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What Sharon Salzberg has contributed to meditation and Buddhism in America is hard to quantify. Nowadays, she is everywhere you look within the recent mindfulness surge (and deservedly so): interviews with Oprah, podcasts with Tim Ferris, magazine articles, and her nine books on the subject. She has become known for her emphasis on the practice of metta, or lovingkindness, and her seminal book on the subject (Lovingkindness). This focus has been particularly needed in the West where the temptation to use meditation and spirituality as another self-improvement project or an attempt to control…continue reading →

Embedded within everyday anxiety is the hope that if we could only complete the remaining tasks on our to-do lists, then we could rest in an aura of accomplishment and contentment. Anxiety creates its own logic: we should maximize all our moments with doing or thinking about doing. I know it's hard for me to relax when I think about my swollen email inbox. Email has a field day with my adrenal glands. While we know that meditation and self-care ultimately may be good for our productivity and happiness, choosing them in the…continue reading →

I was recently interviewed on The Career Passport podcast, which is funny since I came into my career with the same trajectory as a Plinko ball. Falling, falling, I seem to be headed towards early retirement in my mom’s basement after health crisis in my mid-20s left me disabled and in chronic pain.Those dramatic events, and my perspective on them years later,  is the subject of my interview with the podcast host, and my friend, Jill Ozovek, “The Ultimate Example of Turning Lemons into Lemonade. ” Jill and I talked about the healing mindset…continue reading →

Last week, I discovered a handwritten message that had been taken off the wall of my daughter’s Pre-K classroom. The message – really a complaint – had been voiced by my daughter during a classroom intervention led by the teacher. The teacher wanted to know why the “Doggy” game had led to so much arguing and crying. As far as the game, I think you get the idea: the kids take turns acting like a dog, crawling on the floor, rolling over, barking, and sometimes being sick and needing to be taken care…continue reading →

  In this podcast IDP teachers Kimberly Brown and Dan Cayer discuss their experience with both physical and mental suffering, how it informs their teaching, and the ways they've learned to bring patience, kindness, and compassion to themselves. Kimberly Brown is the executive director of The Interdependence Project, and a graduate of its Meditation Teacher Training Program.  She leads mindfulness and compassion classes, workshops, and retreats for groups and individuals in NYC.  Kim studies American and Tibetan Buddhism and practices lovingkindness meditation.  Her teaching methods integrate depth psychology, compassion training, and traditional Buddhist…continue reading →

Most approaches to solving chronic pain fail because they try to either overpower the pain through exercise or PT regimens, or ignore the discomfort and ‘get on with life.’ Both approaches act as if the pain and uncertainty aren’t there. Both approaches act as if you aren’t there – dealing with the swirling feelings and thoughts that arise. In my 20 minute interview on the podcast, “Body Learning,” I share a different approach to resolving chronic pain that I’ve tested out in my personal life and with hundreds of students. My interview discusses:…continue reading →

Isolation: The Shadow That Follows Illness One of the familiar characteristics of being ill, or going through a tough time, is a sense of isolation. Maybe we reach out less often to our friends, or enter into a cold orbit that takes us further away from our partner and other people we share a living space with. Simple questions like, “How are you?” become complicated and unpleasant. Even if we could really communicate what we are going through, what good would it do? You might imagine, who wants to hear about my depressing…continue reading →