Imagine you are riding your bike for the first time since the holidays, after weeks of sitting around and overindulging. As you pedal up an increasingly steep hill, you feel your breathing and heart rate increase, like a motor revving. Not wanting to get discouraged, you focus on the pavement just ahead of your front [...]
I just got done teaching one of my weekly meditation classes on Zoom. It's so warm, wonderful, and healing. When I’m teaching, I'm meditating along with the group. It’s a refuge, calming and connecting — taking care of others and being taken care of at the same time. With everything that's going on in the [...]
“Sometimes our light goes out but is blown again into flame by an encounter with another human being. Each of us owes the deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this inner light.” – Albert Schweitzer Chanukah is often called the Festival of Lights or chag ha-ooreem in Hebrew. In 167 [...]
I was planning to write about gratitude during this month of Thanksgiving. Then on October 7, Hamas attacked Israel. The brutality and inhumanity of the terrorist attack is well documented and stomach-churning. At least 1,400 Israelis have been slaughtered, including 260 people gunned down, raped, and tortured at a music festival. Many of the rape [...]
When epic pain knocked me down, I turned to mindfulness and self-compassion to get through it. I just went through an epic body event that’s been incredibly challenging in terms of being vulnerable, needing and accepting help, experiencing pain, and navigating the medical system. Throughout, I used my mindful self-compassion skills to steer my brain [...]
When a slice of paradise is reduced to ashes while climate change threatens to unleash more infernos, floods, and disasters on a world already suffering from war, poverty, and violence, how should we respond? The Hawai’i Community Foundation is boots on the ground in Lāhainā funding trusted partners. See their Maui Strong Fund here. [...]
I recently spoke with “Care Giver Dave” Nassaney on his Care Giver Dave’s podcast and learned some alarming statistics. Did you know that approximately 30% of caregivers die before the person they are caring for? For those caring for a person with Alzheimer’s disease, it’s worse. A Stanford Medicine study found 40% of Alzheimer’s caregivers [...]
Have you noticed how your body and mind respond to the sounds of birds chirping to their little hearts’ content? If you haven’t, I suggest you try one of my favorite activities: listening to the calming sounds of birdsong. According to this Washington Post article, just listening to birds singing brings all kinds of healing [...]
There's a designated date on the calendar for just about everything, from celebrating our favorite foods and animals to raising awareness of all the medical conditions and social problems that deserve our attention. Looking through some of the more lighthearted and fun days coming up, I was reminded that June 6 is Best Friends Day, [...]
Welcome to May, Mental Health Awareness Month! Is it a coincidence it follows Stress Awareness Month in April? I think not.It’s a fact: Stress is harmful to our emotional, physical, and mental health, and taking steps to reduce stress is one of the important things we can do to guard our mental health!The goal of [...]
