5 reasons we struggle to follow our true longings and how to honor them Throughout my 34 years of working, I’ve experienced one very chronic pattern. I’ve tended to wait far too long to do what I instinctively knew was right or deeply longed to do. Sometimes it was staying in the wrong business partnerships or relationships, or remaining in…
Why did I fight in the ring? Well, this gets kind of personal, but I’ll tell you anyway. Maybe I need to get it off my chest. In fact, I thought writing this piece was going to be easy. I thought I’d knock it out quickly, but that didn’t happen… it took me eleven drafts. Clearly, not as easy I…
Betsy Chasse may like to curse, but that doesn’t mar the clarity of her insights in Tipping Sacred Cows: The Uplifting Story of Spilt Milk and Finding Your Own Spiritual Path in a Hectic World (Atria/Simon & Schuster). It’s her first book, and it’s a doozy: a touching and hilarious account of how Chasse rewired her own life—and a challenge…
How to achieve self-compassion and self-love.
By Dr. Howard Samuels September 11, 2001 started out just like any other Tuesday. Men and women all over the country woke up, showered, got dressed, kissed their kids and sent them off to school, and then got into their cars or boarded buses or trains and went off to work—same as any other day—absolutely unaware that everything they knew…
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…
I’m losing patience with the “spiritual but not religious” genre of books that’s so popular right now. After a while they all begin to say the same thing, to skim the surface of understanding but never dive in. As Gertrude Stein wrote, “There is no there there.” And so I didn’t expect to like Indie Spiritualist: A No Bullshit Exploration…
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…
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…
