As our May issue arrives with spring in the air, Mother’s Day on our minds and our annual focus on women’s health, I’ve been thinking about the correlation between Earth Day and Mother’s Day, which comes so close on its heels. This month’s feature by Christiane Northrup, “The Mother Our Souls Need,” makes the correlation clear.

Christiane posits that every one of us can connect right now with the “mother energy” that made all our bodies in the first place—Earth herself. Wondering if this connection was where the term Mother Earth came from, I thought back, as I always do, to our instruction manual. Genesis 3:19 tells us, “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” If these words don’t give us a newfound connection to the natural world and a sense of urgency to protect it, nothing will.

We are being encouraged to mimic our unbreakable bond with our biological mother in our relationship with our Mother Earth—to cultivate the kind of fervent attachment that makes some people lay their bodies on the road in front of destructive machinery or climb to the top of a very tall tree and refuse to leave. I think we all could do heroic things if we adopt this paradigm shift, which puts Mother’s Day in a whole new light.

As part of our focus on women’s health, we are excited to bring you three female doctors’ perspective on a strong trend we are seeing in the wellness industry here in North Texas. In “Women in Wellness: North Texas Doctors Lead the Way,” on page 18, two dentists and one physician specializing in internal medicine and gynecology discuss how and why they changed their practice focus to biological/holistic dentistry and functional medicine, respectively. They also offer their thoughts on why the movement away from reactive, pharmacological-based medicine is growing so quickly, and why women are uniquely qualified to excel in this new healthcare landscape. 

A recurring theme in several of this month’s features is the importance of “me time.” In “Her Soul in Bloom: Self-Care for All Stages of Life," on page 20, writer Marlaina Donato offers practical, easy tips for self-care that everyone can connect with. Knowing I could not do justice to the theme of women’s health without including information about meditation—a practice that has brought transformational calm and clarity to my life—I asked Dorsey Standish, of Mastermind Meditation to contribute an article, and she kindly agreed.

I still laugh when I think about my very first mindfulness meditation class, which Dorsey taught. I remember jumping up from my desk in my rush to get to class, only to be left sweating it out in bumper-to-bumper traffic. By the time I got to class, I was doubtful and hyped up. I also had indigestion. “There is no way I can enjoy sitting here on the floor with all these other people,” I thought. “There’s so much I need to be doing!” Well, 10 minutes in, I felt calm, even blissful, and my indigestion was gone. My life has not been the same since. Meditation is a useful tool that can be at our disposal any time. As Dorsey admonishes us, whether we spend two minutes or two hours meditating, taking this kind of “me-time” is not selfish, but necessary.

While our focus this month is women’s wellness, there is much here for our male readers as well, as they support the women in their lives. As always, we hope to provide tips, insights and other information to support all our readers in their journey to a healthy, sustainable lifestyle.

Until next month.

Blessings

Bernice