Hanukkah isn’t about lighting candles, clogging your arteries with fried food, playing dreidel, exchanging presents, or eating cheap chocolate in the shape of faux ancient coins. Hanukkah is a minor holy day in the Jewish liturgical calendar made great because of its proximity to Christmas. This...
Read More♠ Hope sustains believers across the spectrum, whether they follow the stars, Wakan Tanka, Jesus, Muhammad, or the Orishas. Here, we asked five great modern teachers to reflect on the meaning of hope in his or her tradition and to provide a practice. ♠ JUDAISM Hope is related to the...
Read MoreEnjoy this excerpt from the introduction to Whole Body Prayer: The Life-Changing Power of Self-Healing. ◊ “The same energy that created stars and galaxies lies dormant within your belly.” —Master Healer Yan Ming Li ◊ When Jesus restored sight to the man who’d been blind from birth, they called it a...
Read MoreWhat can we learn from the story of the empty tomb? Easter raises many questions. Among the most common are these: Was Jesus a historical figure? Did he die on the cross? Who was responsible? Was the tomb empty? Was he resurrected? The first four questions are best...
Read More“What is absent from medicine, and even from most spiritual communities, is the understanding of our own bodies as the living sacred. Contemporary medical paradigms seldom remind us that we are sparks of divinity incarnated into human form.” As a medical doctor, my work is of...
Read More♠ Free will was a hot topic this morning. I was sitting in the Springfield, MO airport watching the news accounts of an American soldier’s murderous rampage through an Afghan village when the fellow next to me mutter, “poor bastard.” I glanced over at him and...
Read MoreFinding Spiritual Strength in Severe Illness ↓ “Some people awaken spiritually without ever coming into contact with any meditation technique or any spiritual teaching. They may awaken simply because they can’t stand the suffering anymore.” ~Eckhart Tolle ↓ Sometimes in life, we face pain so great that we must...
Read More[embed]https://youtu.be/70KE4sQwDyY?t=70[/embed] Tony Robbins: Life Is a Dance Between Your Fears and Desires * In this episode of Behind the Brand, Bryan Elliott talks to Tony Robbins about how fear can create unnecessary stress in the mind—and how to get out of your head when it happens. What a lot...
Read More* How to Forgive * Science shows learning to forgive can make you happier and healthier. * Your mom told you to forgive. And most religions encourage forgiveness. Plus, it’s just a nice thing to do, right? People who genuinely forgive tend to be healthier and happier, science suggests. For example,...
Read More* 6 Secrets of Happy Relationships * Before the battles begin, we start out believing that being with this person will make us happy. Ironically, that’s the critical mistake… “This isn’t working. Let’s just get a divorce,” Caroline said, as she stormed out of their new house. Wally stopped...
Read More* The Gift of Breath * A dear friend of mine recently succumbed to emphysema. Before he became ill, he’d been a scholar and a poet and a social activist. He’d had a passion for beauty in all its myriad forms. His life had been rich with rare...
Read More* The Many Possibilities of Joy in a Small Cup: Yoga, Life, and the Second Chakra * Lately, I’m really into joy. That probably makes me sound like a jerk. I don’t mean the kind of joy that comes with huge life-changing events like winning the lottery or making...
Read MoreBrain Food for Happiness * * Did you know that compassion, the act of recognizing someone else’s suffering with the inclination to want to support them, creates important activity shifts in the brain that are associated with resiliency and well-being? I recently attended a talk at a fundraiser where...
Read More* 10 Affirmations for Staying Centered * Staying centered is key in life. When you’re centered, you can avoid getting easily led astray, becoming out of balance, and getting swept up in the whirlwind that is life. When we are not centered, it causes distress and unnecessary chaos in...
Read MoreLiving Well with Chronic Pain An Interview with Vidyamala Burch Vidyamala Burch: In 1976, when I was 16 years old, I had my first spinal injury from lifting a friend out of a swimming pool, which sounds innocuous enough but the accident revealed an underlying spinal weakness,...
Read MoreRewiring Grief: Creating Healing Thoughts So far in my life, I’ve been amazingly lucky: I haven’t experienced a major traumatic loss, like the death of a parent, close family member, or friend. Sure, I’ve had my share of losses: failed love affairs, important opportunities that got...
Read More4 Daily Practices to Increase Your Mental Health For more than 25 years I thought I was crazy. I would remind myself, “Some people are born to be crazy, and you’re one of them.” Only I hadn’t been born crazy; I’d survived a trauma at the...
Read MoreHow Can I Love You When You Don't Love Yourself? Person A tells Person B: "You're beautiful." "I am not," Person B retorts. "I love you," Person A sighs. "Why?" wails Person B. Loving people who have low self-esteem means constantly wrestling out of their hands the virtual baseball bats...
Read MoreQuiz: How Good a Listener Are You? By far the most common complaint marriage counselors hear is the statement: “We can’t communicate.” There are many reasons why communication stops or becomes superficial and brittle, including poor conflict resolution, problem solving, compromising and negotiating skills; withholding information; keeping...
Read MoreSigns of an Ego Battleship Instead of a Relationship Would you ask your poorest friend for financial advice? While they may be well intentioned, they likely don’t have the skills to make good suggestions when it comes to money. Instead, you would likely turn to higher...
Read More5 Self-Love Exercises When I was a therapist, I met with many clients who nurtured others but spent a minimal amount of time offering love or care to themselves. A former client I’ll call Dave worked hard at his job in auto sales, supported his wife as...
Read MorePhoto Credit: gpointstudio/Thinkstock Mon, August 03 2015 The Ultimate De-Stressing Daily Routine Stress is no doubt a leading cause of disease today. In fact, some studies suggest that stress may be the number one cause of illness and is linked to many different (if not all) health problems...
Read More[embed]https://vimeo.com/87733909[/embed] VIDEO: The Healing Lavender Fields of Maui On this episode, we traveled high into the sunny hills of Maui's Upcountry region to visit Ali'i Kula Lavender, an organic farm home to 45 different varieties of lavender. In the Aloha spirit of love and stewardship for the...
Read MoreDon’t Move the Way Fear Makes You Move I wonder: are there really only two ways to deal with life—either through fear or love? I think the answer is much more complex than responding with black and white answers. But if this saying is even remotely true,...
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