The self-improvement business is booming. Videos, books, classes, teleseminars, newsletters, gyms, get-away weekends: the opportunities to improve yourself are endless. Whether it’s diet, fitness, attractiveness, ability to make money, relationships, or sexual skills, there is a myriad of offerings at all price points.People are caught up in the self-improvement business, but nobody seems to ask
Relaxing with friends, chilling to an ambient groove, enjoying the sweet pungent odor of…incense? For most of us, this scene conjures up images of hippies in the 60s: bell bottoms, tie-dye, and never-ending Grateful Dead shows. Actually, it may point to one of the grooviest trends of our time, because according to a recent study,
Give up your therapist? Not quite yet. But some exciting new trends in self help can be easily accessed right from your phone.Most mobile phone apps are intended as an adjunct to therapy rather than a replacement for it. Patients can learn to relax themselves, monitor their moods, and attend 12-step meetings. Even the Veteran Affairs National Center has developed an app for
There are many reasons we practice meditation. One of the most widely touted is its ability to help us manage stress and feel relaxed. This is all well and good; however, I think the most important benefit is that it teaches us to break our identification with our minds. We watch; we breathe; we observe our thoughts float by like clouds. When a particular thought captures our attention,
Many of my patients do not want to take medication for anxiety and I support their efforts to find a holistic solution. Here are my top recommendations for non-drug treatments for anxiety:1) Practice some deep, slow breaths, all the way down, pushing your abdomen out. There’s a reason the Buddha is always pictured as having a big belly – belly breathing produces calm, chill people. Yoga and meditation classes can
Back in the 90s, I studied with Robert Kiyosaki, the multimillionaire author of the Rich Dad series of financial advice books. He was “only” worth four million at the time, years before he became much richer and world famous. Robert taught us that the number one thing he attributed his success to was tithing, the practice of giving away ten percent of your money. Even when his business tanked
Today we are blessed with a plethora of contemporary women spiritual teachers: Marianne Williamson, Pema Chodron, Gangaji, Gurumayi, Ammachi, Sylvia Boorstein and her many Buddhist colleagues. Accredited graduate programs in Women’s Spirituality have opened, and
Annie hadn’t known it could get this good. Over the weekend, she’d surrendered to the love flowing for herself and everyone else. The workshop had provided a safe environment for participants to let down their guards, their judgments and insecurities and simply be as they are. Annie allowed herself to 
The word “discipline” is most often attached to things we don’t want to do. We don’t want to exercise and we don’t want to eat right, and therefore “discipline” seems like a bummer. Our idea of a well-disciplined person is close to that of a military recruit: rigid and tense, running his or her life like clockwork. It can seem that
If you want to develop beyond the mainstream, you’ll have to be willing to do beyond what the mainstream does. If you look around at the 70% of Americans who are overweight, you’ll know that you simply cannot eat what everyone else is eating or participate in the health-ruining practices advocated by advertising. If you eat as you have been