Kori Kanayama is a community farm chef available for live in chef assignments, group colling workshops and intimate catering. She lives on a farm and cooks seasonal foods in harmony with nature, respecting the innate favours and goodness of ecologically grown local produce, combining traditional Japanese, Italian and other cultural foodways.
“ I have been on a journey of resilience and wellbeing. It took a lot of learning to take care of myself in a way I didn’t know how or couldn’t. My neurodivergence a midlife ADHD diagnosis means I see connections between divergent topics. Sometimes I wander off in an unexpected direction. Getting a diagnosis was freeing.”
Sometimes Kori gets discouraged. As part of her self care journey is to see discouragement as part of learning.
“I can’t say, do not be discouraged because at being discouraged is part of the journey. It’s challenging to hold myself accountable in a compassionate way.”
Self care could be treating yourself as you would treat a dear friend. If I did that for myself, can I focus and do the thing that is difficult for me to do? “ Is time the thing to be managed or is it our ability to pay attention? If self-care just compels you to stay in a situation that is not sustainable, is that really self-care? ”asks Kori.
Calling it her liminal period, Kori admits that following an experience in her consultancy work
“I needed to really delve into it and take the time, even though it really made me feel like, so that was an extended period of not being able to earn, to bring in income or to live my life. I still wanted to, I’m not sure if I wanted to, but I just stayed in that space even though it was uncomfortable to figure this out for myself. And eventually I did so. I was doing things like taking a break when, in the past I would’ve just made myself keep on going or separated myself from something or some people if I didn’t think it was serving me or the situation. These approach to things is really new to me.”
The conversation finished with a mention of Internal Family ‘Systems (IFS) , a pschotheraphy model developed by Richard Schwartz .
IFS views the mind as a system of interconnected “parts “ or subpersonalities, as led by core Self. Harmony emerges through connection with IFS therapy focusing on understanding the internal conflicts by getting the parts to work together harmoniously as all parts are in their healthy roles. .
The goal is to heal “wounded parts by working with them from the perspective of the calm, compassionate Self, rather than battling them. IFS can help with a variety of issues, including trauma, anxiety and depression.
The powerful IFS system strengthens us in whatever situation we are place, to be compassionate, to let go, to repair, to restore, to be stronger, and actually to love others more because we love ourselves better.
Kori Kanayama
Kori cooks and teaches how to cook authentic dishes that nourish and heal from the inside.
