Articles

The #1 Bestselling non-fiction paperback for the last few weeks was On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder. In second place was Bessel van der Kolk’s classic book on trauma, The Body Keeps the Score. What does that tell you? It tells me that Americans want to know how to stand up to authoritarianism, and at the same time, are feeling traumatized. No surprise, given what the principal architect of...

In the past few months I have witnessed tremendous increases in anxiety, irritability, depression, and fear about what’s happening in our country and the world, in my mindfulness students and therapy clients (as well as among friends, family, neighbors and most everyone I interact with). At the same time, I’ve heard more people questioning the value of mindfulness practice in these crazy,...

Here’s yet another reason for “Dry January,” if not “dry indefinitely”: US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy says alcohol consumption causes cancer, that it is responsible for 100,000 cases of cancer and 20,000 cancer deaths annually. “The direct link between alcohol consumption and cancer risk is well-established for at least seven types of cancer including cancers of the breast, colorectum,...

“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.” Desmond Tutu Well, I was hoping to retire in 2025, but after the election, it looks like my services are needed more than ever, and may be for years to come. So this is my first post in a long time, but it won’t be the last. These are challenging times. The emotions people have described to me run the gamut,...

Loneliness, a normal part of the human condition, has reached epidemic proportions in recent years. Amplified by the social isolation that the COVID pandemic imposed (and continues to demand of the elderly and the immune-compromised), loneliness as a social issue was already on the rise. As I wrote in a 2017 post on social support (1), a national survey revealed that 25% of Americans said they...