We are all part of a living system.
I believe that who we are—how we show up in the world, how we treat others—is more important than what we do.
I’ve also experienced that, when we change how we are in the world, the world around us changes.
I write about the practices that have helped me.
Spoiler alert: It mostly comes down to walking, nature, mindfulness and acceptance.
Recovering from Post-viral Fatigue Syndrome
My doctor didn’t think I would recover from post-viral fatigue syndrome. I did. Here’s what happened and what helped me.
Reflecting on a Year of Change
It's been 18 months since I last posted, yet Living the Mess has been on my mind every day. While I haven't been writing posts for this site, as a friend pointed out, I have been living the mess and so experiencing source material for future posts. It didn't seem...
Five Mindfulness Lessons from Moving
Moving is, by definition, massive change. It may not be possible to have a move that isn’t complex, but it can be (almost) stress-free.
Leaning into Fear and Uncertainty
Renting is a good lesson in stewardship: Nothing is truly ours; we just have responsibility for things for a little while.
We Don’t Know Anything, Really
None of us really knows what we're talking about. Not me, not you, not anybody else. I mean, we know some relative things about living on this planet, but in the big picture, the absolute? Nothing. We live in a culture where there's a premium on having the answers....
The Lifespan of an Emotion
In neuroscientist Jill Bolte-Taylor’s memoir, My Stroke of Insight, she notes that the physiological lifespan of an emotion in the body and brain is 90 seconds. The sensations—adrenalin, heat in the face, tightness in the throat, rapid heartbeat—arise, peak and...
Separating Facts from Stories
We humans are story-making machines. Yet our minds don’t limit story-making to those times when it’s helpful for us. We all tell ourselves and others stories all the time. Often, those stories create pain—and they’re not rooted in fact.
Snowstorm as a Metaphor
The accumulated snow from the past two weeks finally began melting today, as temperatures moved slightly above freezing for the first time in...what seems like a very long time. As I was walking, I passed the juniper bush in the photo above. It's right around the...
Labels are for Jars
The very first thing I did, on my path to healing, was to stop labeling my brain. This was a huge shift. Labels had been my crutch for years. I’d been an active and eager participant in finding external reasons why I was the way I was. I’d had...
There is Nothing Wrong With You
We live in a culture that sells the promise of 24/7 productivity (without even asking if that’s desirable), constant giddy happiness, creativity that never gets blocked, financial wealth and endless sexual vitality. Oh, and perfect pores. That’s not life. That’s what we tend to label ‘mania.’ (Except the wealth and pores parts).
The Benefits of Inner and Outer Silence
I wrote this post more than three years ago, long before COVID-19. Today, many people are dealing with silence and solitude on a level they never expected (or wanted). I’m feeling powerless to help, so I’m sharing my experiences in dealing with solitude and uncertainty.
Learning to Observe Thoughts
One of the foundations of inner peace for me is realizing that I am not my thoughts. In order to do that, though—and this is pretty much the core of everything I practice and write about—I had to learn to observe my thoughts, to recognize that the thoughts exist on...