New Worlds of Body, Mind & Spirit Since 1901
My grandmothers never called it a wellness practice. It was just how to live. They kept positive attitudes, grew veggies and herbs. Sat with sick neighbors and prayed over them. Walked daily and sang and prayed alot. They knew, without any clinical language for it, that the body and the soul were not separate and that healing was never meant to happen alone. One grandmother lived to 92, the other lived to 105 years old. But somewhere between their generation and mine, something was severed. Black women in America entered a healthcare system that was not built to honor us, one that has consistently dismissed our pain, undertreated our symptoms, and left us to navigate chronic illness, ...
Ritual bathing is one of the oldest forms of spiritual practice, bridging body, mind, and spirit through the transformative power of water. Multiple cultural and religious traditions around the world celebrate various rites of passage and mark spiritual or religious initiations. In ancient times, immersion in rivers, springs, or sacred baths was commonly practiced as an act of cleansing and purification. Caverns or stone arches with water running through them are recognized in some traditions as portals to other worlds, and gateways to commune with the dead. In recent years, ritual bathing has experienced a revival. Devotees are rediscovering it as a form of self-care that goes far ...
We've all been there, and we've all seen others go there, too: an emotionally triggered state where we are not quite ourselves, or at least not our adult selves. Someone says or does something, and suddenly our whole energy system reacts. If we are even a little present in our body, we may notice this shift. But if we've spent years ignoring the body's signals, we might miss the moment when the breath shortens and something inside contracts. Before we know it, we've reacted—without fully understanding where it came from. When an old wound gets activated, the nervous system responds as if we're in imminent danger, even if the external event (such as a delayed text) is objectively ...
Trauma is an elusive foe. It hides in the body, making it tricky to recognize—mainly because it often is not what people think it is. Many believe trauma results only from major events like a fire, a terrible accident, or a natural disaster. However, the truth is that trauma happens when the body perceives a threat or senses danger—whether real or imagined. Everyone has experienced these sensations at some point. The panic might hit when you realize you may have left the stove on or the sinking feeling from a hard-to-read email at work. These moments leave a trace. Each time your body encounters a perceived danger, it stores that experience as a marker of harm and builds a ...
