At Crohn's & Colitis Foundation Camp Oasis, kids living with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis can just be kids. We provide a safe environment where friendships ignite, confidence soars, and epic adventures become life-long memories. Camp Oasis is FUN without the fear of judgment or feeling different.

As a camp counselor at the California Camp Oasis, I use my experience as a Crohn’s warrior to provide support and show campers how to embrace their condition as a superpower.

Girls With Guts supports and empowers women with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and/or ostomies by building sisterhood and self-esteem. Our vision is to create a national support network where women find community, acceptance, and empowerment, ensuring no one feels isolated by their disease. Through our website and live events, we connect patients, doctors, and thought leaders to advocate for IBD issues and spread awareness.

I am currently part of the GWG Strategic Planning Task Force, where we are shaping GWG’s growth for the next 3-5 years. Our goal is to serve as a sounding board and provide critical advice on existing programs and resources, as well as identify new ways to best serve our community members.

Yoga teacher and writer J. Brown is leading the way in the Slow Yoga Revolution, advocating for more intimate, breath-centered, therapeutic yoga practices. J interviews guests from old-school yoga teachers to other yoga revolutionists about philosophy and the business of yoga.

In this episode, Bari Gratton, co-author of an open letter to Yoga Alliance, discusses potential changes in the yoga profession with J. Topics include the MA in Yoga Studies program at Loyola Marymount University, issues with Yoga Alliance, the Yoga, Mindfulness and Social Change final project, regulation of yoga teaching, reform suggestions, appropriation and racism, and respectful dialogue.

The Yoga, Mindfulness, and Social Change professional certificate through Loyola Marymount University is one of a kind offering Yoga practitioners and teachers the chance to explore socio-ecological applications of Yoga and meditation. Focusing on emerging areas of service, engagement, and social activism, this unique program addresses the growing need for service-oriented Yoga and meditation practitioners, providing a comprehensive understanding of their social role.

Our final project was a powerful open letter to Yoga Alliance, urging them to rethink and improve how yoga is taught and shared across the country today.

As a baby the only song that could soothe me to sleep was “Rock the Casbah” by the Clash. Music was always on in my house growing up, a trip to Tower Records on a Saturday was the norm and there was nothing unusual about calling Sam Goody to find out the lyrics to a Wallflowers song. Music has been a natural companion and when I finally fell in love, well, I married a Music Man. Music is a constant and diverse force in our home. The act of listening to an album start to finish, seeing an artist live, or even just singing in the shower can fill you with a supremely powerful element of life: sound.

Making playlists is an act of love and I hope that you can find some that speak to you here.