Category Archives: Mindfulness

Yoga For Trauma Recovery Workshop

Last year, I got to experience one of the best moments of my career as a therapist. The Yoga for Trauma Recovery Immersion went beyond any expectation I could’ve had. Our students truly internalized the spiritual yet practical healing tools we offered. They came to class with an enthusiasm to learn and grow. They all […]

Looking Inward

If today you woke up and recognized your full worth, what would you do differently?  If you accepted that you have needs in your relationships, what would you ask for? If you could repair any hurt, what would it be? If you owned your strength, what would it tell you to let go of? If […]

What Wisdom Is

When my head puts a judgment on someone, something, or myself… I ask my heart what it has to say about that. The heart softens me up enough to hear the truth: to be more kind.   When my emotions feel like they are going to swallow me up… I ask my head what it […]

Living in the Moment

Why is being in the moment so hard?  Because it’s uncomfortable Because it’s unpleasant Because we could mess it all up Because it’s not what we want Because it reopens old wounds Because we know it won’t last Because it can never be repeated Because it might never feel this way again Because it could […]

Letting Go

Let go.  When you feel someone “should” be acting in a certain way… Let go. When life isn’t working out the way you’ve planned… Let go. When you start to worry, obsess, or panic… Let go. When you want to control… Let go. When you are filled with grief about your past… Let go. When […]

Do I Matter to You?

A commonly unspoken feeling in family life is, “Do I matter to you?” It might sound strange that people sharing a home and a last name could question that of each other, but in the work I do, I see this question all the time implied, without being explicitly asked. I’ll give you an example. […]

Listening Deeply

Why is listening so hard? Because it means we will hear things we don’t agree with. Because we will fight the impulse to share the “correct point of view.” Because we want to fix it for the other rather than share in their emotion. Because we can’t let them get away with that. Because we […]

Falling in Love With Life

I find myself almost daily falling deeper in love with life. It’s a little odd for me to say that I’m in love with life because I know that I still feel pain. The holidays were once effortlessly happy, and I never understood why people moped around saying, “The holidays are tough.” Yet in the […]

Secure Attachment Can Be Learned

When we are born into our families, we are essentially given a template for attachment. We learn that our needs will be met consistently and lovingly, thus creating secure attachment. Or, we learn that attachment is inconsistent and unreliable, creating insecure attachment patterns. We bring this template with us throughout our lives, particularly in our […]

Gratitude for Mindfulness

I love Thich Nhat Hanh’s perspective that mindfulness is an art of living. As a therapist, mindfulness has been a concept that I saw text book value in. As a human, dealing with very human problems, mindfulness has become a practice that helps me manage my life with more grace and steadiness than I was […]