Befriending the Inner Child
One of my clients describes this experience she had in grammar school. Being the chubbiest and slowest of the other kids performing wind sprints in Mrs. Wahlberg's P.E. class, my client…
Writing
Let Go of Perfectionism
Perfect is a goal you can't reach and can't put down. Chasing it grinds you down, makes you afraid of risk, and leaves a steady hum of not-enough under everything you finish. Almost every…
Burnout
Several years ago, I completed burned out in my work. I had started to feel a dimming of interest in a work project I’d been involved in. I'd been co-running a yoga program in San Francisco…
Facing Negativity
Mary was 48 and had spent her whole life driven to make it big in the corporate world. She arrived at my office and said, "I am totally burnt out and am just going through the motions of my…
Learning from Adversity
Early in his career, Abraham Lincoln was hired onto a celebrated patent case. He threw himself into the work, prepared a long brief, and traveled hundreds of miles to Cincinnati for the…
The Thread
There's a common formula for finding your purpose: look for the spot where what you care about, what you're good at, and what the world needs all overlap.
Burnout and the Mind-Body Connection
A client’s exhaustion and a memory of his father open a conversation about the pressure to prove himself.
Emotional Strength
We build a guard around the heart. Most of us do it early, to keep pain out, and we keep it up long after the danger that built it is gone. We get good at not feeling. There's always…
Keeping Company with Yourself
Compassion means to suffer with. When a small child breaks an arm, you don't decide to feel for them. You hold their hand, you say something steadying, and it takes a little off the edge of…
My Favorite Books: A Collection of Spiritual Classics and Modern Wisdom
These are books I return to and recommend, with a personal account of what reading has meant in my life. Go to the reading list .
Why is Emotional Intelligence Worth Developing?
The old 1950s paradigm that a leader must ignore or suppress her/his emotional urges has been thoroughly discredited over the last 20 years of research. Instead, research shows, time and…
The Practice of Self-Acceptance
Below, is an email exchange I had with a 40-something Ashtangi who read a blog I wrote a few years ago , reached out to me this morning to share what a struggle it it has been to accept…