Let me begin with the end: no one ever reaches the final stage of their life and thinks “it feels great to still be so angry at him/her.” So how do you forgive someone when every fiber of your being resists? We will all inevitably be wronged multiple times by various degrees in our existence, […]

Think of a recent time you faced imminent danger, whether real or not, and the automatic response your body triggers. I remember hiking on a trail and turning a corner to face a coyote just 25 feet away.  I immediately tensed up, fists locked and eyes focused with 20/20 vision. All senses were on heightened […]

Life is not easy without inner peace. But so many of us have it backwards as we try to change our external world in the hope of creating a peaceful life.  The reality is that when we find peace inside ourselves, the external world matters far less. We tell ourselves: if I can just get […]

Flash back to your first crush, your first real love, where the whole universe revolved around him or her. Every breath, every move, every moment an obsession as every love song on the radio spoke directly to you. The sky was bluer, the air was crisper, the food tasted better as the world was happy […]

Nearly 50,000 thoughts barrage your mind daily, inundating you with a flood of feelings and emotions:  thinking, musing, fantasizing, planning, anticipating, worrying, liking, disliking, remembering, forgetting, evaluating, reacting, story telling and fabricating reality to conveniently fit your own truth.  You are doing this all day, every day, nonstop mental commentary.  Even more remarkable, 98% of […]

In the 17th century, French philosopher Rene Descartes famously pronounced his philosophy of mind-body dualism, declaring that body and mind were two separate entities.  As a man of science, he struck a deal with the Roman Catholic Church: Descartes would focus on human anatomy, leaving the church to focus on caring for the mind and […]

Hey, isn’t that Jim over there? I’m sure he saw me, why didn’t he say hello? I bet he’s mad at me, because of what I said at the party. Whatever. I don’t really care about Jim anyways. But…is he really mad at me? In case you haven’t noticed, you have a mental dialogue going on […]

The doctor gently tapped on the door and casually strolled in.  We shook hands, briefly making eye contact as he introduced himself while simultaneously reaching for his computer that rolled on an odd contraption with wheels.  “So, what brings you in today?” He asked, never looking up as he furiously typed on the keyboard.  “Well, […]

300…297…294…291…288…Every night when my head hits the pillow, I try to lull myself to sleep by counting backwards. Doing simple math like counting sheep is not enough for active minds so research shows you have to make more complicated calculations, such as mine where I start at 300 and go backwards by threes. Yes, I […]

Reflect on a time when you were in physical pain. Not an acute pain that took two aspirin to get rid of but rather a lingering, chronic type of pain that stubbornly won’t disappear. A good example may be when you threw your back out and it simply won’t heal the way you hoped for. […]