Frequently, when I’m stressed about something, I succumb to migraine headaches. Several years back, I went to Mayo Clinic’s Headache Clinic, to see if there was a solution. To my surprise, my doctor said an interesting thing: “Did you know, Elissa, that having a headache is similar to practicing the piano? The more your brain […]
Goodies
Every once in a while, I like to share a few amazing finds. There are beautiful people, everywhere in this world, doing amazing, complicated things, and I’m always blown away by the diversity, the creativity. When I come upon their brilliance, I want to stop what I’m doing and go join them in their adventure. […]
Noticing
An excerpt from Jack Kornfield’s The Wise Heart: “‘Eh,’ Ajahn Chah would peer at me when I was having a hard time, ‘caught in some state again?’ In the forest monastery we were constantly being directed both to look at consciousness itself and to precisely name the states that rose to fill it throughout the […]
Holding Yourself in Kindness
I’m reading Jack Kornfield’s book on Buddhist psychology, The Wise Heart. It’s come at a good time for me, because I’ve been ignoring physical signs that all is not well. You know when you want something really badly, and you rationalize and theorize about how it’s going to work out and how it’s going to […]
Missing the Boat
Missing the Boat by Naomi Shihab Nye It is not so much that the boat passed and you failed to notice it. It is more like the boat stopping directly outside your bedroom window, the captain blowing the signal-horn, the band playing a rousing march. The boat shouted, waving bright flags, its silver hull blinding […]