Years ago in our family hedge fund business, we hired an assistant named Anne who was a terrific asset to the team and lots of fun to work with. We had a good time churning out projects. She was also very pretty (with gorgeous hair, electric blue eyes, and creamy skin) and maybe 50 pounds overweight. Anne wasn’t happy with…
Body mindfulness involves focusing intentionally in the moment with the addition of body awareness to anchor and enhance the benefits for brain and body. Benefits include rewiring the brain towards more optimal functioning, increasing access to feel-good hormones towards building emotional strength and potentially shifting or healing age-old emotional patterns. The following are two personal body mindfulness practices that I…
Take your cue from the creatures
Focus on your own life path
In an ideal world, we would all get eight hours of sleep every night, and wake up with enough energy for that 6 a.m. spin class before work. But when you’re struggling to balance the responsibilities of everyday life, cutting back on sleep can seem like the only solution. Many of us rely on coffee or energy drinks to…
To beat back the Great Bleakness that is clinical depression takes a lot of falling sick. For the depressive, there is often no choice about sinking into despair—darkness so overpowering that it would shock the uninitiated. For us, it can be a daily occurrence. But to fall sick mindfully, to observe our experience of depression—that skulking trickster, part physical malady…
From sick and stressed to healthy and happy
By Jason Drwal Kevin Schjerning, a 48-year-old film and video editor, doesn’t simply dislike social gatherings; he finds them overwhelming. “I basically feel claustrophobic,” he says. “I have to get out of there.” An estimated 22 million people in the U.S. have social anxiety disorder, an intense and disabling fear of being judged or humiliated in social situations. Living with…
Celebrate International Moment of Laughter Day