Last week I wrote about the many reasons we don’t ask for help, including what I think of the “Lone Ranger complex,” where we believe there’s great merit in doing… Read More
Wisdom Teaching & Spirituality
Why Don’t We Get The Help We Need?
As a young adult living in Western Massachusetts, I had a handful of friends who attended Hampshire College. Hampshire is well known for being highly unconventional. There are no majors,… Read More
The Best Thing You Can Do For the World is to Be Genuinely Happy
Previously I wrote about how community is like medicine. Our circle of fellow humans goes through this amazing journey with us . . . encouraging us, witnessing us, screaming with… Read More
Fixing Our Relationship with the World and Ourselves
If you were birthed by Earth, then every pebble and plant is your sibling. Last week I wrote about animism, the belief that all things possess a spirit. Animistic cultures… Read More
What if You Were Always Surrounded by Friends?
Unbeknownst to most Americans, the world is full of animists. According to Professor Stephen Asma of Columbia College Chicago, “Pretty much everywhere except Western Europe, the Middle East, and North… Read More
That’s Very Big of You
As a weight-obsessed culture, we don’t often want to think of ourselves as big, but there’s an expression you hear once in a while – “That’s big of you” –… Read More
My Favorite Kind of Pain
I had been hearing about an impressive tai chi teacher named Gregory Fong since moving to Portland in 1997. It was about five years later that I convinced Briana to… 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
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
The Gift Inside Our Pain
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
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
Six Virtues of Fire That Will Change Your Life for the Better
Recently I wrote about the Fire Element, which governs the summer season, and how as a culture we tend to glorify fire qualities (such as passion, activity, consumption, and drive)… Read More