As we slam into the end of the year it seems we can’t avoid the bombardment of messages telling us to buy buy buy. Yet, by next year it’s likely whatever was bought this year will either be broken, out of fashion, not the Apple 8, or lost and forgotten.  But there is something you

I remember when my first spiritual teacher told me that love was the most important thing there was and it could transcend and heal all things. I thought he was crazy, it didn’t apply to the love I was familiar with. The love that I knew was learned from those perfect families on TV and

In October I was invited to visit Alpine Horizons, a new rehabilitation facility in Switzerland that deals with addiction treatment and preventative programs for those at risk. I was given access to some of the program activities and taken through the program structures, all of which are impressive. Their team of international experts is headed

  Listen earnestly to anything your children want to tell you, no matter what.  If you don’t listen eagerly to the little stuff when they are little, they won’t tell you the big stuff when they are big, because to them all of it has always been big stuff. — Catherine M. Wallace —   Listening

      Are we there yet? This was the persistent refrain from the backseat of the blue Chevy impala with no air- conditioning, in August, where my sister, brother, grandmother and I sat, fought and slept for the three day, 1179 mile road trip between Miami Beach and Dayton Ohio to visit our cousins.

  We’ve all heard it—from yoga teachers, from therapists, from ministers, from other holistic practitioners: “You’re in a safe place.” Many guided meditations directly write this line into the scripts with the intention of setting a tone for safety and security. The LGBT and other socially progressive movements also like to make use of phrases

From time to time I teach an eight week class at the Recovery Cafe San Jose called “Befriending Your Body”. A simple seated yoga practice combined with breathing techniques and meditation after a check in make for a lively session with the students. Combining some recovery oriented discussion with mindful movements is a way for

    Blue, Baby, Blue One of my clients recently lamented, “I always feel blue around the holidays.” How often have you, or someone else, said the very same thing? Anxiousness & Isolation are the primary complaints. How ironic we feel isolation when it turns out there’s plenty of company with those same feelings. Is this

Being thorough with our nutrition intake has so many benefits for our wellbeing but it’s one of the hardest changes to make in our lives. We tend to make excuses as to why we can’t do it. Indeed it can be overwhelming to think about especially when our supermarkets are full of foods that tend

Recovery is a program of action. We are encouraged to “participate in our own recovery”, to work the twelve steps until they work IN us. Being complete, being exhaustive in our efforts is highly recommended. In the big book of AA we are nearly promised a life free of relapse when we practice the principles