A Gentler, Non-Weight Bearing Sun Salutation
For the past several months, quite a few clients have asked about an alternative to the weight-bearing poses typically found in Sun Salutation. Due to injuries or surgeries, they had been wisely advised to avoid poses like downward facing dog and plank until they healed. One client was bereft that she was unable to do…
It’s Not What Happens – It’s How We Respond
Although I’m a frequent flier, I rarely experience travel nightmares. Then yesterday happened. Actually, all was well until we were on the runway at SFO, ready for our 7 a.m. takeoff to JFK. Then came the “Hi, folks. This is your captain…” over the scratchy intercom. Our pitot tube was busted, he told us, and…
Yoga for Arthritis: How It Helps
I was deeply moved by a panel of students at the Yoga for Arthritis training I recently attended – people who powerfully shared their experience of yoga’s ability to profoundly change lives. One woman spoke of attending her first weekly class at NYC’s Integral Yoga Institute, coming in with fingers so misshapen and curled in…
No Time for the Everything You Want to Do? Learn to Delegate!
Let’s face it: For a lot of us, delegating can be hard. Even though we might know intellectually that it would be to our benefit to ask for help, we resist. Yet time and again, I’ve seen people’s lives expand in ways they never imagined simply because they were willing to accept the support of…
Ordinary Miracles: Noticing the Extraordinary in Everyday Experience
Everyone has times of sadness. I’ve been extra aware of this lately, seeing several dear friends struggling with challenging, even heartbreaking circumstances – health crises, rocky relationships, financial concerns. I keep reminding myself that as much as we wish to do something, ANYthing to help, sometimes the best thing we can do is simply witness,…
Speak Less, Listen More
One of my intentions for the New Year is to speak less and listen more. It might seem unusual for a communicator, educator, and coach to cultivate silence, yet the wisest teachers I’ve encountered speak little. When they do talk, their eloquence is inspiring. One way I’ve been putting this to practice is to ask…
Agita Away: Staying Sane – and Resilient – Over the Holidays (and After!)
Agita – an Italian word that means extreme aggravation. It’s also the feeling that washed over me upon learning this fact. I’ve used the term my whole life, considering it as Yiddish as oy, vey! There’s a Jewish equivalent, of course – tsuris – but that totally wrecks the alliteration and gives me…well, agita. So…
9 Lifelong Tips for Healthy and Happy Holidays
With 2014 a mere 6 weeks away, many of us are starting to feel the year-end crunch. This year, even the holidays are compressed, with Thanksgiving and the first night of Chanukah falling on the same day – an anomaly that won’t occur again for another 77,000 years or so. Exit (mostly) commercial-free Thanksgiving, enter…
Transformations: Life and Wellness Coaching
Consider the people in your life who have sat “on the sidelines” cheering you on. Maybe it was a parent, a teacher or boss. They watched, listened, witnessed your struggles. They offered encouragement, sometimes suggestions or advice – and allowed you to solve things on your own. Indeed, the best mentors or coaches inspire you…
Aging: A Slog or a Conga Line? (It’s Your Choice!)
For 35 years, Diana Nyad had dreamed of swimming from Cuba to Florida. As she made her fifth attempt last week, we got to see her turn that dream into reality. She completed the 110 mile swim in 53 hours and became the first person ever to do so without a cage. “You’re never too…
Tending to the Multitasking Brain
Can you imagine Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel Ceiling while chatting on his iPhone? I don’t think so. Sure, we can brush our teeth and watch TV at the same time. Cook and talk to our spouse. Make the bed and listen to music. Fold laundry and sing. But no matter how clever, adept or…
Lessons from a Sportin’ Swami
In the 1990s,when I began practicing yoga at New York’s Integral Yoga Institute, I often noticed Swami Ramananda studying the sports sections of the daily newspapers. How totally charming, I thought. Who knew swamis could be die-hard sports fans? Ramananda has loved baseball since his earliest years. “I was 6 or 7 when Mickey Mantle…
“I Was Terrified…but I Kept Going…”
My husband and I recently recertified in CPR – something we were even more motivated to do after learning what my dear friends Hillary and Bill Greenberg had experienced last year. It was the Costa Rican holiday from hell. Swept away by an underwater surge that ripped her regulator from her mouth, Hilary sank 30…
Cultivating Happiness
My father used to tell me, “You’re lucky; you’re one of the happy ones.” I never thought a lot about this, but, obviously, I never forgot it. Could happiness actually be genetic? In her splendid book The How of Happiness, psychology professor Sonya Lyubomirsky shows that about half of it is. Interestingly, very little happiness…
Change Your Mind, Change Your World: Affirmations
A man is but the product of his thoughts.What he thinks, he becomes. – Mahatma Gandhi Our thoughts color every perception and filter all of our experiences. They drive our moods and our desires. They limit or loosen our imagination. Consider placebos, by which a white lie essentially becomes a truth. Belief in the treatment…
Desire : Visualization : Action
This Sunday, we’ll turn our clocks forward – and be reminded by the “extra” light of late afternoon that spring really is near. Maybe you’ve already seen the first shoots of green emerging from bulbs nestled in warming soil or the early blossoming of trees. Everything that’s lain dormant through the cold and stormy months…
Embracing Tech Without Smothering Yourself: Tips for Keeping Balance in a Wired World
Yes, I’m a self-professed geek, but hacking and phishing and bugs – oh, my! Add endless IMs, emails and texts, and you’ve got potential for endless stress. As much as I love technology, there are times when I really just want to unplug. Easier said than done, right? That’s why psychologist Larry Rosen’s book iDisorder…
Get Relief from Wintertime Joint Pain
I remember how my Grandma Belle used to say, “The weatherman has nothin’ on my knuckles.” And it was true: She was rarely wrong predicting the weather. How can joint pain be a barometer? We know that pressure changes affect the synovial fluid that lubricates your joints. Yet they don’t affect everyone the same way.…
Winter Solstice: A Time for Reflection
Hibernation and dormancy are accepted parts of nature’s cycle. But even in the darkness of winter, the anticipation of lighter days gives reason to celebrate the continuing cycle of life. Cultures the world over use the powerful symbol of light – especially during the winter solstice – to honor the life-giving properties of the sun.…
Finding Gratitude in Challenging Times
Watching the jaw-dropping coverage of Hurricane Sandy, I saw an elderly woman who’d lost everything in Breezy Point, Queens, where some 100 homes had burned to the ground. As she searched the ashes for a remnant of her former life, she found a tiny, shattered ceramic plate with the image of a leaf. Clutching it…
7 Tips for Better Sleep
If you’ve ever gone camping, you’ve likely experienced the synchronization of your inner clock with the rising and setting of the sun. How delicious to retire after sundown and awaken at first light – and how rested and energized you feel after a few days of following nature’s rhythms! Ayurveda considers sleep one of the…
Relief from Pollen
Updated September 10, 2012 The Neti pot has been used for thousands of years in the practice of Ayurveda to support healthy sinus function. In Sanskrit, “Neti” means “water cleansing.” Done regularly, it takes just a few minutes and easily becomes a part of daily personal hygiene. I can’t recommend enough this simple and effective…
No Frills Fitness
I remember visiting my beloved teacher, the renowned actress Uta Hagen, at a rehabilitation center on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in 2001. She was beginning the road to recovery after suffering a stroke. Her daily regimen included two rigorous physical therapy sessions that she characterized as “brutal,” but they were helping her regain…
Oil Massage (Abhyanga)
“Ayurveda” means the science of health and medicine. It is an increasingly accepted complimentary and alternative medical system in the United States. Originating in India thousands of years ago, it teaches that when our mind/body constitution is out of balance, we’re more susceptible to illness and disease. Ayurveda suggests many simple practices to help correct…
Cultivating Positive Thoughts
The Yoga Sutras are comprised of 196 aphorisms whose essential meaning speaks to the nature of the mind, our lifestyle, values, use of the body, prana and our senses. The goal of the sutras is self-realization. They were compiled by the sage Patangali in the second century BCE. Over the ages, there have been many…