“I can’t breathe.” George Floyd pleaded with his captors; a voice now heard around the world. Protesters and reporters struggling to breathe, running from pepper spray and tear gas. Covid-19 patients – struggling to breathe. How is your breath? These times can leave us breathless and anxious as we contend with a personal and collective […]
Have you ever tried to meditate? Maybe you’ve downloaded some apps, tuned in and benefited from taking this time for yourself. If so, congratulations on taking this important step! I started meditation (many years before apps) by reading about it in the one book I could find, and then trying to implement what I had […]
Why do so many people worldwide practice mindfulness meditation? Because of its proven physical and mental health benefits! Mindfulness helps relieve stress, treats heart disease, lowers blood pressures, reduces chronic pain and insomnia, alleviates gastrointestinal difficulties, is used in treatment of depression, substance abuse, eating disorders, couples’ conflicts, anxiety disorders, and obsessive-compulsive disorders. Overall, it […]
Post-Traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric disorder that typically occurs after individuals have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event such as a serious accident, natural disaster, a terrorist act, war/combat, rape or other violent personal assault. In the past, PTSD went by different names. During and right after the years of World War 1, the […]
You’ve probably heard something about mindfulness meditation. You may even have a few friends who are committed to the practice. Perhaps you know that mindfulness practice helps with stress, anxiety, depression and focus. But did you know that meditation can slow normal brain atrophy associated with aging? Or that a mindfulness intervention can support eye […]
My son had a piano teacher who lives and breathes music. While to me it was great accomplishment that a 10 year old could play a complicated sonata with only a few mistakes, this teacher cared less about wrong notes and much more about the emotion expressed by the passage. “This phrase is the voice […]
Trungpa Rinpoche, Pema Chodren’s Buddhist teacher, observed in his visit to the United States that “Most people don’t feel themselves properly.” This leads to a lot of ‘over-efforting’ in daily life which results in a lot of unnecessary tension and work being done by the body. This ‘compulsive’ efforting is not without cost. Many of our […]
Ah … fall. With its glorious colors, crisp air and even some blue skies (finally!). In my pine forest backyard, some leaves have dropped, but many more are still clinging to their twigs and branches. How does a leaf know, I wonder, just when to let go? With the changing of the season, I’ve been […]
Growing up, I was part of a neighborhood … a community. Members of my extended family lived within a three-block radius. We ran into friends and neighbors at local restaurants and shops. On our block, kids of all ages played together and somehow always found a way to get along. We could rely on people around […]
I can’t meditate! It makes me feel anxious. I’m too restless. I have too many thoughts! If you think, “I can’t meditate,” it might be interesting to try again while looking carefully at your actual experience. And then determine if it’s really true that you can’t meditate, or whether you were seeking a different experience […]
