Our emotions don’t linger if we allow ourselves to feel them. Mindfulness practice helps you to shift out of feelings and even longer-lasting moods—if you have the physiological foundation for experiencing and sustaining emotions such as joy and excitement. Mindfulness can awaken what is known as the witnessing or observing self, a facet of your Read more »
In the forty years that I’ve been working as a creative coach and a mind-body psychotherapist I’ve discovered that blocks to creativity and change can be rooted in old losses or trauma and can arise unexpectedly. That’s what happened to one of my clients who was a writer who had been successful in her craft Read more »
Doesn’t everyone desire happiness, joy, bliss, and peace? Then why are so many people stuck in unhealthy or unfulfilling jobs and relationships? Traditionally, we’ve been told that to achieve happiness, we should use our minds to figure out what would make us happy and then work hard to achieve our goal. The problem is that Read more »
The practice of yoga involves a natural understanding of the daily applications of mindfulness meditation. They are wonderful complementary practices that go hand-in-hand to assist our minds and bodies to become highly focused and merge into the peak state of oneness. By practicing both mindfulness meditation and yoga asanas we prepare ourselves to become conduits Read more »
As a psychotherapist working with couples and families I know that there are always two sides in any relationship although no one has the right to verbally or physically attack another individual. Even though directing angry and hurtful words at another is not necessarily life-threatening, the emotional wounds they create can be just as deep Read more »
Today many of us are dealing with devastating losses in our lives from natural disasters, to losing our homes, jobs and relationships. After the initial shock of any type of trauma there are of course the various stages of grief that everyone goes through such as denial, rationalization, anger and acceptance. For those who are Read more »
As a therapist in Los Angeles I’ve seen more than my share of patients who are dealing with various forms of depression and unhappiness. One common personality trait I’ve found and wrote extensively about in my book, Wise Mind Open Mind is their unwholesome thoughts and beliefs that come from what I call the “wanting Read more »
We often feel an extreme sense of helplessness and lack of control when we are in a time of great crisis, such as a global pandemic. When this happens, people often start to over eat, drink, shop, gamble, worry and ruminate. This can lead into an endlessly spiral of excessive fear, worry and catastrophizing, which Read more »
Most people at one time or other have procrastinated, which is normal but when it becomes obsessive and chronic then there could be an underlying psychological disorder behind it. Procrastination can result in additional stress, a sense of guilt and crisis, loss of personal productivity and social disapproval for not meeting one’s responsibilities or commitments. Read more »
Twenty-five hundred years ago, the Buddha was like the first psychologist, teaching his followers about the power of changing their mental processes in order to alleviate emotional discomfort and embrace change. One of his insights were the four noble truths that helped people free themselves from the patterns of thinking and behaving that perpetuate their Read more »