Don't Relax It: What Chronic Body Tension Is Protecting
There's a place in your body that's holding right now. You don't have to look hard. The jaw, the throat, the chest, the belly. Somewhere in there, something is gripped.
Writing
Stories and reflections from my life and work.
A few places to begin
The Cascade and the Seat at the Table
Sometimes one sentence is enough. A colleague mentions a competitor's revenue. A friend says, in passing, how well someone's career is going. Someone who used to work for you turns up at a…
Why Rest Feels Dangerous
A client of mine, a founder who had just sold her company, took a real vacation for the first time in nine years. She spent most of it in a low-grade panic. No emails. No crisis. Nothing to…
What Your Inner Critic Is Actually Protecting
For years my inner critic ran one question on a loop: am I a man or a mooch? It graded everything I did. It never said thank you.
The Cost of Being Fine
My brother took his own life when he was twenty. I was sent back to school with no space to grieve. The message was simple: go, be fine, don't make it harder on your parents. So I learned…
The Body Keeps the Contract
The day I finished what I thought was the final draft of my book, I got on a Zoom call with a friend in marketing. I kept saying yes. And the whole time, underneath the agreeing, my body…
The Ache Underneath the Achievement
I've sat across from founders who just closed a round that would have made twenty-five-year-old me weep with relief. I've sat across from executives who run rooms so smoothly that everyone…
The Sacredness of Burnout: Drawing Wisdom from Philoctetes
In the world of Greek tales, there's Philoctetes—destined to be a hero in the Trojan War with his powerful bow and arrows. But life threw him a curveball: a snakebite that wouldn't heal.…
Impermanence at 50
Hello friend! Thanks for reading. I wanted to take this opportunity to share some reflections I've been doing as my 50th birthday approaches. I'd like to share an insight that has…
We-Di-Tation: Unveiling the Power of Shared Mindfulness for Deeper Connections
"The deepest level of communication is not communication, but communion. It is wordless ... beyond speech ... beyond concept."
How to Say No without Burning Bridges
Eva's facing a challenging situation. She and Doug, highly respected in their community for their pioneering initiatives, jointly created a noteworthy language learning program. However, as…
Navigating Life's Bumpy Ride
Two thousand five hundred years ago, a prince named Siddhartha was raised in a grand palace. But beneath the luxury, a restlessness gripped him. Eventually, the prince acknowledged this…