“Taking Care of Our Health When We Are Healthy:” Tea with Intention in New Jersey

Written By: Katarina Connery

Who doesn’t love sitting down with a nice cup of tea with good friends for a heartfelt conversation? On September 23, WFWP New Jersey held its second “Tea with Intention” program held at the local library to provide a place for women of the community to come together and connect about meaningful topics. Over delicious treats, 20 women enjoyed some relaxation and rejuvenation for our spiritual, emotional and mental well-being,

WFWP Vice President, Katarina Connery, gave a brief introduction to WFWP and the focus of the program. She quoted WFWP Founder, Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, who said:

“We must take care of our health when we are healthy. Most of the time we tend to ignore that simple fact. In our busy lives, we can easily forget to take care of our mind and body. God gave us the blessing to ‘be fruitful.’ That does not only refer to producing offspring or generating material prosperity. That means to have spiritual, psychological and physical health.” 
(Mother of Peace memoir, p. 275)

After taking a moment to get to know each other, everyone participated in an energetic Zumba session. The instructor led all gathered through many low-impact movements to lively music. At the end, even though it wasn’t too intense, we felt like we had a great workout! 

Having exercised our bodies, it was time to exercise our minds. Dinah Boamah-Nyarko, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Hephzibah Healthcare Services, gave an informative presentation on taking care of women's health in all stages of life. The major highlight is to take care of our health now, since negative health impacts will only be felt years down the road. She also emphasized the importance of dealing with stress. Most recently, women are getting menopause earlier in life compared to 10 years ago due to high stress. She strongly recommends laughter as the best medicine and positive interactions with others in every stage of life.

A final presentation was given by Sabrina Osso, CEO and Founder of Osso Safe, on providing safety for kids at home, school and community. Participants heard about her work to promote respectful relationships within the family and in schools. Though child abuse is a terrible reality today, we can be encouraged that there are many others like Sabrina who are working diligently to help heal relationships starting at home.

Overall, it was a wonderful way to spend the afternoon, getting to know new people and taking time to be refreshed and reenergized.