Did you like to read when you were a child? One of the stories that remains vivid to me is the story of Balaam and his Donkey, which I read in my Children’s Picture Bible. In the story, Balaam has been summoned by a powerful official, but when he tries to ride his donkey to […]
A friend of mine fell off her bike yesterday and broke her ankle. The funny thing is, before she left her house, she had the thought – twice – “don’t go.” But she was on her way to a meeting. She didn’t want to disappoint the people she was supposed to meet. And after all, […]
I’ve been fascinated by the idea that awe is an anti-inflammatory emotion. So many of our modern diseases (labels) involve inflammation – it’s easy to get caught up the world of interpersonal drama, high-rises, sub-divisions, cell-phones, road-rage, the nightly news (!) – and forget that there’s a larger world out there – nature – the […]
Yesterday my son went on his first roller coaster ride (he’s three). They don’t allow parents on the ride. But he really wanted to go! So off he went. I remember a friend years ago describing the process of raising her three boys. “Every day, a greater separation.” Oh no! I thought. Does it have […]
One of the biggest challenges I’ve faced in my life involved dealing with one of my ex’s – a very difficult person. During our relationship. I had really let myself get jerked around by his anger, and his controlling ways. It took a lot for me to summon up the courage to stand up for […]
Relationships. The “final” and ever-evolving frontier. One person wants more space. The other wants more closeness. One feels easily crushed; the other seems insensitive and detached. At work it’s no better. A colleague praises your work to your face, then you find out he criticized you behind your back. Or, someone you’re relying on is […]
“This morning, I must get off an “important” letter right away—one on which the success of a certain under-taking depends; but instead I write a love letter—which I do not send. I gladly abandon dreary tasks, rational scruples, reactive undertakings imposed by the world, for the sake of a useless task deriving from a dazzling […]
“I’m going to take your pulse.” I always say this to my new Jin Shin Jyutsu clients, after we’ve chatted for a while, and when we’re ready to begin the session. They often reply, “Oh no! It’s going to be bad.” Bad? Too fast, too slow, to strong, too weak. too irregular, too… something. What […]
Our world is overheating. We face this difficulty both externally, in the form of global warming, urban sprawl, and armed conflict, and internally, in the form of stress, and the challenge of metabolizing difficult situations and processing the strong emotions they evoke. In the face of hostility and violence breaking out all over the world, […]
Do you sometimes lose sight of the “Big Picture?” Me too. So this week, I’m sharing some of my thoughts on how to get that feeling of purposefulness and centeredness back. As one of my favorite Yoga teachers, Peter Francyk, likes to say, the part of your mind that got you into this mess is […]
