When you get your heart broken it can feel like the world stops spinning. Caught up in a whirlwind of negative emotions, you somehow convince yourself that you will be alone forever and you will never find love again. It goes without saying that after a breakup you need to brace yourself for an emotional roller-coaster ride. Over the years,…
Fifteen years ago I decided to start meditating. An astute friend at the time likened me to a gerbil racing on a wheel in a cage: I was always rushing between work, power yoga, business dinners, and parties. You could find no trace of a sofa or a comfy chair in my little studio apartment in downtown Manhattan—I kid you…
By Douglas LaBier, Ph.D. In a previous post I described new research showing that a sense of purpose in life is linked with greater longevity. That’s just one of an increasing number of studies that add to the recognition that we are biological-psychological-spiritual-social beings. All dimensions—internal and external—interact with each other and shape our total experience of life: our overall health, level…
I bought it as an expensive, therapeutically perfect gift for a stressed-out friend with back, foot, teeth, and job pain. What better present to give her than one hour of being held, with no obligations or responsibilities to the holder (which, in this case, is 10 inches of skin-temperature water with so much Epsom salts—1,000 pounds—that you are weightless and…
How would your life change if you could have what ABC News reports as “an orgasm for the brain?” Let’s set the stage. Think back to a time when you experienced pleasure from the feeling of being touched (nonsexually). Maybe it was your back or your forehead or the nape of your neck. Or perhaps you were receiving a shave,…
We know that stress—especially of the traumatic variety—can affect the shape and function of structures in the brain. For example, studies on survivors with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) reveal that the amygdala (the almond-shaped threat and danger detection center of the brain) can actually enlarge in the presence of an ongoing, unmitigated survival response. Conversely, the hippocampus (a horseshoe-shaped entity…
When a trauma occurs—for anyone at any age—it calls into question key elements that we naturally depend on for survival: safety, control, and, as psychologist Albert Bandura defined it, our sense of self-efficacy. That refers to the belief in our ability to succeed in a specific situation—in the case of trauma, the ability to take action, protect yourself, and stay…
I go back about 35 years in the do-good PR and communications field and have spent much of the last decade working to build awareness of specific ways contemplative practice can facilitate deep social and environmental change. So I’m heartened by the surge of mainstream media coverage of mindfulness in the past year or so—and at the same time concerned…
