Balance Activity & Rest Our body is designed for cycles movement and recovery to rest and replenish. When we disturb these cycles with either excessive activity or inactivity, our body systems cannot function optimally. Physical activity guidelines for Americans set 30 minutes of moderate intensity daily activity for 5 of every 7 days in a […]
Drink Enough Water! Water is the body’s universal solvent. Every cell is filled with it as is the space between cells. It moistens our fascia letting layers of body tissue slide and glide, keeps cartilage functioning as a good shock absorber, lubricates our joints and clarifies the mind. How much? Half your body weight in […]
What Is My Face Projecting? Your face is always providing significant input to your nervous system about how you are feeling in any given moment. Fellow humans also key in on your facial expression to determine if you are safe to approach, or best to avoid. What does a curious face feel like? A sour […]
Progressive Relaxation Practice noticing where you hold tension in your body. For example, do you hike up your shoulders, brace in your belly, or clench your jaw or buttocks? Wherever your tense places are, momentarily contract the muscles of this area more strongly, then rapidly release your muscular effort. In addition to the body areas […]
The archetypal role of the physician, and by extension allied health professionals, has historically been cast as the healer. Healing however does not actually mean restoration of health. This recasting of the health professional out of the role of the healer might create cognitive dissonance, until we explore the language of healing further. The NIH […]
Intention setting is often confused with establishing a goal. Discerning the difference is an essential teaching because our intentions continually shape our reality; alternatively expressed as we reap what we sow. Intention describes how we will BE in order to HAVE what we seek. Intention is oriented to the mechanics of the fulfillment of the […]
Practice A, Practice B, Practice C
Recall that the act of compassion begins first with recognizing suffering is happening, then responding to relieve it. Here, now in the midst of the disruption of our lives by the corona-virus is an opportune time for noticing your suffering is likely to be present. Using your body-mind as a laboratory, notice the breadth of […]
Life always calls for compassion! Generating compassion for family, friends and community when we are all in this time of disruption may be more challenging than usual. Humanitarian, author and Zen Buddhist scholar Roshi Joan Halifax describes the following four conditions as a map for creating compassion: the capacity to attend to the experience of […]
Self Appreciation The Yoga tradition describes the human being as having five bodies described as treasures: a body, systems of energy that animate and operate the body, a mind and emotions that experience the world through the body’s sensory systems, an intuitive mind-body that witnesses and processes all experiences and a spiritual body from which […]