For our own positive mental health, we need to reconstruct some constraints. It is no accident that retreat centers are an increasingly popular vacation spot. Retreats restrict choice and thus, parado...
Breathing properly, meditating, and focusing on the impermanence of all things are healing activities. In fact, some of our most successful psychotherapy incorporates aspects of Buddhism.
Bliss is an illuminating experience followed by a great feeling of acceptance and calmness. Joy and gratitude are part of this experience. We hold at the same time the deepest sorrow of the world and...
As friends or family members and caregivers, we can help a great deal by listening and empathizing with women who are in the thick of it. We can bring them small gifts...and make sure they are invited...
. . a philosophy that teaches: try to live a life that is not too arduous, not too comfortable, not too difficult, not too grandiose, and not too complicated.
Certain respect for resilience and the indefatigable nature of hope. Looking back on our own lives, we can see an endless cycle of crisis and growth.
Whereas job distribution used to look like a triangle, it now looks like an hourglass. There are many jobs at the top and at the bottom, but the jobs in the middle are gone.
When transitions happen and identities change , one of our greatest challenges is to find a new sense of meaning and purpose in our lives. That sounds simple, but it isn't easy. As my doctor brother o...
When they shook the box and poured out its chances, you were appointed to be happy.
When clients focused on positive sensory memories, they often pictured their summer vacation on a beach or the aroma of their grandmother’s cooking or the sound of music on a city street. These memori...
What I find most sustaining is what I loved as a girl: lying down on my back and looking at the sky. That is my first memory and I hope it is my last.
We can be intentional in our decisions about vacations and leisure time. Before we make our decisions, we can explore questions like, How far from home will we travel? Shall we go by bike, car, train,...
Verbal Expressiveness One of the most important attributes is simply being able to express one's needs clearly and appropriately.
Unless carefully managed, a physical disability can become a social and emotional one. I didn’t want to spend my life maintaining my health—I wanted to be fully alive and engaged with the world. I
Sleeping beside a purring cat is the equivalent of three glasses of wine. Note: I just made that up, but, based on my experience, it seems about right.
Nobody will protect you from your suffering. You can’t cry it away or eat it away or starve it away or walk it away or punch it away or even therapy it away. It’s just there, and you have to survive i...
Most refugees are here illegally. This also is not true. Most have the proper papers and are desperately seeking to comply with the INS. My INS story about Sadia and her daughter going to Hastings ill...
Energy and Good Health
Anyone who wants to can come to America. This is not true. We have strict rules and quotas on new refugee arrivals.
It takes most people from one to three years to learn social English and five to seven years to learn academic English.