Science now verifies meditation can be as effective as medication for treating anxiety; these mindfulness-based stress reduction techniques are a SNAP! Over 15 years ago, a doctor recommended I try a course in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) to manage extreme stress affecting my speech and causing me to garble words. I’m lucky my brain and [...]
Are you “over” COVID, either literally (as in you got it and got well), or just done with social distancing, masks, and the pandemic in general? Then like me, you’re none too pleased to hear new variants are on the rise just as fewer people are taking precautions, such as getting updated boosters. All this [...]
I’ve been feeling like a whirling dervish lately (a sign it's time to check your life compass). My new book “SNAP! From Chaos to Calm” is now in the design phase, and I am getting ready to make an audio recording of my book “Life Falls Apart, but You Don’t Have To: Mindful Methods for [...]
Swept up in the daily cyclone of bad news? When you feel like hiding, soften your soul with this meditation instead. Do you ever wake up, check the news on your phone, and just want to crawl back into bed and pull the sheets over your head? Or worse, break down crying over the sorry [...]
Last Monday, I woke up with a fat lip — my upper lip the size of a hot dog. I assumed I got sunburned on my lip in the pool Saturday (yes, I had on sunscreen and a hat). For the past four months, I have been teaching Mindfulness and Self-Compassion as a specialty [...]
Did you know that July 12 is National Simplicity Day? I love the idea of simplicity for summertime — so natural, yet not so easy to access. “Summertime, and the livin' is easy” go the lyrics to the old jazz tune. Yet these days it’s easy to forget to take it easy, slow down, and [...]
“What are you doing for Mother’s Day?” my dear friend asked me during a long phone call last month. “Sticking my head in the oven,” I replied. “You?” She laughed out loud, the real kind of laughing, and told me she loves me. Our convo was wide ranging, as is usual when we do a [...]
Do you ever take the time to fill the bathtub, turn down the lights, light a few candles, put on some soothing music and just…relax? Do you have a nice big spa with massage jets, or a deep, old-fashioned tub on feet that’s gathering dust? Or maybe the tub you once dreamed of spending quality [...]
Interpreting self-care rituals from around the world through the lens of mindful self-compassion can help you calm stress and renew your spirit. Spring has sprung, and with the longer days, warmth, buds, and flowers comes…. stress! We feel it when we think of our fellow humans suffering in Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine. We tense [...]
Keeping babies engaged can be exhausting. Sometimes you’ve got to have a little break — but how? Recently I had the pleasure of spending two hours with a delicious 1-year-old baby. I’ve known the mommy since she was a child, and the GiGi (grandma) is an old friend of mine. Some of my friends are [...]
