What Makes a Good Day?
A year ago today I naively booked a non-refundable flight to Albania for June 2020. It is a bit embarrassing that even with all the news about coronavirus by that point, I still had not realized what a big impact it would have on our lives in the year...
Focus Areas and Intentions for the New Year
Happy New Year! Whew, 2020 will forever be seared in our collective memories, huh? A reminder of how much in life is out of our control. I spent much of this rainy first weekend of 2021 reading old journal entries from this month 20 years ago, 10 years, and...
The Joys of a Staycation
I had been meaning to do a staycation for years but somehow I always ended up planning a trip instead. Since I’ve taken a hiatus from travel due to the pandemic, my vacation days at work have been piling up and I pretty much had no choice but to...
Getting Out of a Funk
For the first five months of the pandemic, I was doing surprisingly well. I had a few concerned friends checking in on me since I live alone but amazingly I was thriving during quarantine. My heart aches for everyone who has faced illness, loss, financial hardship, or other challenges,...
Using Mindfulness to Get on Track with a Habit
Are you working on changing a habit? Perhaps exercise, or healthier eating, or reading more? I have found that mindfulness is incredibly helpful in starting a new habit or getting back on track if I start to lose momentum with something I’m working on. I thought I would share...
The Unexpected Benefits of Intermittent Fasting
For some reason, I barely ate as a kid. I was born very small (only 4 pounds 6 ounces, even though I was born exactly on my due date). And then I just was not interested in eating until I was about 15. I have vague memories of being...
Creating More Time in the Day
Most of us feel like there is just not enough time in the day or week for everything we want to do. Time is a funny thing. I had a particularly stark experience with this when I did a yoga teacher training many years ago. For three months, this...
How a Health Crisis Led to More Gratitude
During college, I spent a semester in London for a study-abroad program. I was lucky to have other friends studying in Paris so we reunited to celebrate Thanksgiving together. During dinner, we went around and each said what we were grateful for. My friend who went last said she...
Finding Joy and Connection in the Face of Pain
I’ve been immersed in some great podcasts and books this week that have been very nourishing and I wanted to share some nuggets. These past few months have been tough on our collective nervous systems, with the unrelenting news cycle on pandemic deaths, unprecedented job losses, economic and health...
Waking Up This Morning, I Smile
I LOVE sleep so I used to set my alarm as late in the morning as possible, at one point only 15 minutes before I had to leave for work. After doing a lot of research on how to optimize sleep, I realized I had it all wrong. The...