Title: Curious Seeker

Gender: Female

Location: California

I just relocated to California to begin a master’s degree in Oriental Medicine. After graduating in 2004 with a dual BA in English and Art History, I worked for a nonprofit literary press for a number of months and tried my hand at teaching. As I contemplated how best to turn my passions and energy into actions and long-term pursuits, I began to struggle greatly with my own health. Greatly frustrated with the treatment I was receiving, I began to read voraciously about health and healing, and became very interested in the psychology of wellness and in the social constructs of disease that dominate our thoughts about medicine.

Over the course of the past year, I worked at a nonprofit specializing in health services for the elderly, became a research assistant at the Center for Spirituality and Healing at the University of Minnesota, began acting as a consultant for a foundation dedicated to the preservation of alternative healing modalities, and returned to school to complete classes necessary for admission to medical school. I was accepted to a program and was set to begin a traditional medical education this month, but found myself overwhelmed with anxiety as the spring unfolded. I decided that rather than go through years of education guided by a philosophy that I do not really believe in, I should follow my heart and pursue Eastern medicine, which I believe offers so many lessons about health that our society needs to understand and adopt.

I have only been in California for about two weeks now, but I am extremely excited about what awaits me here. In addition to beginning my study of Traditional Chinese Medicine, I have also begun taking classes in Kadampa Buddhism here and am volunteering at an integrative medicine clinic.

I wanted to join Zaadz in order to find a community of people that I can relate to, learn from, be inspired by, and contribute to. I am increasingly committed to holistic medicine, yoga, meditation, organic living, integral philosophy, psychology, and psychoneuroimmunology and hope to learn much more about all of these things and more.

Member Since: Saturday, September 02 2006

Last Visit: 884 days ago.

Profile Viewed: 872 times (last viewed less than a minute ago)