Be Here Now With Jen

Be Here Now With Jen Jennifer is an experienced psychotherapist in the Atlanta area who has dedicated the past decade res

After the startle response, if danger is detected and confirmed, your stress response kicks in. The biology tracks like ...
10/15/2025

After the startle response, if danger is detected and confirmed, your stress response kicks in.

The biology tracks like this: danger is detected, which is the startle response (via the brainstem and amygdala) instantly activates your sympathetic nervous system. Then comes the stress response—adrenaline, glucose, heart rate, oxygen, muscle tone, all rise to help you act. This is a high-energy state, a surge, designed for purposeful short-term mobilization. Think of it as a sprint, not a marathon.

And it is our strength. Your biology is prepping the body letting you know, “you’ve got this!” It activates and serves one goal: to overcome the danger.

If your body’s surge of energy successfully resolves the threat, the system naturally resets: cortisol drops, the parasympathetic system returns, and balance is restored.

But if your efforts don’t succeed and you can’t fight, flee, or resolve, the stress response escalates and then stalls. The body is still flooded with energy, but with nowhere to discharge it. In biological terms:

* The amygdala keeps signaling danger.
* The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis keeps pumping stress hormones.
* The prefrontal cortex, responsible for logic and choice, goes offline.
* Over time, this leads to chronic hyperarousal (anxiety, vigilance) or shutdown (freeze, collapse).

This mismatch between energy and effectiveness or mobilization without resolution is the essence of trauma physiology. The body learns that it’s not safe even when the threat is over, and the nervous system stays stuck in a loop of readiness with no release.

Is that a snake or a rope? Our startle response is the first step in a sequence of instinctual trauma responses of the b...
10/14/2025

Is that a snake or a rope?

Our startle response is the first step in a sequence of instinctual trauma responses of the body.
It is an unconscious reflex. Its functional purpose is to keep us safe by giving us a head start, so we can potentially avoid harm or danger.

Problems with an overactive startle come when we 1. Block our innate threat assessment by deliberately NOT looking at something that scares us, because we are afraid of what we will see (this keeps us in a state of “anticipatory anxiety”), or 2. We cannot return to a state of homeostasis, relaxation, and safety if there wasn’t an actual threat, but we continue to perceive it as one.

The startle response is not a bad thing. It is alerting you to possible danger. The work of recovery is to practice returning to a state of homeostasis, whether the threat is real or not, and to learn to face our lives in a forward direction and to handle our own lives, including what we are trying hard not to look at.

Here is a look at the two systems of our thinking using Daniel Kahneman, “Thinking, Fast and Slow.” We need to engage system 2 to train in returning back to a felt-sense of safety.

This teacher training will give you the confidence and tools to create effective and meaningful workshops and retreats u...
10/13/2025

This teacher training will give you the confidence and tools to create effective and meaningful workshops and retreats using the beautiful art of Kintsugi. A Japanese craft that mends broken objects with gold making them stronger and more beautiful. This aligns with work in trauma healing, work in forgiveness, addictions, disordered eating, artists looking to break through creative blocks, leaders looking to break through self empowerment hindrances or glass ceilings, yoga instructors looking to add retreat experiences, you name it and we can find a way to enhance what you are already doing with Kintsugi.

Lead with confidence through a somatic experience and art!

In person Marietta, GA
Friday, February 13, 2026
9:00-5:00pm ET

For details and registration visit:
www.beherenowmindfulness.com and head to EVENTS page

You cannot register early enough for this one of a kind teacher training. Spaces are limited due to materials and small group effectiveness.

Be in touch with any questions.

Been deep cleaning the house. Probably empty nester syndrome. Still have quite a few things of my moms to get through (s...
10/09/2025

Been deep cleaning the house. Probably empty nester syndrome. Still have quite a few things of my moms to get through (she passed away almost exactly 13 years to the day). And just came across this little gem. A little cup from Japan, she brought home from her trip overseas many decades ago.

Little did she know I now teach Kintsugi to other therapists and leaders. A craft I picked up from finding her stuff around after she was gone. We never discussed her love of Kintsugi. I only wish I could have that conversation with her today. But can’t help feeling that by finding this today, she already is. And no words need to be spoken.

Just feeling the

Check out my Kintsugi page and follow to stay informed of my upcoming Feb. 2026.

And for those who may not know, Kintsugi is a Japanese art of mending broken things with gold, to make them stronger and more beautiful. It is an incredibly healing practice.

Do you solve everyone else’s problems but not your own? You’re not alone. Therapists are no exception (yes, even the one...
10/07/2025

Do you solve everyone else’s problems but not your own? You’re not alone. Therapists are no exception (yes, even the ones who “know better”). There are a lot of unhappy therapists out here teaching clients how to live happy lives. We can be some of the worst offenders.

It’s funny how we can see the solution to someone else’s issues in two seconds flat, yet when it comes to our own, the clarity evaporates. Our blind spots are stubborn. It’s not a bad thing to want good things for others. In fact, it’s part of being human. We empathize deeply and want others to find peace, so much, that we project our own unfinished stories onto them. Often what we want for them isn’t what they need or want at all—it’s what WE need them to be so we can feel settled. And that’s a blind spot! One of the biggest ones.

To empathize more accurately, we need to be clear ourselves. We need to turn toward our own struggles, the grief, the fear, facing uncertainty, the conflict we are trying to avoid. Because the more capacity we build around our struggle, the more we are able to walk with others through theirs.

The clearer we become, the more clearly we see. This is empathic accuracy and emotional attunement. And that’s the foundation of compassion.

What if awakening felt more like coming home than leaving it all behind?November 13–16 | The Realization Process Retreat...
10/05/2025

What if awakening felt more like coming home than leaving it all behind?

November 13–16 | The Realization Process Retreat begins.
Location: Colab Community Properties, East Cobb / Marietta, GA
(Address: 541 Village Trace NE, Building 11A, Marietta, GA 30067)
You don’t have to trek to the Himalayas or sit in an ice bath to find your center.

Sometimes awakening looks like settling into the quiet pulse already inside you.

From November 13–16, I’m hosting an immersive Realization Process Retreat in Marietta / Atlanta — a four-day descent into the stillness that’s been waiting for you all along.

Created by Dr. Judith Blackstone, the Realization Process bridges psychology, embodiment, and nondual awareness. It’s where healing, awakening, and science meet in your own body.

You’ll learn to:

Breathe from your core of being (the “Core Breath”)
Feel presence through every cell, not just in your head
Release trauma and constriction held deep in the fascia
Re-enter relationships without losing yourself
This isn’t a workshop to “fix” you, or quiet your beautiful, thinking mind. It’s a practice to remember what’s never been broken. This is confidence training. When you rest in your own differentiated presence, every cell stands with you.

👉 Reserve your space now — limited spots keep the group intimate.

Register Now → beherenowmindfulness.com THEN head to the EVENTS page. Or click button below.

With heart,

Jen Finch

🌸 First Friday Practice Free Gathering 🌸This Friday October 3, 2025 at 8 AM ET, I’ll be offering a free 55 minute kundal...
09/29/2025

🌸 First Friday Practice Free Gathering 🌸

This Friday October 3, 2025 at 8 AM ET, I’ll be offering a free 55 minute kundalini and Realization Process practice to begin the month with grounding, clarity, and presence.

These mornings are simple and restorative—a way to settle into yourself, breathe, and remember that you can meet the world from a steadier place.

Whether you’re brand new to this work or have practiced with me before, you are welcome. No preparation is needed, just bring yourself.

🗓 Friday, October 3, 2025
8:00 AM ET

💻 Free / Online Registration is needed to receive Zoom Link

I’d love for you to join me. Register here:
https://www.beherenowmindfulness.com/courses-list-shop

Join us for the last 6-week Intro to Healing Ground of 2025.Fridays | September 26 – October 31 | 12–1:30 PM EST Live on...
09/22/2025

Join us for the last 6-week Intro to Healing Ground of 2025.

Fridays | September 26 – October 31 | 12–1:30 PM EST Live on ZOOM from around the globe.

9 Core CE Hours Available (for licensed professionals)

This is not your average professional training. It’s a guided inner expedition, one that invites you to listen to your body in ways you didn’t know were possible, to stop overriding what’s true, and to come home to trust, confidence, and safety within yourself.

Healing Ground is a foundational course in the Realization Process®, a deeply experiential, evidence-informed approach to embodiment and spiritual integration developed by Dr. Judith Blackstone.

Across six consecutive Fridays, you’ll learn how to gently release constrictions in your body, open up to presence, and reconnect with the part of you that has never been broken—only buried beneath all the strategies you’ve outgrown.

We’ll meet together live, not just to learn, but to inhabit—your breath, your bones, your fascia, your own deep knowing. You’ll use yourself as your own instrument.

This is a radical practice of nondual embodiment. We cannot think our way there, we have to experience it for ourselves.

Just the open experience of being here. Now. Fully. And finally.

Whether you’re a therapist, educator, healer, or human navigating your own edges, this course meets you where you are and invites you a little deeper.

Ready to take the first step?
Registration + details at https://www.beherenowmindfulness.com/courses-list-shop

✨ Save the Date! ✨Friday, February 13, 2026Kintsugi Teacher TrainingIdeal for therapists, teachers, leaders, artists, co...
09/22/2025

✨ Save the Date! ✨

Friday, February 13, 2026
Kintsugi Teacher Training

Ideal for therapists, teachers, leaders, artists, collaborators, coaches, healers, writers, facilitators, community builders, spiritual guides, creatives, and anyone called to transform breakage into beauty.

Subscribe to www.beherenowmindfulness.com to stay in the know for details and registration enrollment opening soon.

There’s something sacred about friends who’ve known you since grade school.These are the ones who’ve seen every version ...
09/22/2025

There’s something sacred about friends who’ve known you since grade school.
These are the ones who’ve seen every version of me and stuck around anyway. They’ve endured my blunt edges, my bossiness, my mishaps, my inadequacies, my too-muchness, my not-enough ness, my vulnerabilities and fragile self, my confident self, and my spontaneous one too… and somehow, at the end of the day, I still feel loved, embraced, and held.

Gratitude doesn’t even begin to cover it. To have two people in my life who have walked beside me through every messy, human chapter, inside, outside, and all the in-betweens—is one of the greatest gifts I know.

Here’s to the kind of friendship that holds you steady. Always. And reminds me that I can be ALL of ME, and sometimes even more.🤪



Best friends. Birthdays. Bourbon. And the tradition of live music that’s carried us through decades of festivals. 🎶 From...
09/17/2025

Best friends. Birthdays. Bourbon. And the tradition of live music that’s carried us through decades of festivals. 🎶 From the mud of our first shows to the late-night laughter in folding chairs, we’ve found that nothing heals quite like music shared with people who know your whole story. Here’s to another round at Bourbon & Beyond, another year older, and another reminder that friendship and music are medicine. 🥃❤️

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Be Here Now Mindfulness & Compassion Training

When your mind is with your body, you are in the here and now. And if you meet this moment of awareness with curiosity, kindness and non-judgment, You are fully alive.

Be Here Now Mindfulness is dedicated to inspiring, guiding and connecting anyone who wants to explore mindfulness through both science and experience to enjoy better health, happiness, more caring relationships, and a compassionate society.

Be Here Now Mindfulness is based in Metro Atlanta and Marietta, GA founded by Jennifer Chase Finch, M.A., LPC, NBCC, Certified Mindfulness Instructor. I see mindfulness as a unique, practical and profound approach to social change, and my dedication to teach others in the community as a social innovation initiative. My classes and workshops promote individual wellness, healthy relationships, and a more mindful and compassionate community. Mindfulness is entering the mainstream and this presents an historic opportunity to transform ourselves, our children, our communities, our world.

MY MISSION