From the moment I woke up, I knew it was going to be a bad day. Not because it was a Monday, though that didn’t help. And the cold rain pelting against my windows didn’t help, either. No, I knew that it was guaranteed to be a Very Bad Day because I had slept through my alarm clock and woke up two hours late. I’m in business for myself so normally my boss would have cut me some slack, but on this particular Monday, I was on deadline to write an article and hand it in by 5 p.m.—just seven hours away. I didn’t have a first draft and hadn’t even decided on a topic yet. Sometimes, with the help of adrenaline, I can wing it, but I was sure that I wouldn’t be able to this time.
Kintsugi and the Art of Mending the Broken Heart
Try to remember a time you held something fragile in your hands. You were so careful not to damage it by holding too tightly, but your grip had to be firm enough to keep it secure. Now, imagine that in the next moment it slips from your fingertips and falls to the ground in slow motion. You know that whether you swipe at it or stand in frozen disbelief, the end result is the same. You are left gaping at the broken pieces and wishing you could take back the last three seconds.
Plant Medicine and Magic
When people ask what drew me to herbalism, there are two stories that I tell. One is of my time working in the Mojave desert, where my boss—a botanist by training—would point out various native plants and tell me snippets of how the indigenous people of the area used them for food or medicine (he always spoke of this in the past tense). For him, it was an interesting tidbit of information, but I thought, “couldn’t we still?” This story is true, but the deeper truth goes back many years, to my childhood.
Psychic Shields - Protecting Yourself from Negative Energies
The moon hid behind clouds in the night sky, as I stumbled my way through fresh snow headed for the barn. Even using my cell phone as a flashlight, I was barely able to see two steps in front of me. Crossing the threshold in the dark, I could sense the mold and mustiness that clung to the wooden structure, which appeared quite new. I reminded myself to even my breathing, while searching for a light switch, which I finally found behind the door.
Pandemic Q+A’s for the Community Leaders on our Anniversary Cover
For our 25th Anniversary Issue, we invited eight well-respected leaders in the regional conscious living community, all of whom have been on our cover before, to gather together for a cover photo shoot to help us celebrate. (Plus, since it was our anniversary issue, we asked our founder/publisher, too.)
It turned out to be on Thursday, March 12th, the eve of the national pandemic lockdown.
Thankfully, they are all well, and so we asked them to tell us what they have been up to since that fateful evening, and what they have been thinking about during these months of sheltering in place. Here are their answers…
Healers of Ann Arbor
You can try a new type of massage or read a chiropractor’s online reviews, but how do you really know when a healing modality is right for you? This new column, from tech and wellness journalist and meditation coach Laura K. Cowan goes in depth with local healers to give you a behind the scenes look at what they really do to help people relax and heal.
Green Living: More Than the Three R’s: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle… Rot
When thinking about ways to be more sustainable, recycling is often the first option that comes to mind. Sustainability is often presented to us in the neat and tidy rule of three: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. However, recycling should actually be viewed more as a last-ditch effort since most materials can only be recycled a few times before hitting the landfill. Instead, the focus needs to be centered around the Five R’s: Refuse unsustainable products, Reduce the amount of resources you consume, Reuse or repurpose what you can, and Recycle anything possible before jumping directly to your trash can as the easiest method of disposal.
Stepping Into The Current of Wisdom
I recently came across a photo of an autumn leaf inside a hand. The veins of the leaf lined up with the lifelines of the palm, blending into one another. A beautiful image of our interconnectedness. I think of the psyche similarly, as an extension of nature, an invisible landscape with its various terrains, different weather patterns, and inhabitants.
Tea Time With Peggy-- Tea for Energy
To say that it is an interesting year would be an understatement. At best it feels like a surreal dream has covered the landscape of Michigan. Never in my life did I think that toilet paper would be worth more than gold, that I would long for more than just an intimate gathering of a few family members, that I would be sharing internet time with children going to school—let alone have the energy to keep up with them! Some days my brain is so foggy that I would need a better jump start than what a good strong cup of black or Oolong tea could offer. So, as an alternative to true tea, I have turned to tea combined with yerba mate.
A Conversation with Erin Stohl and Dan DeSena about Somatic-Oriented Psychotherapies
An Ann Arbor couple, Erin Stohl and Dan DeSena, has found a place within the local somatic psychotherapy community. I sat down with Stohl and DeSena, pre-pandemic, to learn about how they came to somatic psychotherapy, and how their experiences as somatic psychotherapists have impacted their relationship. Stohl and DeSena are both seeing patients via video chat and doing appointments by phone.
Leaps of Faith : Tales of Local Businesses, Fall 2020
This column is a look at a brave soul who took a leap of faith to open her own business . What follows is a personal profile of a business owner following her dreams and thriving despite the odds—and Covid.
Covid, Death, and Living in Flow
I just got off the phone with my mom and sisters discussing funeral arrangements for my father. He has COVID and he is dying. For the last days, we have been having zoom calls for several hours with him by the grace and compassion of the Canadian field hospital staff who make an iPad available for us each day. We sing, we read poems, meditations, and prayers, and share everything from our heart that we want him to hear. He is not responding and he is breathing the way dying people do: with big gaps of not breathing followed by a few shallow breaths in a row. We know however, that dying people hear everything being said to them so we don’t shy away from giving him our song and deep communication.
CW Kids in the Community: Love You From My Head To-ma-toes: Ann Arbor’s Immersive Farming Programs For Kids
In a busy age, and now in a time that encourages outdoor activities and social distancing, how do parents help their kids get the most out of outside play time? I recently looked into starting a small cut flower farm on land next to our home. It’s an amazing opportunity to expand my daughter’s knowledge—from watering plants around the house to a full-scale growing operation. This plan may take a few years, if we ever get through the experimental stage, but it got me thinking about how modern parents can get their kids involved in gardening if they don’t have a lot of space in their yard or schedule. Now that Covid is in the picture, we also wanted to check in with local educational and farming programs to find out what is still scheduled for kids.
Vestergaard Farms: Pasture-Raised Local Meats and Local Foods
This past winter I was eager to visit the newly built storefront of Vestergaard Farm, attractively situated on the farm property. Along with their farm raised meat, the store offers other goods from Matty’s Bakery in Saline, Zingerman’s coffee and treats, Calder Dairy products, The Brinery products, Aldente Pasta, Amaizin Pop Popcorn, honey, bath products, maple syrup, eggs, and many other locally sourced items.
Great Tastes in Local Food, Fall 2020
These locally-owned businesses are doing their best to accomodate pandemic restrictions and keep both customers and employees safe. While these reviews were written pre-pandemic, we’ve provided updated hours and services, but due to frequent restriction changes, please give them a call before visiting.
Book Reviews, Fall 2020
Whether you are new to Pema Chodron’s work, or you are already a fan, Welcoming The Unwelcome: Wholehearted Living in a Brokenhearted World, her first work in over seven years, is incredibly timely and sounds like a kind of mantra for 2020, or perhaps the entire decade. It seems either on a global scale, or a smaller more personal one, each and every one of us has something on our doorstep we would rather not let inside. Yet, allowing what we don’t desire to enter is precisely what we must do. As Chodron points out, it isn’t going anywhere.
Kathy Braun and the Role of Hypnotherapy in Healing
Kathy Braun, the Clinical Hypnotherapist of Ann Arbor Hypnotherapy, is my cousin. When she relocated to Ann Arbor about fifteen years ago we all wanted to hear about her hypnosis practice. I was interested, but skeptical. I thought the “hypnotic state” was fiction. Kathy wouldn’t talk about her practice—explaining that the sessions she has with her clients are strictly confidential. She preferred to talk about what she calls her “bragging rights” back in the day when she was in a New York Shakespeare Festival production of Measure for Measure starring Meryl Streep.
Namaste, Katie...Fall 2020
Whether you're a seasoned yogi or getting ready to roll out your mat for the first time,
here you'll find a variety of useful tips from local yoga instructor, Katie Hoener.
Hidden Gems: Green Spaces You Might Not Know About, but Need to Explore!
We’re fortunate to live in a city where nature is preserved. Over 200 parks continue to be open to the public during the pandemic in Ann Arbor, and studies have shown that being in nature makes us healthier, more creative, more empathetic, and more likely to pursue active engagement with the world around us. No wonder Gallup Park gets so crowded! If you’re looking for a quieter space to immerse yourself in nature, these three hidden gems are exceptional places to unplug.
Yin Feminism: Why We Need Balance More Than We Need a Female President
By Kathleen Ivanoff
What is missing in many feminist theories is that they do not address the historical and ongoing lack of valuing, cultivating, and supporting what has been traditionally associated with the feminine or “yin” side of life.
Yin and yang are terms that come from Taoism—a way of working with natural flow and balance that arose in ancient China and explains how the basic structure of all dualities, or pairs of opposites, must be in harmony if one wants to abide in peace, health, and happiness.
Here is a diagram to illustrate:
These two kinds of energies are expressed in nature, but through our long history of over-valuing only one side, our cultures, society, and nature itself, have become profoundly imbalanced. Yang energy (associated with masculine traits) is glorified and upheld as an ideal, while yin energy (assigned to the feminine) is denigrated and denied its value as an equal and necessary aspect of life. It is this imbalance, endorsed and disseminated through our most powerful cultural institutions—religion, education, and politics—that maintains the status quo. We have been duped into believing that yin/feminine/female is simply not as valuable as yang/masculine/male. This breakdown of categories, however, is only the most simplistic way of looking at it. Since human beings are also part of nature, everyone has both yin and yang characteristics, regardless of gender identification. Further, and most important, both of these energies can be expressed in both balanced and unbalanced ways.
For example, let’s take one very basic duality: action/rest. Action is associated with yang energy. Action in itself is not inherently positive or negative—it depends totally on what is needed to bring coherence to any given circumstance. The same can be said for its yin opposite, rest. Rest is not bad or good in itself, but a condition that is equally important for balance and harmony. Since the yang polarity is held superior, action is over-valued as a cultural norm. There is even a sense that every moment must be in service to “productivity.” Many feel nagging guilt because they fail to appease the voice in their head that is telling them they haven’t done enough, or are worried that if they pause, stop, and rest, they will lose the capacity to get up again. The speed of life has seemingly increased because we are immersed in conditions that are a result of profound imbalance—the cult of busyness, workaholism, and three coffee shops on the corner.
Now consider action’s opposite—rest. It’s obvious we absolutely do not consider rest to be as important as action—it is more like something that we must do in order to get back to the “real” business of being productive. Many people, even when they are desperately wishing to be able to let go of the day, find they have trouble sleeping, or return from a vacation feeling even more exhausted. We simply do not prioritize the very real need to do nothing—to stop taking in stimulation and responding to it, to have gaps and spaces in our day that allow us to rest, and to actually do less in winter, and not feel defeated. Rest is not a better state than action. It is, and always has been, its equal. But we do not treat it that way.
Everyone benefits when they look into themselves and see how they are currently manifesting both sides of any pair of opposites and try to adjust toward what is needed to feel and function well. It is simple in theory, but it soon becomes obvious that even if we agree to needed change, the velocity of habits coming from internalized societal values pushes back when we try to prioritize differently. If you recognize this as true, ask yourself: How am I maintaining this distorted bias in my own life?
I suggest we are struggling with inequity because there is still no genuine application of value given to the yin side of life. Yin qualities are simply not appreciated as equally important. As an example, there are now many organizations that give scholarships and encouragement to girls and women who want to pursue education in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields. These are traditionally the domain of male authority and power and still lead to the kind of career path that carries high prestige and cultural validation. But who is offering prestigious scholarships and awards to those who want to be teachers, nurses, and social workers? Any profession traditionally associated with the realm of the feminine is still very much undervalued, both in esteem and financial compensation.
Yin feminism is for everyone. By drawing attention to the relative lack of value that we maintain regarding yin characteristics, my hope is that we begin to understand things in terms of these energies and how they are embodied, rather than through the more rigid and externalized categories of male and female that tend to embattle people and which ignore all of the subtleties of how sex, gender, and energy, are expressed.
Even use of the term “patriarchy” just seems to turn off most people these days, as it has become perceived shorthand for expressing blame and excoriating criticism of men while generally ignoring how harmful it is to them, too. Patriarchy is poisonous because it has convinced everyone that “yangism,” or exaggerating the value of traits associated with masculinity and further deformed by a dominator mentality, is somehow the recipe for respect and success.
Why has feminism failed to create true parity thus far, and instead, often become yet another way people divide against each other? Feminists fought for and were grudgingly given a green light for women to pursue some of the benefits that most men have enjoyed as birthright. These include education, voting rights, and permission to compete for positions of power and authority outside of the only role within which women have traditionally been allowed power: mother.
This brings me to the area of politics and women. As we saw in 2016, there was a great eagerness among many people to see Hillary Clinton become the first female president. However, I don’t think you have to do much scratching below the surface to see that her political policies aligned themselves with some of the worst aspects of “yangism.” As Secretary of State, she supported positions such as world-wide fracking and numerous military interventions. Whether she took these positions to show strength or because she actually believed they would be helpful doesn’t matter—she represented the status quo, and I believe this is the reason she failed. We must look deeper than the obvious category of gender. We must look toward embracing policies that support the qualities currently missing in our culture that would relieve the unnecessary suffering perpetuated by the notion that rugged individualism is an attainable, superior goal, and that we can continue to plunder Earth’s resources without consequences.
This year, we are again facing a choice that will determine how we either continue to support profound imbalance, or course-correct and choose a way that will bring about the kind of change necessary to survive and thrive. The truth is that we already have the means to address the problems we face—what we don’t yet have is the commitment to allocate our resources and energy in this direction. Even on a symbolic level, if the majority of our taxes are funding the war machine, how can we expect peace?
It might be tempting to assume that political centrism would be the right choice for balance. Again, however, we must look deeper than the rhetoric that embraces a return to status quo as “normal”—something we just need to “get back to.” No—we are in crisis because thousands of years of lopsided values brought us here, and we are really only just beginning to acknowledge that this is not sustainable. Further, we are still not attending to the root cause!
Yin feminism is a direct way of considering and addressing a standard that will restore and replenish life on both an individual and cultural level. Sadly, it appears that we are not yet ready in our society to see a woman in the ultimate position of power who is not upholding the yang status quo. Let us consider what is most important, nourishing, and enlivening, and see what seems to block the ability to access and implement it. As individuals, we have limited capacity to do this if our systems are allocating all our resources for the opposite intent. Now is the time that great change is imminent. Feminism must shift into a clear recognition that what is allied with the feminine—restoration, nurturing health and well-being, emotional depth, and interdependence—is not something to disassociate from in order to garner respect. We must embrace these qualities, live them, and vote them in.
Kathleen Ivanoff holds a master’s degree in Gender Studies and another in Clinical Psychology. As the former program director for Jewel Heart, she worked closely with Gelek Rimpoche to establish the teaching curriculum and taught various courses in Buddhist meditation. She currently teaches creative writing at EMU and has a private counseling practice. To contact her, email kathleenivanoff@gmail.com.
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Drawing on Jungian psychology, mythology, fairy tales, and years of clinical practice, Marchiano argues that women have long been taught to suppress what she calls their “outlaw energies”—qualities such as anger, ambition, sexuality, creativity, competitiveness, and fierce independence. Rather than viewing these impulses as flaws to be corrected, she suggests they are essential psychological forces that, when acknowledged and integrated, allow women to live with greater authenticity and purpose.