Mental health Expert Voices Today

New Year – A Time for Change Part 1

First, let me start out by wishing all of you a very Happy New Year! I hope that 2009 brings all of you the best and all that you wish for. Generally, you tend to think about the New Year as a time that marks change. And so, I’d like to address several components regarding change apropos to the tradition. In order to look at this subject from different aspects, I’m going to discuss it both in this week’s blog and next week. Today, I’ll address New Year’s Resolutions. After all, I’m sure many of you made some! More…

Health and Happiness

I just returned from a lengthy trip that included stops in Israel, Egypt, Morocco, and Spain. The trip was planned with a loose itinerary because the best travel is the unexplored and the adventures you experience along the way. When you travel you open yourself up to experiences outside the safety of your nest. More…

Being Grateful in Difficult Times

No doubt, you are all aware that the Holiday Season is upon us. The calendar says so. Perhaps some of you are hosting the Thanksgiving dinner and, therefore, are a bit more sensitive to the upcoming traditional time to celebrate. Yet, in these recent economic times, for many of you, it will be difficult to think in terms of celebrating. Rather, in times when things are tough, the contradiction in emotions may even bring on a sense of intense anxiety. Clearly, soon after Thanksgiving, Christmas and Chanukah and Kwanzaa occur. This year, especially, it may be a hardship to make the usual purchases. Hard to find the good More…

Imagine Your Way to Success

Ever seem like what's in front of you is more or less hopeless? That's happened to me. I showed up recently at the Minnesota State Fair to give a brief but important (to me) presentation as part of Minnesota's sesquicentennial (150 years) celebration. In a big chautauqua tent, I was scheduled to give a short, audience-engaging presentation on body wisdom twice between panel presentations by high-powered speakers. More…

Put More Fun into Your Work

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Coming Back

I cannot do everything, but I still can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something I can do. – Edward Everett Hale More…

One Step at a Time

When you have a great and difficult task, something perhaps almost impossible, if you only work a little at a time, every day a little, suddenly the work will finish itself. – Isak Dinesen Coming back from an injury, sickness, stress, or major set back can seem like a monumental task. As we inch back, step by step it can seem like we will never be able to feel good again. But instead of focusing on how far we have to go it is best to try and focus on how far we have come. The road to wisdom is a journey of one step in front of the other. Slowly we learn to appreciate the movement of our bodies and the spaciousness of our minds. More…

Fear Not

Stripped of all their masquerades, the fears of all men are quite identical: the fear of loneliness, rejection, inferiority, unmanageable anger, illness, and death. – Joshua Loth Lieberman I woke up today with a sense of fear. I must go to the doctor today for the pathology reports from my cancer operation. I feel a sense of nervousness about not knowing and at the same time wish I could just brush this all away and go on with my life.  Fear is a might force that can destroy the very foundation of your soul. More…

Thankful

God gave you 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say, “thank you”? –William A. Ward It is often times not until we can’t do something that we begin to appreciate what we can do. When you can not get up and out of bed life seems difficult. Then when you are able to get up and take a simple walk there is sense of gratitude.  We give thanks for the simple things in life. The ability to make the body move is what gives us the power to live and experience the wonders of life. The breath is the ultimate power. Without the breath life ends. In yoga the breath is referred to as the “kiss of life”. More…

Silver Linings

Too many people miss the silver linings because they are expecting gold. – Maurice Setter I am one week post major surgery for a radical hysterectomy. I was diagnosed with cancer. I am on the couch unable to move. I am fifty-five and this is the first time in my life I have been down. With the body unable to move the mind has lots of time to think. I have cancer, I had a radical hysterectomy, I am thrown into menopause…where is the silver lining in this cloud? More…