I love how Life School shows up wherever I happen to be—like at the gym the other day.
My trainer caught me “cheating” on my prescribed workout. I was working on chin-ups and dropped to a smaller band (less support for hoisting my upper body over the bar). I defended my actions by explaining that the larger band was “too easy,” I wanted more of a challenge.
Knowing me, and my tendency to cheat…
I am no different than you—asking questions. Wanting answers. Needing to understand how it is all unfolding before me. Now. Impatient and occasionally impertinent when the answers do not arrive.
Then I think of Rilke’s quote, which I came across as a teenager. It gave me SO much comfort then, and it still washes over me warmly, soothing my pain for not knowing, reminding me that not knowing…
We’re all familiar with the ways conventional western medicine falls short—sizing us up so fast as to not hear our whole stories or treat us as whole people, not seeking root cause solutions to our problems, parceling us out among specialists who look at just one piece of us (often missing the bigger picture that provides the answers), among other things.
But that’s only because we’re…
Ever feel stuck? Can’t quite get the project started, or that great idea to emerge? Me too.
Here’s what I do: clean a drawer.
“Is she nuts,” you ask? (Well, yah, but that’s beside the point…)
That’s right, if you need that idea to pop, try cleaning something. De-clutter.
I choose drawers because they’re small, doable in a short period of time, and because, well, I’ve got a lot of “black…
I had a new client come to see me yesterday. This previously well, highly active, Nature-loving woman had been in excellent health until falling suddenly ill eight months ago. It took her docs six months to diagnose Lyme disease. She was the perfect candidate for this diagnosis—extensive exposure to ticks, typical symptoms for Lyme, AND her lab tests were overwhelmingly confirmatory.
The…
Softening: a simple practice to take the edge off what feels impossible.
What do you do when the overwhelm of life runneth over? Melt down? Succumb to worst-case-scenario thinking? (That is what our brains were designed to do, after all!)
And there’s a certain sensual satisfaction in a juicy meltdown, isn’t there? But I always regret it. It never leads to positive, constructive resolution.…
I see many people in my consultation room who, like most of us at some time or another in our lives, have almost given up hope. I say “almost” because something inspired them to come see me. For some it is one last glimmer of possibility that they can heal.
Many of the folks I see have been sick for a very long time, have been to many doctors, and have yet to receive sustainable solutions for…
Every find yourself putting things off because you don’t feel All Ready?
Like that perfect time will come, your tool kit will be perfectly stocked and organized, your energy and enthusiasm will be robust, and you’ll dive in with the full support of the Universe all around you, humming and whistling as you go?
Me too.
And how does that work for you?
Things rarely happens that way for me. If what…
How many of us have gone on diets to lose weight? Only to fail, gain it all back, or, worse, lose the weight but feel worse (remember the low fat diets of the last century? Yah, that happened to me!)…
Ultimately it’s all about optimizing body composition—the inevitable loss of fat that occurs when we live our lives in ways that best suit our unique genetics.
That’s right—the road to…
Are you like me—always behind, never quite there? Deadlines looming. Elated to make them (when I do). But feeling constantly pressured, and time-deficient?
Hmmm… Pondering this a lot lately. Because, you know, it gets overwhelming.
Realization: I’m in charge. I’m my own boss. I set all my own deadlines.
First thought about that: how lucky I am!
Next thought: why do I do that to myself? The only…
I try hard to not look at email or social media posts, or chase those tantalizing notifications that pop up on my phone while I’m working.
Today, however, one snagged me.
I couldn’t help myself. I saw a hint of what was to come: world-class figure skaters—performing to “The Sound of Silence.” “Haunting,” it said. Yes!
And hooked.
Okay, just one teeny tiny second. Then right back to work!
My…
Have you every caught yourself saying, “yes,” when your body/your heart/ your mind screamed, “no?”
Yah, join the club.
I have enough trouble managing all the good stuff that my heart and mouth actually agree on—so many “yeses!”
What’s the story with the yeses we say but don’t really mean? The yeses that pile up and eventually overwhelm us?
For me, it’s my assumptions about what will happen if…
I call it inner wisdom. Or inner guidance. Others refer to it as “the small quiet voice,” “intuition,” “gut feelings,” “inner knowing,” or, “the heartbeat of God.”
It’s the truth of what we know–truly know–deep within. A knowing that is innate to us all, that can guide us effortlessly once we learn to recognize it, listen to it, and trust it.
I believe we are all born with the capacity for…
Winter has finally arrived in the Midwest… Our unseasonably warm and dry autumn rolled into the solstice while I was still wearing shorts and clinging to my fantasy that winter would not come this year (oh my, what a beautiful fantasy!).
The single and negative digit temperature shocked me—really shocked me! Blowing my sweet fantasy out of the…
My story of vitamin D resuscitation.
I used to struggle with winter. And thought it was just how it was. The short days, long nights, unforgiving cold. Just awful! I felt sluggish and tired and blah about everything.
Each year I met the descent into winter with dread, and pined for the release of spring.
When I learned that the light nutrient, vitamin D, helped others with seasonal affective…
We all know how hard it is to get our New Year’s resolutions off the ground. Or harder still—sustain them for the long haul.
Why is that? Why is it so dang hard to create positive change in our lives? Change that we want? Change that we know will lead to better lives?
Maybe we start too big. We’re better at small changes—even the small things lead to big shifts in our lives.
Or maybe our…
You know how those little things others do for us can pack the biggest punch? And that no matter how practiced we are or sophisticated we seem to others looking in from the outside, we still need the gentle, loving reminders?
That’s what my massage therapist did for me a several years ago.
She massaged me during a time of great trauma and turmoil… too many details to share or even remember,…