One of my favorite professors at Barnard was my Political Theory Professor, Professor Dennis Dalton.  HE WAS AMAZING!!!  He would teach in the first person, becoming Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Hitler, whomever he was teaching, to convey their thoughts and perspectives as best he knew how.  I actually got chicken skin and started crying as I sat in on his Gandhi lecture.  How often does that happen in a college class???
 
As a Gandhi scholar, he focused much of his passion on the power and brilliance of the non-violent movements.  … READ MORE

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Last week I told the BOLD Birth Facilitators about a big BOLD dream I’ve had for a while. My activist heart was jumping up and down. I’ve been feeling this one in every cell of my body.

When I’m ready to push you will be the first to know.

I’ve been an activist since, I don’t know, probably birth. There was always an issue I was taking on, napkins I would scribble ideas on, bedtime stories I’d tell myself of how people can make a difference in the world.… READ MORE

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It was January 2010. I wanted to do something BIG to make change in my birth community. I had just performed in The Vagina Monologues and I kept thinking I wish there was a play like this about Birth Issues! So…I Googled it.  That is how this journey begins.

Fast forward 10 months later, I have Produced, Directed, and performed as LISA, in Karen Brody’s amazing play “Birth” It’s 2 am on opening night, I’m sitting in my living room across from Karen Brody feeling like I might be sick to my stomach.… READ MORE

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In this excerpt from Cut, Stapled, & Mended: When One Woman Reclaimed Her Body and Gave Birth on Her Own Terms After Cesarean, Roanna brings us into the operating room, intimately sharing the cesarean delivery of her first child.

Now that it’s been decided, the uniforms leave, giving me the peace and quiet I had been craving. Ben cries. I do not. I am empty, wrung dry. Continuing contractions mock me. I want it over. I want the pain to go away.… READ MORE

The post The First Cesarean appeared first on BOLD.

The past couple of weeks have been a blur. Hospital emergency rooms. Camping out in room 610 for a week. Hubby with 103 degree fevers. Shaking. Every day a doctor’s voice saying, “It’s a mystery.”

Finally a diagnosis: my husband returned from Africa with malaria. We get the malarone. He’s going to get better. Life goes on. Kids. Work. But wait…

I’m exhausted. I kneel next to my meditation space and pray. Give me strength. Patience with my kids.… READ MORE

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I’m tired. Tired of being busy and not getting enough sleep. You too?

Lately a movement is afoot, one that is the umbrella of all the latest ‘new paradigm’ movements everyone’s talking about. It’s 5 words.

SLEEP.

Let’s face it, nobody’s getting enough. Especially moms.

Twitter’s fun. Facebook can be an activist’s dream and a great way to connect with friends. But ultimately so many technological advancements have caused intense fatigue. Everyone wants a response NOW.… READ MORE

The post 40-Day Nap Challenge for Better Health and Sleep! appeared first on BOLD.

When I was a new mom, sometimes I’d sit breastfeeding my son late at night feeling so deeply sleep deprived.

The next day I’d drive over curbs and through stop signs – feeling like I couldn’t string a sentence together. I couldn’t focus or make a clear decision.

Problem was, my to-do list was huge inside my home and my health wasn’t the best.

Plus that force that I’ve had inside of me since I was a little girl urging me to get involved in social movements – to shift our cultural thinking – also presented me with a long to-do list.… READ MORE

The post Sleep Deprivation: The Price Moms Pay appeared first on BOLD.

Why am I bringing Jennifer Louden to you today? Because she is a new-paradigm thinker. Someone who’s not afraid to tell women to lean in to the new paradigm, not into existing structures that aren’t working.

I’ve also had a girl-crush on her since I was in my twenties curled up with a cup of tea pouring through her Women’s Comfort Books. At the time books like that were revolutionary. That’s Jen, a revolutionary.

When I heard her program TeachNow was opening next month I wanted you to know about it because, quite frankly, if you teach or you have a book that you can turn into teaching opportunities you may be thinking…

• I have no idea what I’m doing.… READ MORE

The post Teaching & Leaning In to New Paradigms with Jennifer Louden appeared first on BOLD.

Is it possible for women to do nothing? I’ve been thinking about this a lot since I spoke with Dr. Rubin Naiman at last week’s sleep summit. He told women that falling asleep was easy…

All you have to do is nothing.

Nothing?

I don’t know one woman who’s doing nothing. A few years ago I would have said, “I don’t want to know a woman who’s doing nothing because that woman is clearly not changing the world.”

But what if Dr.… READ MORE

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Are there any other moms out there besides me up for changing Elizabeth Gilbert’s “Eat, Pray, Love” mantra to “Eat, Pray, Sleep”? This feels more appropriate for moms caught in the pursuit of peace and happiness, no Bali in our crystal balls, and running around like pet gerbils to make spaghetti dinners, help with homework and organize sleepovers.

I really wanted to be one of those seven million who bought Elizabeth Gilbert’s book “Eat, Pray. Love,” inhaled it as soulful medicine, and felt an inner spiritual shift at that final page.… READ MORE

The post Memo to Moms: It’s Eat, Pray, SLEEP. appeared first on BOLD.