Images can be powerful ways of helping us understand information and form concepts and mindsets that we then use as models for beliefs and actions. Maybe you've seen something like an iceberg depicting the emotion of anger. In this model, anger is above the surface and it's described as a second... Read More »

Many of us have received and embodied the message that “being emotional” is not a good thing — that it is counter to our interests and the interests of those around us, and that it doesn’t help us resolve problems or live the life we want to live. When this message is active inside us, any displa... Read More »

If you sit in one position a lot—especially if you have to look at a computer all day—you could develop some tightness, aches, and pains. Below is list of practices that might give you some relief, based on biomechanics and neurology. You can think of them as ways to heed your brain's message to ... Read More »

Dear SS, Thank you for your recent letter. I'm sorry to hear you've been having some sciatica issues. Our sciatic friend can get a little nervy sometimes, traveling from the low back all the way down to the feet, so there's a lot of potential for signaling to get your attention. Injuries and irri... Read More »

The germ theory of disease—the fact that microorganisms, or germs, can invade other bodies and cause certain illnesses—has been a great boon to health, thanks to Louis Pasteur and other scientists and physicians in the 19th century. We're right in the thick of it now, of course, with the pandemic... Read More »

Here is a great first step—maybe even a giant leap—toward good emotional hygiene and increased emotional intelligence. Let go of the idea of positive and negative emotions. Let go of valencing them—all of them—as good or bad. It's a difficult step to take because we've all learned about negative... Read More »

My classes might be considered Basic Yoga classes. Another title for them might be "Basically, Yoga." To elaborate, here's a little guide for the perplexed. The goal--or my goal, anyway--in class is not for you just to stretch or sweat or to get stronger but to become more conscious. (Your goal i... Read More »

Bear in mind that health is different from fitness. Health is the absence of disease whereas fitness must be defined by what one is fit to do, presumably with exertion. Problems arise with social expectations about the universal value of exercise. And government guidelines push us in a direction ... Read More »

This week we've been talking about the great Olympic champion Simone Biles, the paragon of a gymnast.  She is also a paragon or even a kind of mythic figure of being human, her humanity on full display for the world from atop Mt. Olympus as she struggled with mighty forces in her events. I presen... Read More »

There's a Sanskrit term in yoga which Kai might be reminding us of above. Uttanita, or "upside down." It can be a fruitful practice to look at things from a different perspective, to consider the opposite or converse of what we normally think. In fact, those who know the ancient Sanskrit language... Read More »

What if you developed an Uncertainty Practice? A deliberate practice in which you consciously play with not being sure about what you are doing or what is going on? (That’s my whole life, you say. Good for you.) Fine tune it. Become less sure about more things. Put yourself in situations that ar... Read More »

What would it be worth to never be hungry again? I’d say it would be worth the price of never preparing, sharing, and enjoying the gift of a delicious meal again. It would be lifeless. Rather than attempt to never be hungry again (it won’t happen, by the way), learn to eat well. What would it b... Read More »

"...a strange admixture of self and world..." You might be surprised to learn that the word "empathy" is a pretty new word—around mid-20th century—coined as a translation of the slightly older German word einfühlung, literally "feeling-in." Maybe its newness is why it can be a challenging idea to... Read More »

The fine movements of our fingers are one of our greatest gifts, and easily taken for granted. The power of our fingers to hold and manipulate is transferred through our wrists. Because of the many joints in this location, there is the potential for pain here, but also the potential for healing. ... Read More »

Your brain has a "feeding pattern" or direction that information flows. From the bottom or brainstem area toward the top of the brain, and from the back of the brain toward the frontal lobes, where conscious thoughts and decisions are "located." To improve the quality of your outputs--actions, th... Read More »

It's a popular meme-theme to buttress oneself or others when things are difficult: the caterpillar and butterfly image. Sometimes there's a cocoon stage in the tale too. It's a myth or story we can tell ourselves about not just who we are or what we are going through now, but also about who we wi... Read More »

Life is fear based. Once you start to get that, you don't have to fight fear, which is fighting yourself and life itself. You don't have to let go of fear, either, because it is a necessary emotion and can't be let go of anyway, as if it were no longer useful. To try to do so is to waste energy ... Read More »

Here's a fuller version of that famous Bruce Lee quote:  "Don't get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; you put water into a bottle it becomes the bott... Read More »

We know from yoga that one thing is always more than one thing. The world is more than one thing. Life is more than one thing. And so it is with health and disease. Narrowing it down further to the topic of bone density and osteoporosis, that too is more than one thing. Let's briefly look at a co... Read More »

A friend asked how important sequence was to me, and I thought that might be worth a few words here. I've always loved a good sequence in a yoga class, from an auspicious beginning to a developing plot line of poses leading to a culmination and satisfactory ending--just like in a good story. It'... Read More »

Howard Gardner proposed the theory of multiple intelligences--illustrated above, from here--to try to account for the many ways in which we can function and fluently engage life. None of them stand alone, really. We each have all of them to one degree or another. And each likely can be improved. ... Read More »

You want something. What do you want? It might be one thing, even something quite simple. Or it might be something deep and compelling and mysterious. But one thing, whatever it is, is always more than one thing. That's how the universe makes more of itself. That's how life makes more of itself... Read More »