Our good friend Kim, who lives near Houston, Texas talks more about volunteering with the recovery efforts and community resiliency.
Donations being collected in Dallas for Hurricane Harvey survivors. Photo Credit: Tony Gutierrez, AP Photo
In this next blog, Kim, a friend of Our Front Porch who lives near Houston, Texas shares her experience of Hurricane Harvey and how it impacted her day-to-day life, her family and her community.
A home in Spring, TX during Hurricane Harvey. Photo Credit: David J. Phillip, AP.
Our Front Porch interviewed one of our supporters, Kat Kilpatrick, who had to evacuate for Hurricane Irma. For those of us who live in landlocked states, here is what the realities of evacuating look like.
Kat Kilpatrick and her family.
Were you prepared to evacuate and what things were most important for you to bring with you?
We heard about Hurricane Irma arriving in a few days which gave us some time to decide our plan, pack and come to terms with the fact that there was a natural disaster on the way. I packed the essentials for my husband, myself and two small children. I packed clothing, diapers, snacks and our most important documents. I thought about our items at home and hoped they would be ok but most utmost concern was for our family, things can be replaced.
Guest Blogger: Carla Williams, Our Front Porch Intern 2016-17
Moving to Colorado less than 5 months ago, was nothing short of my biggest life decision. I knew University of Denver was offering me a chance to be a part of an amazing program I couldn’t pass up. Within our program, we are required to partner with a local internship for field experience. That was when I encountered Our Front Porch.
From left to right, Carla, Heather and Sarah presenting Our Front Porch’s services at the Arapahoe County Resource Fair.
Listening with compassion sounds pretty straightforward, but it is often more challenging than you think. I have had lots of practice, especially when I’m working with disaster survivors, and I still have plenty of room for improvement. I have often gone back to this Dalai Lama quote as I think it so well describes how to truly be compassionate:
“Usually, our concept of compassion or love refers to the feeling of closeness we have with our friends and loved ones. Sometimes compassion also carries a sense of pity. This is wrong. Any love or compassion which entails looking down on the other is not genuine compassion. To be genuine, compassion must be based on respect for the other, and on the realization that others have the right to be happy and overcome suffering, just as much as you. On this basis, since you can see that others are suffering, you develop a genuine sense of concern for them.”
~ The XIVth Dalai Lama
Heather responding to a disaster as part of the Red Cross Disaster Assistance Team.
Here’s more from our guest blogger, Paige E. Butkus, Nourished to the Core, LLC – Holistic Nutritionist & Yoga Teacher, on how to stay healthy when dealing with stress.
Work on keeping a healthy gut flora.
In order to combat stress we need all of our defenses strong including our gut bacteria. The microscopic bacteria that live inside of our digestional tract help us with more than you may know. Scientists have labeled the stomach our “second brain” for a reason. As much as our mind influences our body, our gut influence our mind. When our healthy bacteria are out of whack:
Image Credit: Creative Commons
Guest Blogger: Paige E. Butkus, Nourished to the Core, LLC – Holistic Nutritionist & Yoga Teacher
Stress is a part of life and how we deal with it determines the quality of our life. One way of dealing with stress is to eat foods that comfort us such as pasta, pizza, ice cream, cookies, and the list goes on. Just reading these words might conjure up feelings of happiness as carbohydrate-rich foods have been shown to increase your feel good neurotransmitter serotonin. Food has a profound impact on our lives in a multitude of ways from reminding us of our childhood to distracting us from dealing with our problems. In order to combat stressful eating, prepare yourself with awareness and knowledge.
Image Credit: Creative Commons
Guest Blogger: Nora Josephson, MA, LPCC, RYT-200
Start with an Intention.
What are you needing right now? What intention can you set for your practice? These can be similar to affirmations or coping thoughts. Maybe you need to hear:
Photo Credits: Erin Stotts
Guest Blogger: Nora Josephson, MA, LPCC, RYT-200
“Try to do everything in the world with a mind that lets go. If you let go a little you will have a little peace. If you let go a lot you will have a lot of peace. If you let go completely, you will know complete peace and freedom. Your struggles with the world will have come to an end”. –Achaan Chah
At this point in time, most people in the Western world have become familiar with the term “yoga”, however, there seem to be many varying ideas about the practice. People may often think of comfy yoga pants, or someone who is limber and flexible or possibly a monk sitting cross-legged, chanting “Om”. The truth is that anyone can do yoga! Many of you might be hesitant to try it out, or believe that you could in fact be a “yogi”, but if you can breathe…you can do yoga! “Once you rest your attention on your breath, everything else begins to open up with ease” (Stiles, 2012).
Photo Credit: Erin Stotts
Guest Blogger: Brittany Siegel, MA MFT
Image credit: Creative Commons
Natural disasters have a profound effect on marriage. A marriage can be tightened or eroded by a disaster. When the unexpected happens, couples can undergo severe strain if they are unable to comfort each other. Of course people make adjustments, but for some their life will never be the same. They will never again have what they had.