My friend wrote and published a book in only nine weeks, and I confess - I am jealous! Let me clarify, in my true self - what I call my essential nature - I’m delighted for her and super inspired by her process. However, that niggling, insecure and self-critical aspect of me, better known as my ego, is fuming. It [...]
Recently I was rear-ended. Fortunately, my trusty Subaru absorbed most of the impact, so the physical damage to my body wasn’t too bad. Two weeks later a series of earthquakes shook southern CA. What I rely on as solid ground rolled as if I was on a ship at sea. These events have forced me to confront once again how [...]
Have you – or your spouse - lost interest in sex? When one of you initiates physical contact, is the other too busy or not in the mood? Are you afraid that the delicious feeling of heat and turn on that drew you together has faded away, never to return? Do you miss the intimacy that sex used to bring?
Today I lose another tooth. I can no longer keep track of how many have been extracted over the past thirty years - easily more than ten! The only ones left in my mouth that haven’t been replaced with an implant, or at least had their roots filled and crowned, are my bottom front five teeth. Even those, hanging in [...]
Twice a week I have the privilege to lead a mindfulness group for people in recovery. I’m surrounded by clients who have been hospitalized for attempted suicide, lived on the street, cut or starved themselves, been addicted to alcohol, methamphetamine, marijuana, or a variety of prescription drugs, including the epidemic Oxycontin. Most of them have experienced significant trauma, and all [...]
A fly alights on my face, right next to my left ear. Just then my meditation teacher says “Feel Everything.” So I resist the impulse to swat it away and patiently sense its little feet pattering across the curve of my cheek towards my nose. I wonder if for the fly the down hairs of my cheek seem like dense [...]
“Surrender is the art of flowing with the river of life, rather than swimming against it.” ~Unknown Every time I start writing this piece, my stomach starts to tense up, and I’ve already tossed out three drafts. This topic is the most charged one I’ve addressed in a while, and it’s asking me to be super transparent. Okay, here goes….. [...]
Have you ever been in a tropical rainforest? Up until two weeks ago, I hadn’t either. Little did I know how it would change me. Costa Rica took me on a wild ride into the realm of sensation. From the window of my bus heading into Lake Arenal, the landscape looks a lot like Northern California after a heavy rainstorm [...]
Do you ever feel like you don't fit in, or you just can't keep up? Even when you do everything 'right' you don't get the same results as your friends or colleagues, or even your clients! They surge ahead with seemingly boundless energy - serving customers, connecting on Facebook, writing blog posts, going out with friends, making dinner for their [...]
What does Support mean to you? Having a steady job or career, financial security, owning a home, being able to provide resources to take care of yourself and your family? Knowing that you can rely on your partner and community of friends to stand by you? Depending on a structure for your life that is consistent and reliable? There [...]