As a supplement to Traverse Northern Michigan, our editors are thrilled to announce the inaugural issue of Health & Wellness. Read our editors’ note below, and take a sneak peek inside this first issue. Then be sure to pick up the May issue of Traverse to explore ways to stay mentally and physically healthy.
This article first appeared in Traverse Northern Michigan. Find this story and more when you explore our magazine library. Want Traverse delivered to your door or inbox monthly? View our print subscription and digital subscription options.
For this inaugural issue of Health & Wellness our writers and editors met several Northern neighbors willing to show their own paths to better health and true wellness.
Writer Shea Petaja talks with a fellow local living with Lyme disease who reveals how she discovered and faced that diagnosis and, most importantly, the ways she is beginning to heal.
Artist, activist and elected official Ashlea Walter shares why she is a “wild swimmer”—dedicated to waking early to swim the bays and lakes surrounding her downtown Traverse City home. (Hint: She says the healing quality of water helps her harness deeper calm and mindfulness.)
Photo by Andy Wakeman
Readers will get a first peek inside Groundwork’s teaching kitchen at Traverse City’s new co-op community center, Commongrounds. In the coming days, chef instructors and dietitians will gather around those state-of-the-art stoves to share nutrition science with medical providers. In turn, doctors and nurses can pass on this knowledge of culinary medicine to their patients.
From Manistee to Northport, you’ll hear the stories of comfort, courage and, yes, love from those who volunteer in hospice care or who have welcomed hospice support. We’re also shining a light on a new mental health navigator on the block, who is helping one Northern Michigan family at a time receive care and treatment, especially kids.
This is just the beginning. We hope these pages inspire personal wellness, and treating our collective health with the greatest of care.
Photo by Dave Weidner
Enter to Win the May Health & Wellness Cover Contest
In addition to incredible storytelling and some of our favorite ways to stay mentally and physically healthy, this month’s issue also features a wellness-inspired giveaway. The winner will visit The Homestead for a two-night stay in the Little Belle Suite, a 50-minute massage and a Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore park pass. Enter to win this package worth $1,500.