Happiness Includes Discomfort

 

 

My friend is dying. As we sit together, her sadness, fatigue, and pain fills the room. All I want to do is tell her something that will make her feel better. I want to tell Read More

Compassion Is A Critical Foundation For Business and Politics, Not An Extra

Standing in line at a coffee shop, I watched a man counting out dimes and pennies to pay for his order. The person behind him tapped him lightly on the shoulder and offered “Will you Read More

This is Why Your Unconditional Wellbeing is a Good Thing for the Planet

As an adult I have gone through treatment for leukemia. Twice. I would never have chosen this for myself. There were aspects of it that were uncomfortable (nausea from chemotherapy), there were aspects that were Read More

Seven Simple Ways to Reduce Your Smartphone Dependency

My eighteen year old son recently left his smartphone for a flip phone. He had become so dependent on his little screen that he was neglecting important things like real people, sleep, exercise, and reading. Read More

What is Your Practice for Being Purposeful?

This is a comfortable period of time in my life. Chemo is over, I am not traveling too much, work is rewarding, our family is healthy, and we will all be together soon when our Read More

Want to Live a More Purposeful Life? Try This for a Week.

Many years ago, my wife and I were traveling in Ecuador. One night, we came across a distressed man sitting alone on a curb. He was very drunk and bleeding from an artery in his Read More

How Cold Shower Shavasana Can Change Your Life

The other day I was in the parking lot of a yoga studio as a class filed out. Apparently someone had parked in a way that blocked one of the student’s cars. When she saw Read More

Disengage To Re-Engage: Mindfulness Is (a) Clutch

Neurocircuitry may be neurocircuitry, but we don’t have to run on automatic. ~ Jill Bolte Taylor

Upset, stressed, triggered, anxious, frustrated, overwhelmed, bored, stuck? You have the ability to step back and choose a more effective Read More

Six Reasons Mindfulness Improves Decision-Making

First of all, it is important to say a bit about what mindfulness is. Mindfulness is the skillful use of attention. It is the practice of intentionally bringing awareness and acceptance to what is happening Read More

How to Find Peace (and Sleep) When You Find Yourself Spinning In the Middle of the Night

 

Many of us who have taken on responsibilities — business, family, personal growth — find ourselves spinning at night. Our brains are on overdrive. We may be processing the events of the previous day, the Read More

The Power of Mindfully Owning Your Choices (and breathing)

 

I just got off the phone with a client who, like many of us, is incredibly busy. She is starting a financial company, and her to-do list is endless. She left a successful career with Read More

How Kevin Love Has Moved Us One Step Closer to Healthy Acceptance of The Human Condition

Recently DeMar DeRozan of the Toronto Raptors acknowledged publicly that he has struggled with depression. Following that, Kevin Love of the Cleveland Cavaliers came forward about his experience with anxiety and panic attacks.

I am very Read More

Cultivating a Good Life: How do You Remember to Practice?

How many of us have yelled at someone we love because we feel that they are being unkind? The thing we value is kindness, and yet we are being unkind in its defense. This is Read More

Good Life Practice: The Value of Compassionate Self-Evaluation

Maybe you want to reply to emails in a more timely manner, eat less sugar, spend more quality time with family, spend less time surfing the internet, exercise more regularly, listen more effectively to others…

Whatever Read More

We Can Stop Trying to Get Rid of Stress and Anxiety and Do This Instead

There have been times in my life – especially in my twenties and early thirties – when I felt utterly overwhelmed and ill-equipped to cope with what I was experiencing. Depending on which of my Read More

Mindfulness in Real Life: From Anger to Compassion at a Four-way Stop

Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible. ~ Dalai Lama

Today I approached a four-way stop in my town where a large truck had arrived just before me. I waited a moment for the truck Read More

This is What Alexa Put in My Cart When She Heard Me Talking at Dinner

Before you go any further, I should warn you that telling this story gets a bit grammatically and punctuationally challenging, so read carefully.

Last year, my sons gave me an Echo dot for Christmas. It sits Read More

We Can Do This! How Kindfulness Can Save the World

I see it everywhere – gestures of all different sizes done on the behalf of another. These moments combine the awareness and acceptance of someone else’s needs along with the willingness to act. I call Read More

Mindfully Finding Space for Emotions in Difficult Times

The morning after the mudslides in my town, I was walking on the beach looking at the thousands of timbers that had washed up. These trees had been carried out to sea by debris flows Read More

How to Transform Your Life in Twenty Seconds

Commuting to work, caring for family, making financial plans, negotiating office politics, preparing meals, keeping up with the news, dealing with health issues — there are many possible demands on your time and energy. In Read More

Connecting with Unconditional Love in the Face of Uncertainty: Lessons from the Midst of a Wildfire

 

As I write this I am evacuated from my home in Carpinteria, California due to the Thomas Fire. We are safe, but flames fill the landscape on three sides of the hill where we live. Read More

Leadership: Giving and Receiving Feedback With Self-Compassion

Seven years ago, I left my teaching job and started a coaching and consulting business. I had no idea how to market what I was doing. I began by sending out a mass email through Read More

Mindfulness and the Power of Beginning Again with Gratitude and Kindness

This is a really good time of the year to think about what you practice on a daily basis. One of the reasons I love mindfulness practice is because it has many benefits – greater Read More

How To Be More Flexible In Your Thinking And Relationships, And Why It Is Really Good For You

It is difficult to express how much gratitude I feel for all of the wonderful lessons and reminders about human potential and human connection that I have received. Most recently, these lessons have come during Read More

“That was so cool!” The Transformative Power of Simple Human Kindness

Earlier this week I was getting my haircut at my favorite barbershop in Santa Barbara – Willies. It is no frills and I love going there for three reasons:

They are in no hurry. This Read More