My journey to mindfulness practice has been a long and circuitous one, with lots of fits and starts. It was born out of a desire to find a way to cope with a chronic illness, Crohn’s Disease, which I had lived with since childhood. As a child, I didn’t have the emotional maturity to understand what was going on or the tools to cope with the unpredictability of the illness. I was depressed, anxious, self-critical of my body image, and looking for some answers on how I could move towards better health and live a fuller life.
While I was born and raised in the New York Metropolitan Area, I left there in my mid-20s for the Bay Area with an intention of exploring alternative healing modalities for my medical condition and looking for some peace of mind. On my first night in Berkeley, CA, I was invited to attend a night of meditation with Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. Sitting in an auditorium with 500 people, I started focusing on my breath, paying attention to my body, and after a while, feeling a sense of calm, my mind wasn’t racing, and I felt hopeful. (Not a bad beginning to my new life!)
It was from this initial experience that the seed of mindfulness practice was planted. From there I explored mindfulness practice thru both a Jewish and Buddhist lens.
Over the last 10 years, mindfulness practice has helped me navigate the physical and emotional turbulence of my daily existence by providing a greater capacity to engage life with a greater sense of kindness, compassion, and embodied wisdom that is life affirming and joyful.
Bringing this kind attention has helped me be less self-critical towards myself or towards others, a greater curiosity about things, and helped me make wiser choices instead of reacting by falling into old habits and patterns.
In 2018, I took the next step in my journey and immersed myself in a year-long mindfulness study program with Mark Coleman and Martin Aylward of the Mindfulness Training Institute and graduated as a teacher of mindfulness. I’ve taught mindfulness in many different settings such as a VA hospital, yoga studios, and in my current workplace at a Federal agency. In particular, I also love to take others out in nature; as simply taking a walk among the trees and listening to the sounds around you can be a source of support for deep healing and transformation.
I have had the privilege of being guided on this path by many wonderful teachers who I am eternally grateful. They include Mark Coleman, Martin Aylward, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Saki Santorelli, David Weinberg, Jack and Laurie Lawlor, David Haskin, Hal Dessel, Rabbi Avram Davis, Nan Fink Gefen, Stephen Starr, Rabbi Jeff Roth, Rabbi Joanna Katz, Rabbi Sam Feinsmith, Sylvia Boorstein, Norman Fischer, Thich Nhat Hanh, Dr. Judith Flaxman, Dr. Eric Proescher, and many others who supported and continue to strengthen my resolve to live a life focused on bringing forth more kindness, compassion, love, and joy into my life and the world in which we all live.
Since 1999, I have called Chicago my home and can’t imagine a better city to live. So for the Chicago community and beyond, I look forward to supporting you in your journey towards a life and a world where our thoughts, words, and actions are based more on kindness, joy, compassion, and love rather than hate, divisiveness, and indifference. One way we can begin to nurture that in ourselves is to develop a mindfulness practice. I teach classes and workshops in the foundations of mindfulness practice, working with the inner critic, nature-based mindfulness, and working with chronic pain and illness. I look forward to supporting you on your mindfulness journey..