You hear it on talk shows. It’s mentioned in every romantic comedy at least a trillion times. And it’s something we men have been told we have a problem with since the dawn of time. It’s intimacy, of course. I recently attended a class on “developing deeper intimacy in our relationships,” a proposition that both intrigued me and, as it…
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.…
I am sitting on the edge of an exam table, a little giddy because I believe I have found an endocrinologist who will diagnose and treat me for the chronic fatigue, 30-pound weight gain, excruciating migraines, and other symptoms that have been holding me hostage in my own body for years. Seconds later I am weeping, face in my dripping…
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the annual international campaign organized by major breast cancer charities to heighten awareness of the disease and raise funds for research. For me, as for many of you, this is personal, because several friends and family members I love have been affected. The women in my life who have been diagnosed with breast cancer…
Krishna Pendyala was one of a talented and lucky handful of Indian students to matriculate at the Indian Institute of Technology. An IIT degree was a ticket to a high-status, top-paying job—and it opened the door to emigration to the United States, where there were even more possibilities. At age 18, his whole life was laid out before him…
I am empty. A hole as big as the moon inside of me. Bottomless, so I cannot fill it. Nothing in my realm of experience offers knowledge of how to replenish the void that swallowed my soul. I hurt. Each new injury either self-inflicted or by another—emotional or physical—stretches and extends the cavity. Like the tearing of skin and muscle…
When people learn that I have cancer, they usually stammer, sputter, turn pale, and back away. When people learn that I am a vegan? They get mad. The other day I had a phone conversation with a woman who organizes an annual spa day for women with cancer. She told me that a speaker a few years ago said that…
