Miatri: Nurturing Wellness Through Radical Self-Care
By Janet Nestor

Nurturing Wellness Through Radical Self-Care is a life-style that we can adopt for ourselves. It is defined by mindfulness. It is an emotional-spiritual space where we find our personal safety and develop and maintain trust in ourselves, and develop and maintain trust in the process of life. It is also a therapy and support group that meets at the Center of Well-Being in Winston-Salem.

The mantra of our group is “"Miatri,” which means unconditional love and compassion for self. We chose Miatri as our mantra because joy is easier to find and goals easier to reach when we love ourselves and care enough to treat ourselves with the gift of unconditional positive regard, love, and compassion.

Love and compassion through understanding and acceptance
You may be thinking that the words Nurturing and Radical aren’t compatible and don’t really belong together, especially in the name of a therapeutic wellness group. The name was chosen with a bit of a chuckle because the words evoke such a different response when we hear and speak them. Nurturing is all of the good things in life: gentleness, cherishing and being cherished, loving support. Radical congers up imagery of revolutionary, aggressive and perhaps forced, violent change. Nurturing and Radical are compatible within the context of our group because finding or re-finding wellness often requires both nurturing compassionate support and radical change. Within the context of positive group dynamics, radical change is compassionate, loving, joyful, creative, and mindfully observant. And even with all the serious interactions, we rejoice in our laughter and have a lot of fun.

Mindful observation and interaction with self and others
Body image is such a large part of getting well, and this is especially true when weight is part of the problems we face. Whether we are at ideal weight, painfully thin, extremely over-weight, or someplace in between ,we have a hard time looking in the mirror and saying “You are great and I love you and I promise to take care of you and show you love today.” We often see ourselves as ineffective or as lacking wisdom. We might doubt our intellectual capabilities. When we look in the mirror we might see large thighs and a big behind whether we have them or not. Maybe we see our face as too round or too long, and our hair as too curly or too straight. Perhaps we are at war with a visible surgical scar or fight a limp or an ankle brace. Maybe we are in constant pain and simply don’t trust our body any more. Or maybe we just don’t like our life because disease has caused us stress or taken the life of a loved one. Whatever the problems at hand, they describe a challenge with body concept and body image. A negative body concept and image make it almost impossible to create wellness. If we love ourselves enough and show ourselves compassion, we can and will become emotionally healthy and find our highest state of physical wellness. And if we love ourselves enough and judge ourselves and others less, we can make great strides toward reaching our goals.

Trust in self and trust in the process of life
For most of us acceptance of what is, is a very difficult task. Somehow we have the perception that acceptance prohibits positive change. In reality, acceptance is necessary before any real and lasting change can become a part of our life. When we accept what is, we can see what needs to be done to lift us to the next highest level of physical-emotional-spiritual health. When we accept what is, we are able to take the responsibility of caring for our daily emotional and physical needs. That means eating healthy food, getting proper exercise, tending to our intellectual growth, paying attention to our emotional and spiritual needs, and creating opportunities that allow us to become balanced and grounded individuals.

Accepting what is and living positively in response to that acceptance
The Nurturing Wellness Through Radical Self-Care Support and Therapy Groups welcome men and women of all ages who have body image and eating issues that limit their sense of well-being and who are yearning to make changes toward greater self-compassion and better health. The group is appropriate for those who are trying to lose weight, those who have a history of anorexia and bulimia, those who are working to make dietary changes to address a physical or medical condition, and those who are struggling to accept their body as it is.

Group leaders: Janet Nestor, MA LPC, and Camille Leaver, MA LPA, are traditionally and holistically trained mental health therapists. Center of Well-Being is located at 1338 Ashley Square in Winston-Salem, NC. Call the Center of Well-Being in Winston-Salem, NC at 336.794.2343. Visit www.centerofwellbeingonline.com.