Zestfull 5 with Tamara exploring mindfulness
Summer is here for many of us. The weather is hot and the BBQs are sizzling. To bring us into the summer months, we are featuring Tamara who shares how mindfulness and music are bringing her zest this June.
Tamara is a family therapy-trained licensed clinical therapist and allergy mom. Her whole family also manages seasonal allergies. Tamara brings two perspectives to our community as she understands life with a food allergy personally and professionally!
Tamara is an invaluable member of the food allergy community. In 2018 she created the Food Allergy Counselor Directory & website after identifying a gap in resources focused on navigating the social and emotional aspects of allergy life. Today, the FAC website houses a directory of allergy-informed clinical therapists, and a growing list of psychosocial resources, including allergy-specific therapeutic worksheets for the community and healthcare providers.
Tamara also hosts the Exploring Food Allergy Families podcast. Stay tuned this month because Kortney will be on it.
Check out some great food allergy tips from Tamara & FAC
Tamara is loving mindfulness and music
This June, Tamara shares whatever you do, make sure you’ve got music blasting! Take it away Tamara…
- Peloton App
I’ve done spinning for years, but now that I have the Peloton App (which I use with the spin bike I bought from my gym when it closed), it’s more fun! There are so many different rides and strength exercises to choose from, but you’ll probably find me in the classes playing 90s music.
- Music
Speaking of 90s music, I’m a huge fan! Whether I’m gardening, walking or baking, I’m almost always listening to music. I’m someone who pairs memories with music, so it’s fun to take a walk down memory lane, especially with the songs I listened to while growing up.
- Genealogy
I’ve been at genealogy for over a decade, so I am the family historian on both sides of my family. My main family tree has thousands of ancestors on it, all the way back to the 1700s for some branches. I’m a history lover anyhow, but learning my own family’s history is a hobby I cherish.
- Gardening
Living in Chicagoland, which has intense winters, I love when gardening season begins. I actually never knew I had a green thumb until I became a homeowner. During the summer months, you’ll often find me outside planting or pulling weeds (with music on, of course!), and I love to change things up often. This year, rather than planting vegetables in our vegetable garden area, we’ve planted flowers to attract butterflies and hummingbirds. Looking forward to all the fun visitors we’ll have in that space.
- Mindfulness
Earlier in my career, I loved the idea of mindfulness but found it difficult to practice it myself. However, as my career progressed, I’ve not only incorporated it into work with my clients, but also into my own life.
Mindfulness isn’t the same as meditation, which aims to clear the mind. Rather, mindfulness is a practice focused on awareness, which encourages connecting with the present moment and noticing thoughts and feelings.
While it’s not always comfortable to practice mindfulness, it’s so beneficial.
Want to hear more from Tamara?
- Food Allergy Counselor Directory & resource website: www.FoodAllergyCounselor.com
- Exploring Food Allergy Families podcast: www.FoodAllergyFamilies.com
- Tamara Hubbard, LCPC Twitter: @TherapistTamara
- Tamara Instagram: @therapisttamara
- Food Allergy Counselor Directory Twitter: @FACounselor
- Food Allergy Counselor Directory Instagram: @FoodAllergyCounselor
- Food Allergy Counselor Directory Facebook: www.Facebook.com/FoodAllergyCounselor
To help you find mindfulness this summer
About The Zestfull 5
The Zestfull 5 is a corner of our magazine that peeks into what other atopic folks are loving. From a book, they can’t put down, a lip chap they have no idea how they lived without it, to what’s cooking on repeat in their kitchen. This is a tiny spot to find out what someone is getting up to because there is so much more to life than food allergies and this is where we celebrate that.
