Wednesday, June 24, 2020

Lectio Divina on Psalm 123


Lectio Divina is a practice of meditating on a reading, often a sacred reading, that resonates with you. I'll ponder anything from Shakespeare's sonnets to ancient Chinese poetry. But my favorites for contemplation are the psalms.

Wednesday, June 17, 2020

How Do You Define Mindfulness?


The word mindfulness is tossed around so much these days that it’s become difficult to define. So many people use it in so many different ways, promising so many varying positive results, that I’ve stopped using the word at all. Because I’m not sure what it means.

Wednesday, June 10, 2020

Locating Trauma in the Body


To successfully treat trauma, one must consider and confront the way trauma is held in the body as well as the mind.

Mental illness is a unique physical experience, and too much therapeutic attention paid to the mind independent of the body is doomed to fail, or possibly even make matters worse.

Wednesday, June 3, 2020

Anxiety Begins in Your Body


Anxiety is a physical experience. It’s often first felt in the body, and by paying attention to the body we can learn to predict, prevent or manage difficult episodes.

That’s the main point of my new book, Resilience: Handling Anxiety in a Time of Crisis. Here’s an excerpt: