Water is therapeutic

Do you swim? Spend time in or by the water? I have long felt that being near running water and hearing its sounds for several hours at a time can be deeply nourishing. That could be a tiny creek that runs over a few boulders- I am told there need to be air bubbles to […]

Book review: Move into Life

I am happy to introduce this book to you. I have spent a vacation week opening it at random, taking notes, talking about it to family and absorbing it’s message. This book combines three of my greatest interests: encouraging physical movement, flexibility of body, thinking and emotions, and information about neuroplasticity in this context. If […]

Holiday de-stress

Let Be, Let Go, Let In –Three Steps to Meet Holiday Stress   This article was originally published in the ISIS Scrolls in December 2010. Are you approaching this holiday season with mixed feelings? Do you worry about balancing obligations and expectations with enjoying time with family and friends? Are you overworked and feeling stressed? If […]

Mindfulness– Neurosculpting

If you wonder why I continue to write about mindfulness, relaxation, breath and so on, take a look at the popular media and you will find weekly new studies and articles pointing to how helpful these can be. It sounds pretty complicated when scientists talk about the brain and their findings how the brain works, […]

Celebrating summer- a video

May you enjoy these flowers coming into full bloom. Take a few more moments to watch and allow your body to resonate with this opening to light. What is blooming near your home right now? Photo: Kerima Furniss, “From my garden”

Yes you can– dance with pain

Here are four ways to move and dance even with pain and limited ability: I promised I would not give you the standard 4 ways to… but you will find these are not standard. This kind of movement invites you to tune into your body and experiment. That takes some getting used to for most […]

Kids love these…

Finding the time and energy for meditation, yoga, imagery and some of the other ideas I suggest, may sound completely overwhelming if you are a parent. But what if you did these self-care techniques with your children? What if you could lower your stress level and your pain by sharing some of these activities with […]

Fall Leaves

You may be getting tired of raking leaves, but I just found some dry ones to shuffle through this morning. And I feel happy. I grew up in Germany and so I get colored–leaf–deprived this time of year. Living in Redwood country, I have to find the few places that have planted deciduous trees and […]

Distraction, imagery, meditation and mindfulness

Which one should you use to manage your pain? How are they different? As usual, that depends. You might think of distraction as the one end of a spectrum and mindfulness as the other. Imagery and meditation then might be the tools to go either direction. All of them are useful at the right time. […]