Today I talk about how we begin to *actually* create the space and time to practice self-care in our busy, frantic-paced lives. So many of us can relate to feeling like never having enough hours in the day for our To Do list – which we very often find ourselves at the very bottom of.  Using personal examples of how I was able to not only quit detrimental habits like smoking and drinking, but also began to build nourishing regular self-care routines into my ordinary “busy working mother”...

Today we talk about fierce self-compassion; what it is, and how it acts as yang to tender self-compassion’s yin.  We explore how it can help to protect, provide, and motivate ourselves to take action in the world, and how we can start to cultivate it.  I discuss both the constructive and destructive sides to anger, and how recognizing that anger usually has something to teach us can be beneficial, especially as it regards tapping into this fierce energy.  Today’s take-away explores...

Join me as I talk with Gretchen Miura, a mindfulness meditation teacher, grief care facilitator, and dear friend.  We discuss what originally led each of us to mindfulness meditation, the role grief played in our paths to it, and how our paths intersected in the first place.  Gretchen shares what led to creating the grief support group she co-facilitates with Sarah Furuya, Lighthouse Circle. Joining the first iteration of Lighthouse Circle in 2021 was an instrumental step in dealing...

In today’s episode we dive deep into self-compassion.  We talk definitions, learn the three basic foundations (mindfulness, common humanity, and kindness), and hear first-hand examples of how it has worked as a strategy in my own life to deal with difficulties, daily stressors, and some deeper ones too.  I explain how asking and answering the quintessential question of self-compassion – “What do I need right now?” – can provide a profound amount of relief, care and support for...

Welcome to the very first episode of the Wellness with Juanita Podcast! I am an American living in Japan for 20 years and a National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach. One of the primary reasons I became a Wellness Coach was because of what I went through. When I say I went through massive amounts of stress and overwhelm myself, I mean it. Listen to what brought me to where I am today -- helping others learn how to navigate stress, anxiety and mental health using mindfulness,...