Whether you’re an uninhibited veteran or a skittish first timer, there are physical secrets you can’t hide from me, your massage therapist. The good news is they’re pretty much universal. It doesn’t matter whether you’re shaped like an apple, a pear, or a bottle of pomegranate juice. Leave your underwear on, if it makes you more comfortable. The truth will…
According to Mary’s relatives, she’d had a severe water phobia since infancy. She couldn’t take a bath in a full tub of water or go to the beach. The mere sight of water triggered an extremely disturbing feeling in the pit of her stomach. Mary was so phobic that she was even frightened when it rained and suffered water-related nightmares.…
Recently I interviewed neuropsychologist Rick Hanson about his specialty: hardwiring happiness. Using neurological techniques, Hanson says, you can change the structure of your brain by building neuropathways for feeling good. “When it comes to negative experiences, your brain is like Velcro,” he said. “With positive experiences, the brain is like Teflon.” He went on to explain that for survival purposes,…
Music is now a government-endorsed painkiller. This is not to say the Food and Drug Administration has approved rock, jazz, or hip-hop MP3 downloads as over-the-counter analgesics. But stretching beyond the labels of “alternative” or “complementary” healing techniques, music and sound have been studied and applied to patients in recent years in well-funded federal labs with impressive and verifiable results.…
For a long time my passion was horseback riding. I practiced for hours every day in order to train my body and my mind to be in tune with my horse and the sport. My intense passion allowed me to excel to the top of the competition, with dreams of Olympic gold seemingly within reach. But when I was seventeen,…
When you think of forgiveness, does it seem easy to offer? Or do you withhold forgiveness as a way of punishing someone who hurt you? It can seem like the person who benefits most from forgiveness is the person receiving it. The truth about forgiveness, however, is just the opposite: Forgiveness is for you. Dr. Margaret Nagib, a clinical psychologist…
