Some wellness websites are now touting the health benefits of steeping poppy seeds into a strong brew to help with everything from anxiety and insomnia to workout recovery. Appealing to the “more is better” fallacy to drive sales, some poppy seed sellers are promoting their […]
All posts filed under: self help
House: A Framework for Holding it Together
The framework I describe here is a process for remaining intact amidst all that comes at us over the course of a day, a week, a month, a lifetime. Every morning, we wake up and set about our day. In the hours to come we […]
Three Good Things
I’m writing this while under the influence of a meager five hours of sleep which means I am seriously under-resourced. (Not my fault; I gave a full 8-hour allotment my best shot.) Five hours may sound like a bonanza of sleep for some* but at […]
The Subtle Aggression of Self-Improvement
Being human guarantees there will be self-improvement-worthy behaviors and characteristics surfacing in us almost from the moment we are born. As we come of age, with all the cultural encouragement to be our best selves, it’s easy to get caught up in the quest for […]
How the Light Gets In
A psychiatrist once told me that when people reach a breaking point with a mental health issue, they tend to deal with it in one of three ways: The religion part was the surprise punchline but after a few beats it made sense. If a […]
The Anatomy of a Panic Attack
This is a story about a panic attack that threw a top-level, high-performing, rock-solid leader for a loop. For decades she’d been the person — at work and home alike – everyone turned to for steadiness, for staying power, for perspective, for answers. I will […]
Abracadabra. The (Delusional) Stories We Tell Ourselves
I once knew a couple who took stock of their marriage every year to decide if they were going to renew the contract. There is something ghastly about undergoing an annual performance review of your love, but it does speak to the need to ward […]
Moon Rock
Several lifetimes ago I moved to Washington, DC and married a man who made it a habit to regularly visit the Air & Space Museum. On his way in and on his way back out he would touch the moon rock on display at the […]
Recognizing Lovely
We all want to feel alive and feel the vitality of life coursing through us but lately my hands have made me aware of the very opposite, aware of vitality slipping away. Lately, these hands have become a big problem in my life. I’ve got […]
Tight Pants
I’ve never understood how we (I’m acting like I’m not the only one) don’t always know what we’re thinking. For instance, how is it that I woke up in such a shroud of darkness the other day, wore that mood all day long like a […]
I’m so happy
Sometimes when I go about trying to be present, I wonder if I might be corrupting — just a wee bit — the actual living of my life with all that deliberate, effortful awareness. The extra awareness can almost make it feel like I’ve created […]

