when life is challenging. Feeding yourself a daily diet of delight is a choice. It doesn’t mean the stressors don’t exist, but rather that you can put them down for a few minutes.

Now create a longer list of things that bring you joy. Pay attention to the mix of items, including sensory, non-sensory, connection and independent joys.

Consider what delights each of your six senses—the usual five plus movement— which is very important to horses and humans. Horses are in tune with their bodies; they know what makes them feel good physically.

Consider what brings you a sense of connection and support, and also what you can do alone. Horses naturally live in herds, support each other and work together for the benefit of the herd. However, they know how to independently self-soothe and have strong individual preferences.

Determine how you can incorporate each item into your daily life, even if it is just for a few minutes. If a beach vacation is one of the things that brings you joy, for example, you can add it into your daily life by hanging pictures or running your fingers through sand.

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Set an intention that you will commit to doing at least one thing that brings you joy every single day. Keep the list handy— whether it is on your phone, posted in your closet or on your bedside table— somewhere that will remind you to choose delight. Join the horses and return to grazing to live the life you’ve imagined.

Carrie Brady is the creator of Possibilities Farm in Wilton, where she partners with three extraordinary horses to offer unique non-riding programs in equine-assisted Reiki, meditation, and private and small group workshops for personal growth, leadership, and team building. Carrie is also a consultant, author, and speaker. Connect at 203-210-7484. LifeYourveImagined@ gmailcom or PossibilitiesFarm.com.

April 2018

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The healthy living magazine was one of five franchise companies cited as best-in-class in the advertising and sales category. To select the top franchises across industries and performance categories, the organization surveyed more than 28,500 franchisees.

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Nature’s Remedies How Animals Self-Medicate

by Sandra Murphy

Every species embodies a solution to some environmental challenge, and some of these solutions are breathtaking in their elegance. ~Linda Bender, Animal Wisdom: Learning from the Spiritual Lives of Animals

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rom birds and elephants to dolphins, animals, whether by instinct or learned behavior, have discovered ways to cope with parasites, pests, aches and pains. This science of self-medication is called zoopharmacognosy (zoo for animal, pharma for drug and cognosy for knowing).

At home, a dog or cat that eats grass is practicing it to eliminate parasites or hairballs.

Donald Brightsmith, Ph.D., of Texas A&M University, directs the Tambopata Macaw Project in the lowlands of southeastern Peru, studying the many macaws and other parrots that gather clay to eat as a supplement. First thought to help remove toxins from their bodies, clay adds needed sodium to their diet, researchers now believe.

A pregnant elephant in Kenya’s Tsavo Park was observed by ecologist Holly

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Dublin, Ph.D., to travel miles to find a tree not normally eaten. Four days later, the elephant gave birth. Dublin discovered that Kenyan women make a drink from the same leaves and bark to induce labor.

While studying Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) in the Sabangau peat swamp forest in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, primatologist Helen MorroghBernard, Ph.D., of the University of Exeter, UK, observed an orangutan chew the leaves of a plant that were not part of its usual diet until it formed a lather. The orangutan spit out the leaves and used the lather much like humans apply a topical pain reliever.

While animals have been known to eat certain plants when ill, hers may be the first sighting of an animal creating a salve.

Nearby villagers grind the leaves to make

a balm for sore muscles and inflammation.

Morrogh-Bernard believes humans learned this topical application from apes and passed it down through the generations.

In the Red Sea, bottlenose dolphins rub against bush-like gorgonian corals covered by an outer layer of antimicrobial mucus that may protect them from infection, according to dolphin researcher Angela Ziltener, of the University of Zürich, Switzerland.

“It’s amazing how much we’ve learned, but forgotten,” says Ira Pastor, CEO at Bioquark Inc., in Philadelphia, a life sciences company developing biologic products to regenerate and repair human organs and tissues. “We live with other organisms which from a health and wellness perspective are much further advanced than humans. No other species tries to cure with any single solution. Nature employs multiple options. We’re not appropriately imitating nature yet. We need to do more.”

Cindy Engel, Ph.D., of Suffolk, England, author of Wild Health: Lessons in Natural Wellness from the Animal Kingdom, says, “Animals rely on plants to provide them with the essentials of life, making their health intimately dependent on plant chemistry to provide everything they need to grow, repair damage and reproduce.”

She continues, “Wild animals carry diseases that affect livestock and humans.

It’s sensible to explore why they’re successful in fending off the worst effects in order to find ways to improve our own health,

We feel the answers for the future will be found in the past, not in chemical factories. ~Ira Pastor instead of just trying to eradicate the disease. We can learn from behavioral selfhelp strategies animals employ.” Accomplishing this is more difficult than ever, she believes, because today’s severely shrinking habitat makes it hard to find truly wild animals and plants.

“Over the last 100 years, we’ve done a horrible disservice to all life by destroying habitat and exploring only a small percentage of what nature has to offer,” agrees Pastor. “As patents expire, pharma has to change. It’s important to develop botanicals. We’re advised to vary our diet and exercise, yet take the same dose of the same pill daily. We’ve studied dead organisms under microscopes, but living organisms, even as small as microbes, can communicate helpful positive reactions.”

Western medicine has strayed from what nature offers to keep us healthy. Now is the time to take care of both the planet and all living beings on it. “We’ve discarded thousands of years of evidence,” says Pastor. “We cannot destroy the bounty of possibilities.”

Connect with freelance writer Sandra Murphy at StLouisFreelanceWriter@mindspring.com.

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THREE-MONTH EDITORIAL PLANNING CALENDAR

New Haven/Middlesex

by Judith Fertig

hree years ago, the New York Times added a new word to the world’s food vocabulary:

Climatarian (n.) A diet whose primary goal is to reverse climate change. This includes eating locally produced food (to reduce energy spent in transportation), choosing pork and poultry instead of beef and lamb (to limit gas emissions), and using every part of ingredients (apple cores, cheese rinds, etc.) to limit food waste.

Changing our food choices to support this model can have a ripple effect. Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in a 2017 study published in the journal Climatic Change, looked at how diets impact personal health, the healthcare system and climate. They found that adopting a more plant-based diet reduces the relative risk of coronary heart disease, colorectal cancer and Type 2 diabetes by 20 to 40 percent. National annual health care costs could drop from $93 billion to $77 billion. Direct greenhouse gas emissions could annually drop 489 to 1,821 pounds per person.

Such an approach involves considering the related water usage, greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprint—the energy required to cultivate, harvest and

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transport food—plus processing associated food waste. Here are some top choices.

Foods that Go Easy on Water Hydroponic greens are hands-down winners. The Shelton Family Farm, near Whittier, North Carolina, weekly produces 10,000 to 12,000 heads of hydroponically grown Bibb lettuce. The controlled environment and carefully engineered nutrient delivery systems maximize all resources.

“It’s an enclosed system that runs 24/7, and it’s highly efficient from a waterusage standpoint because we recycle the water,” says William Shelton Jr., a fourthgeneration family farmer. “The only water that’s actually consumed is what’s taken up and transpired through the plants.” In a moderate climate, energy costs to recycle the water and keep the plants at an even temperature are moderate, as well.

Dry-tilled heirloom tomatoes, okra, melons and quinoa are drought-tolerant and only use available rainfall.

Foods that Go Easy on Greenhouse Gases

Plants beat meat. “Livestock farming produces from 20 to 50 percent of all

manmade greenhouse gas emissions,” says nutritionist and climate activist Jane Richards, of GreenEatz, in Mountain View, California. “You can reduce your footprint by a quarter by cutting down on red meats such as beef and lamb.”

An exception is the vegetarian staple of rice. According to researchers at Project Drawdown, a climate solutions organization in Sausalito, California, rice cultivation is responsible for at least 10 percent of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and up to 19 percent of global methane emissions. New farming techniques, like mid-season draining of the rice paddies, could cut methane emissions by at least 35 percent.

Richards notes, “Meat, cheese and eggs have the highest carbon footprint; fruit, vegetables, beans and nuts, much lower. The carbon footprint of a vegetarian diet is about half that of a meat-lover’s diet.”

Root crops such as carrots, radishes, potatoes and beets have a lower carbon footprint than above-ground plants due to less food waste. A beautiful beet is easier to grow than a bell pepper that blemishes more easily.

Seasonal, regional fruit, vegetables, herbs and honey have a lighter carbon impact because they are transported shorter distances. Usually what grows best in a region and is consumed locally is also best for the climate.

Foods naturally suited to their environment grow and taste better, and are packed with more nutrients, reports Sustainable

Table, an educational nonprofit that builds healthy communities through sustainable eating habits (SustainableTable.org).

Hopeful Developments

New agricultural developments can also benefit our climate environment. According to Project Drawdown research, perennial grains and cereals could be pivotal in reaching soil, carbon and energy targets.

The Land Institute, in Salina, Kansas, has been working with the Rodale Institute, in Berks County, Pennsylvania, to develop a perennial wheat that would not have to be planted from seed each year.

This would save soil, carbon and both human and machine energy.

Kernza, a new perennial grain proven to prosper in natural grasslands like the Great Plains, is not yet widely distributed.

Maria Speck, author of Simply Ancient Grains, advises, “With up to 15-foot-long roots, it can be harvested for five years and uses less fertilizer than conventional wheat.

Kernza tastes almost like a cross between rice and wheat—sweet, grassy, mesmerizing.”

Michael Pollan, author of Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual and creator of the film Food, Inc., suggests we keep it simple: “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.” Climatarians would add another guideline—eat as locally as possible.

Judith Fertig writes cookbooks plus foodie fiction from Overland Park, KS (JudithFertig.com).

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Nature Helps Kids Build Skills and Character

A

by April Thompson

movement is afoot to get kids grounded in nature. Wilderness awareness programs, also known as primitive skills or Earth-based education, teach life-changing survival skills that build courage, compassion and camaraderie.

“We help youth experience a true aliveness in nature. Kids gain knowledge of the outdoors and increase awareness, confidence and self-reliance, while having fun, positive experiences,” says Dave Scott, founder of the Earth Native Wilderness School (EarthNativeSchool.com), in Bastrop, Texas. They often go on to enthusiastically share what they’ve learned about natural flora and fauna with their families.

Experiential Learning

Youth engaged with organizations like this one enjoy gaining nature-oriented survival skills, such as making bows, baskets, shelters and fire. “By making a bow out of a particular type of tree, children discover what type of habitat the tree prefers and how to harvest it sustainably. Indigenous skills like animal tracking also help them relate to wildlife and develop empathy for animals,” says Scott.

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“When you learn to trust rather than fear nature, you’re more likely to take care of it,” adds Rick Berry, founder of 4 Elements Earth Education (4eee.org), a Nevada City, California, nonprofit that helps kids and adults connect with planet Earth via immersion in nature. Leaving room for spontaneity and improvisation is important.

While infusing indigenous knowledge into their curriculum, wilderness programs emphasize universal principles such as deep understanding of local environments and life’s interconnectedness. “Fire making is for everybody. Shelter making is for everybody.

We are all caretakers of the land,” says Berry.

Physical and other challenges, such as walking blindfolded through the woods, heighten sensory perception while building confidence. “The landscape is a great teacher with its uneven ground and obstacles, posing an opportunity to learn agility, practice balance and ultimately, expand awareness,” says Simon Abramson, associate director of Wild Earth (WildEarth.org), in High Falls, New York.

Nature-immersion programs like Wild Earth’s further help kids sharpen their

observation skills through activities like learning to identify birdsongs and trees.

During a popular activity called “sit spot”, children learn to sit quietly, listen and observe from a specific location they may revisit over the course of a day or year to witness nature’s varied beauty. Another time, they may try “foxwalking”, creeping silently and slowly, or test their “owl vision”, using peripheral vision. For younger kids, instructors may incorporate such skills into a game like “coyote or rabbit,” where by staying still, they can avoid detection by a predator.

Kids learn to listen both to nature and their own inner voice, which can be challenging in the midst of dominating peers and authority figures. “We build on the tradition of vision quest, in taking time to get quiet in nature and hear what the heart is saying,” says Berry.

Activities may be patterned after natural cycles of the seasons, the four directions and diurnal rhythms. On a bright morning, emphasis is on high-energy, outward-facing activities; day’s end brings a pause to reflect, glean and share what participants have made and learned.

Lasting Life Lessons

Mother Nature’s lessons can be hardearned, but the outdoor trials that kids

experience are often their most honored and memorable moments. Whether youths try out a wilderness program for a season or stay on for years, Earth-based learning can have an enduring impact.

They help foster healthy relationships not only with the Earth, but with other people, according to Samuel Bowman, a program coordinator with the Wilderness Awareness School (Wilderness Awareness.org), in Duvall, Washington.

Team-driven activities like building a communal shelter can help kids learn how to work through conflict, listen to others and appreciate differences.

“The kids that have come through our programs prove to be creative problemsolvers prepared to handle just about anything. They have focus and commitment, and tend to be service oriented,” observes Abramson, noting that 60 percent of their instructors are alumni.

“Thinking back on kids we’ve worked with, you can often see their wilderness journey reflected in their paths as adults, how they are making choices with their heart and pursuing their passions,” concludes Berry.

an unforgettable, experiential evening of discovery, freedom and power!

LivingWithoutLimits.com

Connect with April Thompson, in Washington, D.C., at AprilWrites.com.

More Wilderness Resources

T

hese resources will help parents and educators connect with quality, nature-based learning.

Coyote’s Guide to Connecting with Nature (CoyotesGuide.com) is an inspirational publication for teachers, mentors and parents based on ancient worldwide cultural wisdom, including mythic animal stories, nature-based ceremonies and survival tools.

The Tracker School (TrackerSchool.com), founded by wilderness expert Tom Brown in 1978, offers 75 classes on wilderness survival skills and a list of tracker clubs and affiliates across North America and beyond. Tom Brown’s Field Guide to Nature and Survival for Children is another respected resource.

Children & Nature Network (ChildrenAnd Nature.org) connects children, families and communities with nature through evidence-based resources and tools, broadbased collaboration and grassroots leadership. This international initiative was co-founded by Richard Louv, renowned author of Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder.

Earth Skills Alliance (EarthSkills Alliance.com) is a collective of youth program leaders dedicated to Earth skills instruction. Its annual conference and other platforms share best practices and experiences.

“ To Know is to understand...”

Our paths are written in the Stars.

We can help you understand yours.

*

Beautiful, easy-to-interpret charts conveniently delivered to you by email.

SPIRITASTROLOGY.COM April 2018

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calendar of events MONDAY, APRIL 2 Fitness Awareness – 5:30pm. This is a call to all of the runners who want something that is out of the ordinary! Ranger Dan will lead you through our 156-acre network of trails while you burn off the weekend’s extra calories. We guarantee that this Free program is the best way to start off your week. Wear appropriate footwear. Ansonia Nature Ctr, 10 Deerfield Rd, Ansonia. Preregister: 203-736-1053.

THURSDAY, APRIL 5 New Haven Community Circle Dance – 7:30pm9:30pm. Move in the footsteps of our ancestors as we enjoy traditional dances from many cultures, as well as contemporary pieces choreographed in the spirit of ancient folk dance. All dances are taught and no experience is necessary.

Suggested donation $8. Friends Meetinghouse, 225 East Grand Ave, New Haven. 203-467-1069, NHCircleDance.yolasite.com.

SATURDAY, APRIL 7 Partner Yoga Workshop w/ Deb Weber & Bill Banick – 5pm-7pm. Friends, family, couples and partners are all welcome to join us for Partner Yoga. This workshop is designed to create and nurture trust, strengthen communication and create a sense of laughter and light heartedness. No yoga experience needed! $50/two people by 4/3, $60/two people after 4/3. Your Community Yoga Center, 39 Putnam Ave, Hamden. 203-287-2277.

YourCommunityYoga.com.

SUNDAY, APRIL 8 Beekeeping for Beginners – 2pm. This class is an introduction to the fascinating hobby of beekeeping. Join Ranger Dawn to learn about beekeeping tools and equipment, how to begin a starter hive, and how to identify honey bees and what they are doing. Our observation hive at the Nature Center is a great place to see this incredible system. For ages 14 and up. Fee: $6 per person. Ansonia Nature Ctr, 10 Deerfield Rd, Ansonia. Preregister: 203-736-1053.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 11

SATURDAY, APRIL 21

Young Living Essential Oils – 6:30pm-8pm. Help align your mind, body, spirit. Learn to take control of your health with therapeutic grade oils. Free class. 36 Cheshire Rd, Wallingford. 203-265-2927, Return2love3@gmail.com or Return2Love.com.

The Healing Arts of Emei Qigong – 9am-5pm.

(April 21-23). Seminar fee $99 for all 3 days.

Optional Group Healing April 22 at 3:45pm. Learn and experience Qi Gong, a comprehensive health maintenance system with supportive theory to build a practice to support a lifetime of sustainable wellness of the body, mind and spirit. All ages, abilities and levels of health are welcome. $30 fee. Class size limited! Register early. Holistic Therapies Classroom, 15 South Elm St, Wallingford. Contact Pat Bolger: 203-500-6492. EmeiQigongChan.com.

THURSDAY, APRIL 12 Spring Term Junior Rangers – 3:30pm-5pm.

(April 12-June 7). Calling all children 11-14 years old who love nature! Has your child wanted to work with animals, garden, help maintain our trails, and help with special events? This is the opportunity to help the Nature Center during our 8-week after school program. Parental permission is required.

Class size is limited; this class fills up fast! Free.

Ansonia Nature Ctr, 10 Deerfield Rd, Ansonia.

Preregister: 203-736-1053.

Crystal Toning w/Gayle Franceschetti – 6:30pm8pm. Experience a unique method of healing by combining the energies of crystals with toning, creating an individualized healing experience in a group setting on many levels. $20.

36 Cheshire Rd. Wallingford. 203-265-2927, Return2love3@gmail.com or Return2Love.com.

SATURDAY, APRIL 14 Reiki I – 9:30am-1pm. Reiki is the science and art of activating, directing and applying natural, universal life energy, to promote energy balancing, healing and wholeness. Includes certificate and materials $125. 36 Wallingford. 203-265-2927, Return2love3@gmail.com or Return2Love.com.

SUNDAY, APRIL 15 Unified Mindfulness Workshop – 2pm-4pm.

This workshop offers both the “the why” and “the how” to practice mindfulness as well as the actual experience of sitting together in a supported environment. $30-35. Breathing Room Yoga Center, 216 Crown St, New Haven. 203-562-LOVE, BreathingRoomCT.com.

MONDAY, APRIL 16

Free Community Meals Presented by Master’s Table Community Meals: Dinner – 4pm-5:30pm.

Free. Open to the public. No RSVP. Donations graciously accepted. Assumption Church Hall, 61 N. Cliff St, Ansonia. For more information and in case of inclement weather, call for updates.

Dinner will not be rescheduled. 203-732-7792.

MastersTableMeals.org.

Spring Nature Days – 9:30am-2:30pm. (April 16-20). For children ages 6–11 who love the outdoors and wildlife, these popular classes will be educational and also a chance to explore our 156 acres. We will visit habitats such as wetlands, fields, and woodlands. Great time for amphibian searches too! Tuition: $150 priority students (Ansonia residents and current family-level FANCI members), $175 all others. Ansonia Nature Ctr, 10 Deerfield Rd, Ansonia. Information/registration: 203-736-1053.

TUESDAY, APRIL 10

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18

Guided Meditation Circle – 6:30pm-7:30pm.

Discover the amazing benefits of meditating with a group. We will explore different mindfulness based meditations followed by discussion and reflection, which can sometimes be the most beneficial.

No experience necessary. Just your willingness to meditate. $10 investment. Healing Room, 10 Carina Rd, North Haven. Please call: 203-214-9486.

Circle of Women – 7pm-9pm. Join in sacred space to discover and strengthen your authentic self. What you are looking for is looking for you!

Healing the world one woman at a time. $25. Central Wallingford. Call Susan to explore/reserve space.

203-645-1230.

38

New Haven/Middlesex

NaturalNewHaven.com

Spring Cleanup – 10am-12pm. Bring your garden and trail tools! Scouts, youth groups, and students, this is a great community service opportunity. Help beautify our park and get ready for spring and summer. We’ll supply gloves and garbage bags. At 12:30pm join participants of this citywide cleanup day at Pavilion 1 for lunch and refreshments.

Ansonia Nature Ctr, 10 Deerfield Rd, Ansonia.

Preregister: 203-736-1053.

SUNDAY, APRIL 22 M a k e Yo u r O w n S h a m a n D r u m – 9am-12pm. In Milford CT. Share the joy and empowerment of handcrafting your own Native American Prayer Drum in sacred space and ceremony. Tools provided. Orders due by 4/12 noon.

Visit IEMInstitute.org. CHOOSE date 2/22 or 2/26, drum size/costs, maple frames and Elk skin bleached or natural, drumstick. Kit start at $95 for 15” drum.

Sunday Guided Hike: Vernal Pools – 1pm.

Learn about local amphibians on this hike to our vernal pools. Help our ranger lift rocks and logs to find these fascinating creatures that secretly inhabit our woodland and wetlands. Free. Ansonia Nature Ctr, 10 Deerfield Rd, Ansonia. Preregister: 203-736-1053.

Mala Workshop – 2pm-4pm. Explore meditation, prayer beads and crystal energy! Dennis Lucenti, creator of InProVision Malas, will offer an intro to prayer beads and an exploration of mantra meditation and crystal energy as well as sound healing. $30-35. Breathing Room Yoga Center, 216 Crown St, New Haven. 203-562-LOVE, BreathingRoomCT.com.

Free Community Meals Presented by Master’s Table Community Meals: Dinner – 4pm-5:30pm.

Free. Open to the public. No RSVP. Donations graciously accepted. Assumption Church Hall, 61 N. Cliff St, Ansonia. For more information and in case of inclement weather, call for updates.

Dinner will not be rescheduled. 203-732-7792.

MastersTableMeals.org.

TUESDAY, APRIL 24 Guided Meditation Circle – 6:30pm-7:30pm.

Discover the amazing benefits of meditating with a group. We will explore different mindfulness based meditations. Followed by discussion and reflection, which can sometimes be the most beneficial.

No experience necessary. Just your willingness to meditate. $10 investment. Healing Room, 10 Carina Rd, North Haven. Please call: 203-214-9486.

Family Organic Garden Program – 3:30pm5pm. (Tuesdays, April 24-June 19). We’ll lead fun, family-friendly activities in our organic garden.

Learn about growing a variety of fruits and vegetables. Dress appropriately; you will get water and/or soil on your clothing. Free, with the potential to take home fresh local produce! Ansonia Nature Ctr, 10 Deerfield Rd, Ansonia. Information/ registration: 203-736-1053.

SUNDAY, APRIL 29

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25

MONDAY, APRIL 30

Connect w/Guides & Angels 5 Classes w/Gayle Franceschetti – 6:30pm-8:30pm. (Wednesdays April 25, May 2, 9, 16 & 23). Listen/communicate with “helpers” to guide and protect you. Easily and safely make your connection, tune into their vibrations/recognize them in future. Series $97.

36 Cheshire Rd, Wallingford 203-265-2927 or Return2love3@gmail.com. Return2Love.com.

Restorative Iyengar Yoga – 6pm-7:30pm.

All Restorative yoga practices started with the Iyengar family. Go to the source and experience the source of your inner resources and peace.

Yoga in Middletown, 438 Main St, Middletown.

860-347-YOGA (9642). YogaInMiddletown.com.

FRIDAY, APRIL 27 Group Past Life Regression – 6:30pm-8:30pm.

Discover reasons for current fears, recurring dreams or personality tendencies. Attendees explore past lives, learn reasons for repeat patterns or why they were born to a certain family. $20. 36 Cheshire Rd, Wallingford. 203-265-2927, Return2love3@gmail.com or Return2Love.com.

SATURDAY, APRIL 28 World Tai Qi and Qigong Day Event sponsored

by Emei Qigong and VIBe – 9:30am. (Meeting at 9:30am to start qigong form by 10am).

Location: Wharton Brook State Park, Pavilion, RT 5, Wallingford. Potluck gathering afterwards.

For more information, call Pat: 203-500-6492.

EmeiQigongChan.com and VIBe organization@ highvibekids.

Young Living Essential Oils – 9:30am-11am Help align your mind, body, spirit. Learn to take control of your health with therapeutic grade oils. Free class. Gayle Franceschetti, 36 Cheshire Rd, Wallingford. 203-265-2927, or Return2love3@gmail.com. Return2Love.com.

Earth Day Celebration – 10am-3pm. Every day is Earth Day at the Nature Center! We invite you to honor Mother Earth with our Friends of the Ansonia Nature Center co-hosting this annual event. Enjoy hikes, live animals, environmental exhibitors, music and more! Join in interactive activities with Nature Center staff using our new Education Station trail.

Food and snacks available from local vendors. No park admission fee. All ages welcome; bring family and friends to celebrate Spring! Ansonia Nature Ctr, 10 Deerfield Rd, Ansonia. Information/registration: 203-736-1053.

Salt of the Earth Healing Arts Sanctuary/Spa presents “This is Me” – 11am-3:30pm. Fashion Show and Art Exhibits, Benefit, Raffles, Food, Chair Massages, Facials, Presentation on Lyme Disease from Noted Expert Auto Immune /Lyme Naturopathic Dr. Jaquel Patterson of Fairfield. Location: 346 Main St S, Woodbury. Call: 203-405-2241.

Full Moon Meditation w/Gayle Franceschetti – 6:30pm-8:30pm. Align w/new energies of Full Moon. Opportunities for allowing spiritual energies to reach human hearts and minds. Tap into this vast pool of energy. $20. 36 Cheshire Rd, Wallingford. 203-265-2927, Return2love3@gmail.com or Return2Love.com.

SATURDAY, MAY 5 Survival School: Fire in the Rain – 10am-1pm.

Have you ever wondered how people on the frontier kept warm on a wet day? Fire starting is a craft which can be learned! Ranger Dan will help you sharpen these skills. Come to try your hand at striking a piece of flint against steel and harness a force from nature while the very elements work against you. This class will take place outdoors; be prepared for the weather. For ages 14 and up. Class size is limited to 8. Fee: $10 per person. Ansonia Nature Ctr, 10 Deerfield Rd, Ansonia. Preregister: 203-736-1053.

markyourcalendar A Night on the Other Side Mediumship Gallery Featuring June Edward

“The Massachusetts Medium” Sunday, April 22 1-4pm Have you ever wanted to talk to someone on the other side? Is there someone who has passed that you never got to say goodbye to? June is a psychic medium, who has mentored many people trying to find their way in life, as well as people in high profile positions of power.

For tickets Visit:

Eventbrite.com/e/a-night-on-theother-side-mediumship-gallery-tickets43757088630?aff=es2

Masonic Temple Washington Ldg 1 Fan Hill Rd

Monroe, CT

Earth Day

should encourage us to reflect on what we are doing to make our planet a more

sustainable and livable place. ~Scott Peters

PostPartum Care w/ Saskia Bergmans Smith – 2pm-4pm. The mother’s body has been through one of the most transformative and enriching, yet depleting times of her life. What is the best self-care for you as a new mom? Saskia will be speaking from her own personal experience of the simple postpartum Ayurvedic practices available to us all. These practices will give you a good foundation so you can enjoy the beautiful bonding time with your baby you hoped for! $30 before 4/28; $35/day of. Your Community Yoga Center, 39 Putnam Ave, Hamden.

203-287-2277. YourCommunityYoga.com.

April 2018

39

ongoingevents

Guided Meditation Circle – 10am-11am. A weekly meditation Circle in a very relaxed setting using mindfulness meditations, discussions about mindfulness and how to have a successful practice.

No experience necessary. $10 Investment. Healing Room, 10 Carina Rd, North Haven. Please call: 203-214-9486.

sunday Mystical Market and Craft Fair – 11am-4pm.

(The 3rd Sunday of every month). Psychics, vendors, artisans, holistic practitioners & more. Free admission, vendor’s fees vary. The Ruby Tree, Sherman Village Shopping Center, 670 Main St South, Woodbury. 203-586-1655, Christina@therubytreect. com, TheRubyTreeCT.com.

Nature and Play for Children w/ Autism / Other Developmental Delays – 2:30pm-4:30pm. (April 15; May 13 & June 10). Do you have a child aged 8–12 with autism and other developmental delays?

Play group gently led by Ranger Amie, will explore ways to introduce your child to playing indoors and outdoors at the Nature Center. Activities include meeting animal friends, taking a walk or easy hike, and nature crafts. Children must be accompanied by an adult for the duration of the class. Free. Group limited to 10 children with adult. Session 1 activity: Vernal Pools. Ansonia Nature Ctr, 10 Deerfield Rd, Ansonia. Preregister: 203-736-1053.

See Me As I Am-Women’s Soul Circle Leesa Sklover Ph.D, LPC, C-IAYT – 4pm-6pm. (last Sunday of each month). Learn techniques to heal your mind. Ideas and story to know and plan peace for us all, in challenging times. ($35). Location: LoveLifeProductions, Branford. 917-860-0488.

DrSklover@gmail.com. LoveLifeProductions.net.

Queer Dharma – 7:30pm-9pm. A forum for practice and discussion relating all dharma traditions and the experience and concerns of LGBTQI individuals and their friends. All are warmly welcome regardless of experience, spiritual tradition, age, sex, gender identity, or sexual/affectional orientation. Each meeting will include meditation instruction, practice, readings and discussion. Free. The Shambhala Center of New Haven, 85 Willow Street, New Haven, Building B. NewHaven.Shambala.org.

Yoga with Marlene – 10:30am & 7:15pm.

Yoga classes for all ages and problems in a serene atmosphere with emphasis on stress-management.

1221 Village Walk. Guilford. Info: 203-453-5360.

Meditation – 1:30pm. Silent, sitting meditation for anyone to attend. For all levels. Beginners welcome!

Meditation begins and ends promptly on time.

Donation-based event; no set fees. New England Meditation Center, 455 Boston Rd, Old Saybrook.

For more information, visit: https://www.meetup. com/New-England-Meditation-Center/events.

Meditation Mondays – 6pm-7pm.Offered every Monday at Elm City Wellness. A 7pm meditation will be added if the 6pm class is full. Classroom is small, so reserve your spot in advance. $5. 774 Orange St, New Haven. 203-691-7653 or ElmCityWellness.com.

Women’s Guided Mindfulness Meditation Group – 7pm-8pm. Ladies are you stressed? High Demands? Take a moment in a safe space and learn how to set intentions to help focus and regroup. All levels welcome. Meditations run 30-45 minutes in length. Mondays/ $10. Location: Now n’ Then Therapeutic Massage, 187 Montowese St, Branford.

Contact Anna to register 203-871-9367 or register online at DandelionWellnessCT.com.

Qigong for Health – 7pm-8pm. Learn a practice that invigorates the internal energy, relieves stress, tones and stretches the muscles and connects the mind and body. $15/class.

Tranquil Mountain Internal Arts. Location: Shoreline Center for Wholistic Health, 35 Boston St, Guilford. Info: 860-301-6433. tmiarts.com.

tuesday

monday

Yoga with Marlene – 9:30am & 6:30pm. Yoga classes for all ages and problems in a serene atmosphere with emphasis on stress-management. 1221 Village Walk. Guilford. Info: 203-453-5360.

Pilates/Barre Community Class – 8am. This class is a mix between pilates moves to strengthen core muscles and the Barre technique to sculpt and lean our arms and legs. Discount price of $10.00 cash/ check or $12.00 credit card. Kneading Hands Yoga & Massage, 760 Main St S, Unit F, Southbury.

203-267-4417. KneadingHands.net.

Healthy-Steps, The Lebed Method w/Susan Sandel – 3:45pm-4:45pm. Gentle therapeutic exercise/mvmnt prog. Helpful for breast cancer survivors/chronic health conditions. Free. Sponsored by Middlesex Hospital Cancer Center of Integrative Medicine. Location: Madison House, 34 Wildwood Ave, Madison. Details: 203-457-1656.

Visit CELC Middle School of Branford. Monday Tours – 9:45am-11am. Find out about the kind of middle school parents wish for! Academically rich real-world learning, personalized approach, 5h - 8th grade. Applications for 2018-19 academic year due by April 30. Contact: 203-433-4658. mandm@CTExperiential.org. CTExperiential.org.

Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement 5 Week Class Series – 6pm-7pm. Learn to move easily with simple movements that help to relieve pain and restore your body to its natural ease. $50 for 5 weeks or $15 drop in. Carol Meade Holistic Therapies Classroom, 15 South Elm St, Wallingford.

203-415-8666 or info@massage2movement.com.

40

New Haven/Middlesex

NaturalNewHaven.com

Free weekly Tuesday Meditation classes – 6pm7pm. (those who would like instruction can come at 5:45pm). Open to all and fully accessible. Instruction provided for beginners. No reservations necessary. Walk-ins welcome. Program offered in cooperation with New Haven Insight and the New Haven Zen Center. New Haven Free Public Library.

133 Elm St, New Haven. 203-946-8138.

Free Reiki Sessions: The Universal Reiki Plan – 7:30pm-8:30pm. (& 8:30pm-9:30pm Thurs).

Reiki teachers Jeannette and Jim of ReikiOvertones and students offer free Reiki sessions. Appt. only. Love offering appreciated. 95 Harris St, Fairfield. Details: Jim and Jeannette 203-254-3958. info@ReikiOvertones.com.

wednesday Emei Wujigong Qigong Group Practice – 12pm1pm. Experience a qigong form for rebalancing and strengthening body, mind and spirit. For all abilities and levels of health. Schedule Available online. 1st class free (reg. $5). Holistic Therapies Classroom, 15 South Elm St, Wallingford. Info: EmeiQigongChan.com.

Meditation – 1:30pm. Silent, sitting meditation for anyone to attend. For all levels. Beginners welcome!

Meditation begins and ends promptly on time.

Donation-based event; no set fees. New England Meditation Center, 455 Boston Rd, Old Saybrook.

For more information, visit: https://www.meetup. com/New-England-Meditation-Center/events.

Stony Creek Yoga for Stress Relief – 5:45pm-7pm.

Classes led by Gina Macdonald MA, LPC. Sessions include breathing techniques, yoga poses and relaxation techniques. Emphasis on movement, flow and release of tension.. Beginning yoga experience recommended along with loose clothing and a yoga mat. Newcomers please arrive early. $10/session.

Willoughby Wallace Library. 146 Thimble Island Rd, Stony Creek. Contact Gina: 203-710-6665.

Centering Prayer – 6pm-7pm. Mercy by the Sea sponsors two ongoing Centering Prayer groups.

A weekly prayer group is held every Wednesday evening from 6pm-7pm in the chapel. A second Centering Prayer session is held monthly on the first Saturday of the month. There is no charge for the sessions, however, free-will donations are always appreciated. No prior experience in Centering Prayer is required. For more information, call: 203-245-0401 or visit: MercyBytheSea.org.

Alignment Yoga – 6pm-7:15pm. With Iyengar Teacher Training Graduate. Refine your yoga practice with optimal alignment practices that make you stronger, more flexible, and more emotionally stable. Yoga in Middletown, 438 Main St, Middletown. 860-347-YOGA (9642). YogaInMiddletown.

The Caring Network: Free Support Group for adults who have lost a loved one – 6pm-8pm. (4/4 & 4/18). Information about loss and grief. Facilitated open discussion. Bridges, 949 Bridgeport Avenue, Milford, For information or brochure: Cody-White Funeral Home, 203-874-0268 or Facilitator Cynthia Dodd, M. Div, 203-878-6365 ext 344.

friday

Meditation In the World at Guest House Retreat – 7pm-8pm. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced meditator, join us every week as we are led in the practice of focusing our awareness. Helping you find calm within everyday demands and stress.

Free. 318 West Main St, Chester. 860-322-5770.

Yoga with Marlene – 9:30am. Yoga classes for all ages and problems in a serene atmosphere with emphasis on stress-management. 1221 Village Walk.

Guilford. Info: 203-453-5360.

thursday

Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement Class – 10:30am-11:30am. It only takes an hour to feel good again. Aren’t you worth it? $15 drop in or class cards. Carol Meade Holistic Therapies Classroom, 15 South Elm St, Wallingford. 203-4158666 or info@massage2movement.com.

The Milford Chamber’s ‘Health & Wellness Council’ – 8:30am-9:30am. (2nd Thurs. monthly).

Group is comprised of businesses in the health and wellness industry. 5 Broad St, Milford. 203-8780681. prisco@priscopr.com, Milfordct.com.

Intuitive Readings w/Susane Grasso – 11am-3pm.

Usui and Karuna Reiki Master and Clairvoyant Susane sees auras/mirrors of soul/emotions and physical being. Now also a certified Doreen Virtue Angel Reader. $1/min. Enchanted, 1250 Boston Post Rd, Guilford. 203-453-4000. EnchantedGuilfordct.com.

Kundalini Yoga and Music Meditation – 9:30am10:30am. Experience the yoga of awareness weekly to heal your mind and your life. All levels, live music. Each week focuses on a different theme (ex: mind, heart, Intuition). All welcome-any physical limitations. Led by Certified Yoga Therapist, Kundalini Yoga Teacher Leesa Sklover, Ph.D, C-IAYT of LoveLifeProductions.net. Register for first class. Monthly discount /$15 per class. Short Beach Union Church 14 Pentacost St, Branford, 917-860-0488 or DrSklover@gmail.com.

Ropes Yoga – 10am-11am. With Iyengar Teacher Training Graduate. Experience yoga poses in new and liberating ways. Therapeutic and challenging.

Great for scoliosis and back problems. Expert instruction since 1991. Yoga in Middletown, 438 Main St, Middletown, 860-347-YOGA (9642).

YogaInMiddletown.com.

Yoga with Marlene – 10am & 6:30pm.Yoga classes for all ages and problems in a serene atmosphere with emphasis on stress-management. 1221 Village Walk. Guilford. Info: 203-453-5360.

Emei Wujigong Qigong Group Practice – 6:30pm7:30pm. (Every Thurs. except the 1st Thurs. of month). Experience a qigong form for rebalancing and strengthening body, mind and spirit. For all abilities and levels of health. Schedule Available online. 1st class free (reg. $5). Holistic Therapies Classroom, 15 South Elm St, Wallingford. Info: EmeiQigongChan.com.

Qigong Group Healing & Silent Meditation – 6:30pm-8pm. (1st Thurs. of the month). All levels of health addressed. No experience necessary. Fee: donation. Holistic Therapies Classroom, 15 South Elm St, Wallingford. Contact Pat for more information if this is 1st attendance: 203-500-6492.

The Heart of Recovery – 7:30pm-9pm, a weekly meditation and recovery group for those recovering from addictions of all kinds. We will honor the traditions of anonymity, confidentiality and no cross-talk.

Meetings will include meditation instruction, practice, readings and discussion. Free. The Shambhala Center of New Haven, 85 Willow St, Building B, New Haven.Shambala.org.

saturday Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement 5 Week Class Series – 9am-10am. Learn to move easily with simple movements that help to relieve pain and restore your body to its natural ease. $50 for 5 weeks or $15 drop in. Carol Meade Holistic Therapies Classroom, 15 South Elm St, Wallingford.

203-415-8666 or info@massage2movement.com.

Alignment Yoga with Iyengar Teacher Training Graduate – 9am-10:30am. Refine your yoga practice with optimal alignment practices that make you stronger, more flexible and more emotionally stable.

Yoga in Middletown, 438 Main St, Middletown.

860-347-YOGA (9642). YogaInMiddletown.com.

Kundalini Yoga and Music Meditation – 9:30am10:30am. Experience the yoga of awareness weekly to heal your mind and your life. All levels, live music. Each week focuses on a different theme (ex: mind, heart, Intuition). All welcome-any physical limitations. Led by Certified Yoga Therapist, Kundalini Yoga Teacher Leesa Sklover, Ph.D, C-IAYT of LoveLifeProductions.net. Register for first class. Monthly discount /$15 per class. Short Beach Union Church 14 Pentacost St, Branford, 917-860-0488 or DrSklover@gmail.com.

ReikiShare: The Universal Reiki Plan – 11am1:30pm. Pre-register to share Reiki and join in a FREE workshop to make it a Reiki day!

The 3rd Sat. of every month. Free (“love offering”). Bloodroot Rest. 85 Ferris St, Bridgeport.

Reservation only. Jim or Jeannette: 203-254-3958. info@ReikiOvertones.com.

Meditation – 1:30pm. Silent, sitting meditation for anyone to attend. For all levels. Beginners welcome!

Meditation begins and ends promptly on time. Lecture every other Saturday. Donation-based event; no set fees. New England Meditation Center, 455 Boston Rd, Old Saybrook. For more information, visit: https://www.meetup.com/New-EnglandMeditation-Center/events.

become our fan at facebook.com/NaturalNewHavenPage

Yoga with Marlene – 6:30pm. Yoga classes for all ages and problems in a serene atmosphere with emphasis on stress-management. 1221 Village Walk.

Guilford. Info: 203-453-5360.

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classifieds

COSMETIC ACUPUNCTURE

ALS SUPPORT THE ALS ASSOCIATION CONNECTICUT CHAPTER – Leading the fight to treat and cure ALS through research & advocacy while empowering people w/Lou Gehrig’s Disease and their families to live fuller lives w/compassionate care & support. 4 Oxford Road, Unit D4. Milford. 203-874-5050. WebCT.alsa.org.

EXPERIENCE A TOTAL REJUVENATION – from Ancient Chinese healing arts to brighten your face and soothe your body. You’ll receive a luxurious organic facial. Followed by Dr. Lomartra’s skillful use of hair-fine needles to improve circulation and increase natural collagen for glowing skin. Special Offer: 45 Min $99 +Consult Fee. Call Now: 203-488-4400.

234 E Main St, Branford. AuraDaySpaCT.com.

DISTRIBUTORS WANTED BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES CAREER OPPORTUNITY IN PRESTIGIOUS SALON – For as little as $65 per week, you can own your own business, make your own hours, keep 100% of your sales in an established state of the art salon & spa. Fear no more of opening your own salon due to the costly start-up expenses. Do not wait to move on this opportunity. Call 203-980-3163.

START A CAREER YOU CAN BE PASSIONATE ABOUT – Publish your own Natural Awakenings magazine. Home based business complete with comprehensive training and support system. New franchises are available or purchase a magazine that is currently publishing. Call 239-530-1377 or visit NaturalAwakeningsmag.com/mymagazine.

DISTRIBUTORS WANTED – For monthly deliveries of Natural Awakenings and other local publications. Perfect for a retired person or stay at home mom looking to earn some extra income and connect with their local community. Honesty and dependability are the most important characteristics of our distributors. Thomas@ManInMotionLLC.com.

INTUITIVE READINGS AT ENCHANTED INTUITIVE READINGS AT ENCHANTED DAILY – 11am-3pm. Akashic, Angel, Aura, Clairvoyant, Goddess, Mediumship, Runes, Tarot, Tea Leaf Readings offered from eight world-class intuitives and masters. $1/minute. Enchanted 1250 Boston Post Rd ,Guilford. 203-453-4000. For more information and a schedule of who is available each day visit EnchantedGuilford.com.

LYME DISEASE AMERICAN LYME DISEASE FOUNDATION – Dedicated to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment, of Lyme disease and other tick-borne infections. Lyme, CT. Info: aldf.com.

MEDICAL/INTUITIVE HYPNOTIST HYPNOSIS THERAPY CENTER – There is a meaning behind every ailment and condition people have. It's your body speaking to you. If you are tired of being sick and are ready to help yourself heal, then consider having a Discovery Session so you can learn the cause and 'cure.' Madison. 203-245-6927.

PARKINSON’S SUPPORT CONNECTICUT CHAPTER, AMERICAN PARKINSON DISEASE ASSOCIATION – Mission: “To Ease the Burden, To Find A Cure” for those w/Parkinson’s Disease and their caregivers in CT. Education, support and socialization. 860-2489200, ctapda.org.

Coming Next Month

Life Balance

M A Y

plus: Natural Care First May articles include:

Maintain Healthy Habits • Exercise for Menopause Cats Help Relieve Stress • Alternative Healing

To advertise or participate in our next issue, call 203-988-1808 42

New Haven/Middlesex

NaturalNewHaven.com

As a Natural Awakenings publisher, you can empower yourself and others to create a healthier world while working from your home earning an income doing something you LOVE! No publishing experience is necessary. You’ll work for yourself but not by yourself.

We offer a complete training and support system that allows you to successfully publish your own magazine.

• Low Initial Investment • Proven Business System • Home-Based Business • Exceptional Franchise Support & Training • Publish One of the Nation’s Leading Healthy Living Magazines!

Contact us about acquiring an existing publication FOR SALE highlighted in RED* Natural Awakenings publishes in over 80 markets across the U.S., Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic (listed below).

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Gulf Coast AL/MS* Phoenix, AZ Tucson, AZ San Diego, CA Denver, CO Fairfield County/ HousatonicValley, CT Hartford, CT New Haven/Middlesex, CT Washington, DC Daytona/Volusia/Flagler, FL NW FL Emerald Coast Ft. Lauderdale, FL Jacksonville/St. Augustine, FL Miami & the Florida Keys Naples/Ft. Myers, FL North Central FL* Central Florida/Greater Orlando Palm Beach, FL Sarasota, FL Space & Treasure Coast, FL Tampa/St. Pete., FL Atlanta, GA Hawaiian Islands Southern, ID Chicago, IL Chicago Western Suburbs, IL Indianapolis, IN Acadiana, LA New Orleans, LA Boston, MA Ann Arbor, MI East Michigan Wayne County, MI Western MI Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN Charlotte, NC Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, NC* Southeast, NC Bergen/Passaic, NJ*

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Central, NJ Hudson County, NJ Monmouth/Ocean, NJ North Central NJ South NJ Santa Fe/Albuquerque, NM* Las Vegas, NV Albany, NY Long Island, NY Hudson Valley W., NY Manhattan, NY* Westchester/Putnam/ Dutchess Co’s., NY Central OH Oklahoma City, OK Portland, OR Bucks/Montgomery Counties, PA Chester/Delaware Counties, PA South Central PA Lancaster/Berks, PA Lehigh Valley, PA Northeast, PA Philadelphia, PA Rhode Island Charleston, SC Columbia, SC Greenville, SC* Chattanooga, TN Austin, TX* Dallas, TX Houston, TX San Antonio, TX* South Houston/Galveston, TX Richmond, VA Inland Northwest, WA Seattle, WA* Madison, WI* Milwaukee, WI Dominican Republic Puerto Rico

* Existing magazines for sale

For more information: NaturalAwakenings.com/MyMagazine or call 239-530-1377

Natural Awakenings Magazine is ranked 5th Nationally in CISION’S® 2016 Top 10 Health & Fitness Magazines

• • • • • • • • • •

Or start a magazine in an OPEN TERRITORY Los Angeles, CA Sacramento, CA San Francisco, CA Santa Barbara/Ventura, CA Santa Clara Co., CA Louisville, KY Southern, MA Kansas City, MO Saint Louis, MO Bronx, NY

* Inquire about other open areas

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Brooklyn/Staten Island, NY Upstate, NY Cincinnati, OH Cleveland, OH Tulsa, OK Pittsburgh, PA Nashville, TN Ft. Worth, TX Plano, TX Salt Lake City, UT

April 2018

43

community resource guide APPLIED KINESIOLOGY KC CHIROPRACTIC & WELLNESS Kevin Healy, DC 17 Woodland Road, Madison, CT 203-245-9317 KevinHealy@sbcglobal.net DrHealMe.com

Applied Kinesiology is a neurological evaluation to find and treat dysfunction. Different because it addresses causes instead of chasing pains, Dr. Healy tests if a therapy alleviates dysfunction, finding immediate answers as to which provides the most improvement.

Chiropractic, craniosacral, myofascial and acupressure are among the therapies Dr. Healy uses. Generally, no single cure exists as disease and dysfunction typically involve multiple areas of the body. The goal of any therapy—physical, chemical, or emotional—is to improve function; a combination of therapies typically yields the best results. See ad on page 10.

COUPLES THERAPY COACHING & RETREATS NANCY BUTLER, MSW, LCSW

860-767-0281

Improve communication, increase understanding, learn caring ways to resolve conflict.Nancy Butler brings 25 years of experience to her compassionate and effective work with couples. Weekly Sessions: • In-depth 3 Session Relationship Consultation • Communication Coaching • Individual Couples Intensive Weekend Retreats.

EDUCATION CONNECTICUT EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING CENTER (CELC) MIDDLE SCHOOL 28 School Street, Branford, CT 203-433-4658 mandm@CTExperiential.org http://CTEXperiential.org

CT Experiential Learning Center (CELC) Middle School provides experientially-based education with a personalized approach to learning, designed to empower young people to thrive. Our students come from a variety of towns throughout Connecticut, from families looking for a program that engages and deepens learning, where their children can flourish during these important and impactful 5th - 8th grade years. See ad on page 27.

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New Haven/Middlesex

EDUCATION Continued

MASSAGE & ACUPUNCTURE ELM CITY WELLNESS

THE GRADUATE INSTITUTE (TGI)

Accredited, Non-profit Graduate School offering holistic programs in contemporary & emerging fields 171 Amity Road, Bethany, CT 203-874-4252 Learn.edu The Graduate Institute offers holistic master’s degrees and certificate programs for adult learners. Programs include Integrative Health and Healing, Ecotherapy and Cultural Sustainability, Writing and Oral Tradition, Organizational Leadership, and more. Programs are just one weekend a month.

See ad on page 19.

HOLISTIC DENTIST MARK A. BREINER, DDS, FIAOMT

501 Kings Highway East, Suite 108 Fairfield, CT 203-371-0300 WholeBodyDentistry.com Dr. Mark A. Breiner is a pioneer and recognized authority in the field of holistic dentistry. With over 30 years of experience, he is a sought after speaker and lecturer. His popular consumer book, Whole-Body Dentistry, has been sold worldwide. See ad on page 29.

HYPNOSIS LIFE DESIGN HYPNOSIS, LLC

Patricia Babey, BS Certified Hypnotist Certified Pain Management Specialist Certified Reiki II Practitioner Madison, CT 06443 203-980-0022 LifeDesignHypnosis.com A client centered practice created to assist you in improving every aspect of your life by tapping into the natural power of your brain.

Release weight, stop smoking, reduce stress, and manage pain.

You can change just about anything with hypnosis.

Each session is personal, customized and tailored for you. Don’t let your brain hold you back any longer from achieving the lifelong dreams you deserve. Free consultations. See ad on page 11.

NaturalNewHaven.com

774 Orange Street New Haven, CT 203-691-7653 ElmCityWellness.com

Elm City Wellness is an independently owned wellness center whose services include a variety of massage, community & private acupuncture, Reiki, craniosacral therapy & facials with locally made Ayurvedic & organic products. Our skilled therapists specifically tailor each and every session. Our gift shop features local products, candles, wellness supplies & books, smudge kits and much more.

MENTAL HEALTH COUNSELING ANNAHAVEN BEHAVIORAL HEALTH SERVICES, LLC

Anna Martin, BSW, MSW, LCSW 410 State St, North Haven, CT 30 Hazel Terrace, Woodbridge, CT 377 Main St, West Haven, CT 203-606-2071 CounselingWithAnnaMartin.com

YOU deserve to be happy.

AHBHS helps with depression, anxiety, PTSD, OCD, Obesity, agarophobia, domestic violence, ADD, ADHD and anger management. Phone,internet,skype and office sessions. Evening and weekend hours are available. Most insurance accepted, including Medicaid, Medicare and Husky.

community resource guide NATUROPATHIC PHYSICIANS WHOLE-BODY MEDICINE, LLC

Adam Breiner, ND, Director Elena Sokolova, MD, ND David Brady, ND, CCN, DACBN 501 Kings Highway East, Suite 108 Fairfield, CT 203-371-8258 WholeBodyMed.com Using state-of-the-art science combined with centuries-old healing modalities, our caring naturopathic doctors correct underlying imbalances and address issues which may interfere with the body’s abilityto heal itself. Treatment protocols or therapies include: Abdominal Manual Therapy, Acupuncture, Allergy Desensitization, Chinese Medicine, Colonics and other Detoxification Protocols, Electro-Dermal Screening, Energy Medicine, FDA-cleared Phototherapy, Functional Medicine, Herbal Medicine, Homeopathy, Hormonal Balancing, Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, Metabolic Typing, Nutritional Assessment, Real-Time EEG Neurofeedback, and other therapies. See ad on page 29.

PHYSICAL THERAPY PHYSICAL THERAPY SERVICES OF GUILFORD 500 East Main Street, Suite 310, Branford, CT 203-315-7727 (Phone) 203-315-7757 (Fax) PhysicalTherapyGuilford.com

At Physical Therapy Services of Guilford, we specialize in manual therapy using hands-on techniques to help the body’s natural healing process. We also incorporate traditional programs and modalities to maximize health. 40-minute sessions are conducted one-on-one in private treatment rooms. See Profile on page 29.

REIKI SUSANE GRASSO, RMT 2489 Boston Post Road Guilford, CT 203-500-6950

Stress is the plague of the 21st century and the cause of physical and emotional woes. Because of this, my sessions combine my ability to see auras with Reiki, Theta Healing, acupressure and Sound Vibrational Healing to provide deep relaxation and balance. “Tension out! Wellness in” is more than a phrase. For my clients it is a statement of fact. See Profile on page 11.

SALT HEALING THERAPY WELLNESS CENTER

WEIGHT LOSS LIFE DESIGN HYPNOSIS, LLC

Patricia Babey, BS Certified Hypnotist Certified Pain Management Specialist Certified Reiki II Practitioner Madison, CT 06443 203-980-0022 LifeDesignHypnosis.com A client centered practice created to assist you in improving every aspect of your life by tapping into the natural power of your brain.

Release weight, stop smoking, reduce stress, and manage pain.

You can change just about anything with hypnosis.

Each session is personal, customized and tailored for you. Don’t let your brain hold you back any longer from achieving the lifelong dreams you deserve. Free consultations. See ad on page 11.

SALT OF THE EARTH THERAPEUTIC SPA

787 Main St, S Woodbury, CT 203-586-1172 NaturalSaltHealing.com Combining an array of natural therapies that have been used since ancient times with today’s technology, Salt of the Earth Spa provides a sanctuary for deep transformations, healing and grounding for Mind, Body and Spirit.

See ad on page 25.

SMOKING CESSATION LIFE DESIGN HYPNOSIS, LLC

Patricia Babey, BS Certified Hypnotist Certified Pain Management Specialist Certified Reiki II Practitioner Madison, CT 06443 203-980-0022 LifeDesignHypnosis.com

YOGA FRESH YOGA

319 Peck Street, NewHaven, CT 203-776-9642 info@freshyoga.com FreshYoga.com @freshyogact Fresh Yoga is New Haven’s only donations-based studio. Our classes are offered on a sliding scale basis along with $5 community classes, and Seva Saturdays which are always no-minimum donation. Experienced instructors offer a variety of classes from yin and restorative to power vinyasa. We also host national workshops and teacher trainings. Fresh Yoga provides the highest quality yoga while maximizing the possibility of making yoga and mindfulness accessible to all.

A client centered practice created to assist you in improving every aspect of your life by tapping into the natural power of your brain.

Release weight, stop smoking, reduce stress, and manage pain.

You can change just about anything with hypnosis.

Each session is personal, customized and tailored for you. Don’t let your brain hold you back any longer from achieving the lifelong dreams you deserve. Free consultations. See ad on page 11.

April 2018

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NATURAL AWAKENINGS NETWORK MEET OUR PROVIDERS

NaturalAwakeningsNetwork.com

Calling All Holistic and Green Businesses!

Interested in becoming a Provider?

Information: 203-988-1808 Gail@naturalnewhaven.com DURHAM Continued

AMSTON

DANCING WITH ANGELS LIFE COACHING

A PLACE OF HEALING

Kelly Ann Matuskiewicz 203-747-8444 KellyAnnCory.com

Diana R. Carr 860-349-9542 DianaCarr.wordpress.com

BETHANY

S.M. Cooper Photographic Artist 203-393-9545 SMCooper.com

BRANFORD

Adam Church, D.C. 203-466-1111 Dr.Church.com

PRANIC HEALING NOW

EMPOWER MASSAGE

Nancy Ogilvie 917-331-8531 PranicHealingNow.com

Christopher Chialastri, LMT#005812 Home Visits for Massage Therapy 203-430-3163 EmpowerMassage.abmp.com

CHESHIRE

SERENITY HEALING PLACE

ESSEX

Kim Nagle 203-565-6495 SerenityHealingPlace.com

DOROTHY MARTIN-NEVILLE, PhD

DURHAM

CASHMAN NUTRITION

Natalie Cashman 860-398-4621 CashmanNutrition.com

DURHAM NATUROPATHIC HEALTH & WELLNESS CENTER

New Haven/Middlesex

860-873-8760 CTFFE.com

ATLAS CHIROPRACTIC

Jasmine Manning, N.D. 203-315-6246

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CT FARM FRESH EXPRESS, LLC

EAST HAVEN

NATURAL FAMILY HEALTH

Jason Belejack, N.D. 203-824-7428 DurhamNaturopathichealth.com

EAST HADDAM

HAMDEN

COLOR ESSENCE

Joan S. Gilbert 828-551-0420 JoanSusan.star@gmail.com

DENNY CHIROPRACTIC & ACUPUNCTURE Eileen Denny, D.C. 203-407-8468 DennyWellness.com

JUNE CAN CHANNEL

June Can, Reiki Master Practitioner International Channel & Medium junehcan@gmail.com http://junecanchannel.blogspot.com

LISA LAUGHLIN, N.D

475-227-2773 NaturopathicWellnessLLC.com

TAKE SHAPE FOR LIFE

Marni Esposito 203-430-1009 YouCanLiveHealthyNow.tsfl.com

THE TAX GUY

Psychotherapy-Adults in Transition Emotional & Spiritual Aspects in Health Care 860-461-7569 DrDorothyct.com

Thomas Fortuna 203-684-3512 TheTaxGuy.us

GUILFORD

Anita Jones, RMT 203-415-4791 TranquilHealingReiki.com

EVERLASTINGS ORGANIC SALON & SPA

203-458-1298 EverlastingsSalon.com

MASSAGE SAVVY

203-453-8667 MassageSavvyCT.com

NaturalNewHaven.com

TRANQUIL HEALING REIKI, LLC

MADISON

COASTAL CHIROPRACTIC AND WELLNESS Keith Mirante, D.C. 203-245-8217 DrMirante.com

MILFORD continued ROI MARKETING OF NEW ENGLAND Bob Kademian 866-306-9799 Bob@BizCoachBob.com

TINA KADISH

WALLINGFORD L.O.V.E.

Lghtworker of Vibrational Energy LLC Gayle Franceschetti 203-265-2927 Return2Love.net

MIDDLEFIELD

Life and Health Mentor 203-610-7477 LifeisIdeal.com

WATERBURY

860-349-7039 SolutionsByHypnosis.com

NEW HAVEN

Sports Medicine Dr. Joel Segalman, M.D. 203-270-6724 DrSegalman.com

MARY ELLEN MONEYMAKER HYPNOTIST

MIDDLETOWN

CONNECTICUT YOGA CENTER

860-986-2017 CTYogaCenter.com

YOGA IN MIDDLETOWN 860-347-YOGA (9642) YogainMiddletown.com

MILFORD

CHIROPRACTIC & WELLNESS CENTER OF MILFORD Elizabeth Rumley, D.C. 203-713-8600 CWCofMilford.com

HEALTHY FOODS PLUS Natural/Organic Foods/Gluten-Free Vitamins/Supplements/Beauty Aids 203-882-9011

IMPRESSIONS SERVICES Raymond Daneault 800-217-1963 ImpressionsClean.com

JOANN DUNSING HYPNOSIS Joann Dunsing 203-907-7710 JoannDunsing.com

LYNN LYONS

Wt. Release/Loss/HypnoBirthing 203-415-8567 LynnALyons.com

MARCY DOLAN, N.D.

Milford, CT 475-282-4112 DoctorDolan@hotmail.com

NATUROPATHIC SPECIALTIES, LLC Dr. Florence McPherson 203-685-5795 Dr.FloMcPherson.com

PATTY SCHEIN

Holistic Counseling 203-878-3140 PattyScheinLMFT.com

THE SERENE SPOT Anaika Ocasio 203-400-1293 TheSereneSpot.com

CHASE PARKWAY PODIATRIC GROUP, LLC

WEB-BASED BUSINESSES

NORTH HAVEN

GREEN & GLOBAL MEDIA, LLC

Candice Pollack, D.C. 203-691-5581 Apmct.com

LGN CONSULTING

ADVANCED PHYSICAL MEDICINE CHIROPRACTIC AND WELLNESS CENTER

INNER HARMONY HOLISTIC WELLNESS

Karen Obier, Reflexologist 203-645-2188 InnerHarmonyHolisticWellness.abmp.com

STEAMATIC OF CT Vincent Farricielli 203-985-8000 SteamaticCT.com

KellyAnn Carpenter 203-533-9823 GreenandGlobalMedia.com Lisa Nastu 203-301-4109 LGNConsulting.com

LIFETIME HEALTH

Venice Walters 203-507-0889 YORHealth.com/LifetimeHealth1

LIVER MEDIC

800-387-2278 LiverMedic.com

ORANGE

SUCCESS MARKETING, LLC

David Durso, D.C. 203-553-9300 StayBalancedCT.com

ZAHAVAH RAW BEAUTY

BALANCED HEALTH FAMILY CHIROPRACTIC

PORTLAND

Michael Guerin 888-542-2936 BestWebPresence.com

Aadil Al-Alim & Faith Bredwood 203-389-0089 Zahavah.co

STAIRWAY 2 HEAVEN Holistic Center

WEST HAVEN

TRUMBULL

Robert Rubino, D.C. 203-933-9404 RubinoBackCare.com

860-770-2126 Stairway2Heaven.net

SERENITY BODY WELLNESS Rosa Cervoni, LMT #003111 Reflexologist/Reiki Practitioner 203-929-1002 SerenityBodyWellness.com

RUBINO CHIROPRACTIC CENTER

WOODBRIDGE THRIVE CHIROPRACTIC AND WELLNESS Katey Hauser, D.C. 203-387-5015

WOODBURY

ALISON BIRKS, MS, RH (AHG), CNS

New Morning Market 203-263-4868 NewMorn.com

April 2018

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T I P S, TOOLS & I N S P I R AT I O N FOR EMPOWERED LIVING

LIFEPOWER.COM 48

New Haven/Middlesex

NaturalNewHaven.com