Creative Living

Permission Granted to Get the Rest You Need

In the early years of my practice, I studied with an expert in Chinese pulse diagnosis. He had studied under a Chinese doctor named John H. F. Shen who was… Read More

The Virtue of Clarity: A Gift from Water That’s Available to Everyone

This year I’ll be writing a book about reconnecting with the natural world. This was the subject of my doctoral thesis years ago, but while that was a 500-page document… Read More

Choose Who You Want to Be

Two weeks ago I wrote about ways to ensure success with your resolutions. This week I want to look at ways to think differently about resolutions. The previous article was… Read More

Making Friends with Darkness

Winter solstice is coming. For me it always brings a mix of feelings. I don’t like the early sunsets, but I do like the cozy feeling of candles and music… Read More

How to Make Your Resolutions More Effective

As 2022 approaches, perhaps your mind has been on certain lifestyle changes you plan to make or some goals you intend to achieve over the next year. It’s important to… Read More

A Freer Way to Experience the Holidays

One of the best ways to keep the holidays from turning into a holidaze is by practicing mindfulness during this season. Not only will a mindfulness practice help you through… Read More

Use Positive Psychology to Get Happier and More Fulfilled

There was a lot of interest in the article I wrote last month called “How to Bounce Forward from Adversity” in which I discussed positive psychology. Whereas traditional psychology has… Read More

Focus on the Good

I believe we need about 364 more celebrations of Thanksgiving in a year, and not because we need more reasons to overeat and watch football. Giving thanks is good for… Read More

What do you know about hormesis? It’s the phenomenon that (kind of) explains the expression “what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.” Technically, hormesis refers to biological processes in which… Read More

From Suffering to Grace

Early in my practice, people told me I should choose one area of medicine to specialize in, but I was resistant to it because of the lack of variety. Also,… Read More

The Drama Fast: A Tough but Rewarding Cleanse

(This is an “oldie but goodie” that went out in the Dragontree newsletter 15 years ago.) Part of The Dragontree’s mission statement is, “To seed our community with centered, peaceful,… Read More

30 Strategies for Becoming an Optimist

Optimism is a choice and it’s a possibility that available to all of us. If optimism hasn’t come naturally to you, it’s simply a consequence of habits of thinking which… Read More

Turn Your Dreams into Choices

Several years ago, Briana asked me, “What are your dreams?” and I discovered there was a hitch in my thinking about dreams. Somehow “dreams” had come to represent crazy or… Read More

Learn to Bounce Forward from Adversity

It’s hard to quantify just how much humans have changed – how we relate to ourselves and our thoughts, how we get help, how we act in relationships, how we… Read More

Grit and Emotional Intelligence

A few years ago, my wife and I were at a school meeting and the teacher, a seasoned elder, was telling the parents about the various challenges our kids were… Read More

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