I discovered Ayurveda when I was 15 and my mom took me on a yoga retreat in the middle of nowhere Maine. She was trying to repair her relationship with me, during a painful time in her life, in the midst of a rocky divorce and a lot of heartbreak. It kinda didn’t work. But I loved the early morning yoga and hippie food. She slept in and snuck us in chocolate for the evenings :) 

It was only until I was 26 though when I was suffering from horrific IBS, disordered eating, amenorrhea, and overwhelming anxiety, that I really got into Ayurveda. I had recently gone through a mental/emotional breakdown where I was “put on” a lot of prescription drugs but only felt worse and lost some of my short-term memory.  I picked up a book called The Path of Practice by Maya Tiwari. It pretty much changed my life. It was like what I imagine reading the bible is for someone who falls in love with Jesus. I saw the light! 

Ayurveda taught me that it’s ok to rest. That it makes sense to wake up with the sun to break out of depression. To sense the spiritual part of cutting into fruits and vegetables. To notice the qualities and energetics of people, places, and things and how they make you feel and then choosing more or less of those things depending on how you want to feel. 

Ayurveda taught me to slow down. 

To FEEL. 

To do less. Appreciate more. 

Ayurveda helped me break out of a pattern of  anxiety and depression that has hovered in my family for generations. Of pushing, doing, achieving the next thing and then crashing, burning and feeling like not enough. I know many of you can relate. 

I’m super proud of my lineage of medical doctors, psychiatrists, psychotherapists. My mom was a psychoanalyst, my dad practices family medicine (for over 45 years!), my older brother works with Amazonian plant medicines and my younger brother is a child psychiatrist. 

My vision for alternative and holistic practitioners to integrate their gifts with the current, empirical-based, modern medical system. Both communities have gifts and wisdom that complement each other. 

P.S: I am dreaming of integrating this work on an herb farm where I will have my in-person ayurveda clinic and herb dispensary. That’s the next part of the vision. Please reach out if you want to participate in some form or fashion in this vision :)