Katherine is a teacher, healer, and writer. Katherine is a yoga teacher (RYT-200, 2011) and an ACE certified personal trainer (2019), and she holds a Master's degree in English from the University of California, Irvine as well as a Master's degree in Kinesiology, with a focus on Integrated Wellness, from Point Loma Nazarene University. She has worked as a middle, high school, and community college teacher for two decades, and she currently teaches full-time at Pasadena City College. As the queer daughter of an immigrant, she was especially proud to be honored as PCC's 2019 Ally of the Year, for her work supporting undocumented and LGBTQ scholars. Katherine is also the author of the critically-acclaimed YA contemporary novels, HOW TO BE BRAVE (2015) and THE BEST POSSIBLE ANSWER (2016), both from St. Martin’s Press/Griffin Teen. She believes in working towards a future that is inclusive, empathetic, and full of love. |
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My Journey to Nature-based Wellness
Once upon a time, I hated my body.
Once upon a time, I was the girl picked last in gym, the girl who couldn’t keep up in ballet class, the girl who hated the way my body was shaped – it’s mostly round and soft around the middle with broad shoulders and short muscular limbs. Clothes didn’t look right one me, at least not in relation to the magazines I poured over.
Once upon a time, I was the child of parents who had to fight against their bodies. My father was a war veteran and a heart patient; he died when I was seventeen. All throughout my childhood, my mother fought against diabetes, gallbladder issues, heart failure, and ultimately, kidney disease; she died when I was thirty.
Once upon a time, I was an adult who started fighting against my own body. I restricted my diet, counted calories, attempted starvation; I joined gyms, hired trainers, hurt myself, pushed myself, only to find my body didn’t really change its shape and I still hated how I looked.
Once upon a time, I hated the way I felt.
And then, once upon a time, I found myself on a yoga mat. I don’t remember the very first day, but I do remember the feeling of that time, about eight years ago, when I first found my way to the local yoga studio and then found myself returning, weekly, then daily, and as much as I possibly could. I fell in love with the geometry of each pose, with sound of my breath, with the settling of my mind. When I was on my mat, moving through the asanas, breathing deeply in pranayam, settling into savasana – sometimes crying sweet tears of release – I felt a completely unfamiliar sensation; I was strong and whole and at peace with my body. Another strange thing happened as well: when I looked in the mirror, I no longer hated what I saw.
Once upon a time, I was the girl picked last in gym, the girl who couldn’t keep up in ballet class, the girl who hated the way my body was shaped – it’s mostly round and soft around the middle with broad shoulders and short muscular limbs. Clothes didn’t look right one me, at least not in relation to the magazines I poured over.
Once upon a time, I was the child of parents who had to fight against their bodies. My father was a war veteran and a heart patient; he died when I was seventeen. All throughout my childhood, my mother fought against diabetes, gallbladder issues, heart failure, and ultimately, kidney disease; she died when I was thirty.
Once upon a time, I was an adult who started fighting against my own body. I restricted my diet, counted calories, attempted starvation; I joined gyms, hired trainers, hurt myself, pushed myself, only to find my body didn’t really change its shape and I still hated how I looked.
Once upon a time, I hated the way I felt.
And then, once upon a time, I found myself on a yoga mat. I don’t remember the very first day, but I do remember the feeling of that time, about eight years ago, when I first found my way to the local yoga studio and then found myself returning, weekly, then daily, and as much as I possibly could. I fell in love with the geometry of each pose, with sound of my breath, with the settling of my mind. When I was on my mat, moving through the asanas, breathing deeply in pranayam, settling into savasana – sometimes crying sweet tears of release – I felt a completely unfamiliar sensation; I was strong and whole and at peace with my body. Another strange thing happened as well: when I looked in the mirror, I no longer hated what I saw.
I now find myself craving fresh air and green spaces,
connection with the beauty of this one unique earth.
And then, once upon a time, I found myself among the trees – walking, breathing, reveling, connecting. I found myself connecting again, in a new way – my body was one with the beauty of the natural world. I found myself moving on slow walks along the river, hiking in the hills, vegetable gardening in my yard. I became obsessed with urban mini-food forests, nature-based mindfulness, and emotional permaculture. I started working with the local environmental action group, teaching kids about waste, composting, gardening and more as well as working with the city to enact green policies that also support public health. I was head of the Eco Club when I was in high school and this recent return to the issue has given me purpose and satisfaction, sort of a rekindling of my first passion – one of my first stories that I’d almost all but forgotten about.
I now find myself craving fresh air and green spaces, connection with the beauty of this one unique earth. Just as my young seedlings need a steady supply of sun, water, air, and nutrients to grow, my body and soul need to be nourished steadily.
In Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Professor of Environmental Biology at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestryand an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, writes, “Action on behalf of life transforms. Because the relationship between self and the world is reciprocal, it is not a question of first getting enlightened or saved and then acting. As we work to heal the earth, the earth heals us.”
I now find myself craving fresh air and green spaces, connection with the beauty of this one unique earth. Just as my young seedlings need a steady supply of sun, water, air, and nutrients to grow, my body and soul need to be nourished steadily.
In Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Professor of Environmental Biology at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestryand an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, writes, “Action on behalf of life transforms. Because the relationship between self and the world is reciprocal, it is not a question of first getting enlightened or saved and then acting. As we work to heal the earth, the earth heals us.”
"Action on behalf of life transforms.
Because the relationship between self and the world is reciprocal,
it is not a question of first getting enlightened or saved and then acting.
As we work to heal the earth, the earth heals us.”
-Robin Wall Kimmerer
My body contains many stories. The old stories are just that: There are the stories of my childhood: the hurt, the fear, the insecurity. There are my parents’ stories –their wars, their illnesses, their battles, and defeat. These are not the stories I live with today. I have let them go now.
This new story is mine: teacher, writer, yogi, student of the science of wellness, yes – but more so, a student of the mind, of the body, of the earth, and of love. I have settled into my body, and along the way, I have discovered beauty in my body, this one body, the one I was given and for which I am grateful.
I now work to connect with others to heal the earth -- and as we do that work together, we also heal ourselves.
This new story is mine: teacher, writer, yogi, student of the science of wellness, yes – but more so, a student of the mind, of the body, of the earth, and of love. I have settled into my body, and along the way, I have discovered beauty in my body, this one body, the one I was given and for which I am grateful.
I now work to connect with others to heal the earth -- and as we do that work together, we also heal ourselves.