by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Apr 30, 2014 | Art, Art Therapy, Balance, Creativity, Health, Mental Health, Psychology, Stress, Student
I know about the healing power of art. Sitting in front of a painting and quietly filling in a private world of colour helps to open up the right side of the brain, dissolving the hard edges of worn thought patterns and softening us to possibility. I know that wonderful realizations arise from the quiet space that art can provide. Bright colours draw attention to inner darkness. Self-criticism becomes louder and steps out into the light, allowing us to properly examine it.
Therefore, when I decided to attend an art therapy workshop, I figured myself to be already part of the choir who I thought would be preached to. I knew that art held the magical power to do deep psychological work. I was just curious as to how that would look in a therapeutic setting.
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by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Jan 29, 2014 | Balance, Health, Ideal You, Mental Health, Mindfulness, Nature Cure
Most people who come to see a naturopathic doctor are in some sort of state of dis-ease. That is, they are often exhibiting symptoms that indicate that their bodies have begun to offer up warning signs that something is off balance. After all, if they didn’t have symptoms, how would they know something was wrong with them? The trouble with our society is we often don’t notice our bodies until we have a glaringly obvious symptom that we can’t ignore – like how I never pay attention to a car I’m driving until there is a red light and a beeping noise I can’t turn off. And, even at that, how often do we find ourselves out-of-touch with even the most annoying symptoms – like gas and bloating or pain and itching – simply because we’ve “learned to live with them”?
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by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Jan 17, 2014 | Balance, Detoxification, Diet, Digestion, Food, Health
Eat up those whole foods, just save the raw until spring.
A month’s worth of holiday excesses, combined with this wet, soggy weather can contribute to feelings of bloated, puffy lethargy. I feel that, at this time of year, everyone is shunning the scale and examining their side profiles in the mirror, lying down to button up jeans and secretly blaming life’s woes on apple pie. For many, weeks of over-doing it in December, mean a January of self-induced deprivation to get back on track and re-emerge as svelte and bounding again.
It seems intuitive to balance a period of indulgence with deprivation. If weeks of unrestricted treats pushed us off track, then surely a firm, hard shove in the other direction should get us back on the rails. However, as any winter driver or horseback rider knows, sometimes all we need is a gentle nudging to steer our stead back on to the right path.
This year I’ve held myself back from diving off the cleansing deep end. I’ve decided that this year I need gentle nourishment, not another nagging voice in my head, moulding my behaviour one way or the other. I need far more carrots (cooked delicately in stews, not raw) than sticks. I’ve decided to nurture my relationship with food using diplomacy, not by summoning the cavalry.
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by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Jun 17, 2013 | Balance, Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine, Healing Stories, Health, Meditation, Mental Health, Mindfulness, Nature Cure, Naturopathic Philosophy, Naturopathic Principles, Philosophy, Robert Schad Naturopathic Clinic
I am currently reading the book Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn, the founder of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, MBSR, a mindful meditation program that I am currently taking, and I came across this paragraph that I thought was worth sharing with all of you:
“You probably won’t be surprised to learn that the word health itself means ‘whole’. Whole implies integration, an interconnectedness of all parts of a system or organism, a completeness. The nature of wholeness is that it is always present.
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by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | May 16, 2013 | Balance, Community, Culture, DIY, Family, Finding yourself, Happiness, Health, Letting Go, Mental Health, Mindfulness, Nature, Nature Cure, Philosophy, Relationships, Spirituality, Stress
Taganga, Colombia
What does space mean to you? Is it a necessity? A status symbol? A burden?
A friend and I recently went to see a documentary at the Toronto Hot Docs festival called Tiny: A Story About Living Small. The doc follows a young couple who embark on the project of building their own tiny house, measuring roughly 100 square metres, in order to secure their footing in an increasingly growing movement of downsizing living spaces in favour of simplicity.
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by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Mar 21, 2013 | Balance, Emotions, Fitness, Health, Mental Health, Mindfulness, Motivation, Nature Cure, Naturopathic Philosophy, Naturopathic Principles, Self-care, Treating the Cause, Weight Loss, Women's health
This article was first published in My Yoga Online.
With the growing rates of obesity in our society, combined with the tendency for most people who successfully lose weight to gain it back only a short while later, it’s obvious that something is flawed in our society’s general weight-loss strategy.
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by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Feb 23, 2013 | Balance, Docere, Education, Family, Finding yourself, Happiness, Health, Holidays, Philosophy
So, although I’m still in Guatemala, thanks to scheduling posts, I can still celebrate my birthday on this blog.
It’s been 27 years since I’ve inherited this body of mine and I know for me, like the rest of us, the lessons began on day 1. I’m grateful for all the opportunities I’ve had, the lessons (I think) I’ve learned thus far and the ones I’m about to receive. It’s become my responsibility through my training in this profession to look after this body that I’m borrowing and help others look after theirs, thus we feel well enough, happy enough and strong enough to work through and learn our many lessons, and to find the answers we’ve been searching for.
On behalf of my birthday, February 23rd, have a great day!
by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Jan 25, 2013 | Balance, Community, Family, Finding yourself, Gratitude, Happiness, Health, Mindfulness, Philosophy, Relationships
I’ve been reading a book I recommend to all of you: The Consolations of Philosophy by Alain de Botton. This book is, in one, a Western philosophy refresher course and self-help book, outlining a guide for living as dictated to us by 6 great philosophers. One of my favourite chapters examines the life and philosophy of Greek philosopher Epicurus and distills the lessons he shared with us about finding true happiness and fulfillment in our lives, while still living modestly.
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by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Dec 12, 2012 | Animals, Balance, Health, Mindfulness, Nature, Nature Cure, Naturopathic Philosophy, Nutrition, Outdoors, Parks, Pets, Philosophy, Writing
I realized it one day, while spending a particularly delicious Saturday in one of the armchairs of the living room, feeling the sun warm my back as it streamed through the shutters: for the first time in a while, I didn’t feel stressed. Coco was draped across my back, lying on the back of the chair. As if on cue, he let out a long puff of a sigh, his eyes closed. Coco is never stressed, I thought to myself. And then I realized it: Coco is more naturopathic than any doctor could hope to be. As Dr. Stargrove said, at The Gathering in Chicago, “nature knows more than doctors ever will.” And Coco, with is furry body and leathery paws is much closer to nature than any of us will ever be.
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by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Nov 22, 2012 | Acupuncture, Anti-aging, Asian Medicine, Balance, Health, Self-care, Traditional Chinese Medicine
One of my favourite courses, since I began my studies to become a naturopathic doctor, has been Asian Medicine. I am fascinated by the fact that this holistic form of medicine treated billions of people for the past 3000 years, how it remains a viable form of medicine and how, only now, when we put it to the test of our Western research methods, we find that it does work, but we’re still not sure how.
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