A few days ago I had an experience that has become quite familiar to me. I was reading Brené Brown’s “The Gifts of Imperfection” and she made the following statement: “Shame is universal and one of the most primitive human emotions.” While she quickly moved on to talk more in depth about shame, I was stuck on her initial declaration and immediately wondered “Why?"
“If you love something, set it free. If it comes back to you, it’s yours. If it doesn’t, it never was.” This quote, widely attributed to Richard Bach of “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” fame, conveys the meaning of a proverb that appears in many cultures and languages.
“Mind, body, and breath complete the circle of life.” This is what my yoga instructor stated last week as we were moving into Savasana, or the meditation portion of the class. This observation gave me pause for a moment and then quickly resonated as true. I was immediately aware of how much more time my mind spends actively thinking compared to the miniscule amount of time that I spend just “being” in my body and with my breath.
We live in a stressful world. Anxiety is a part of the human condition. Many people complain of feelings of anxiousness, ranging from occasional mild worrying to full-blown anxiety disorders such as Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Panic Disorder, Social Phobia, or a specific Phobia.
I am pleased to have found a book that I can recommend to clients, family, and friends who are dealing with depression and wanting to better understand their treatment options. While the title of the book indicates the subject matter is that of antidepressants, Dr. Banov does a thorough job of discussing various alternatives to traditional medication therapy, including psychotherapy, supplements, exercise, healthy eating, light exposure, yoga, meditation, and more. The fact that the discussion is not limited only to antidepressant medication makes this book much more worthwhile, in my opinion.
If the topic of this article has caught your attention, I’d go ahead and read it now if I were you. For most people who identify themselves as procrastinators, deciding to come back to it later is a likely set-up for never getting around to it.
While the physical practices of yoga have enjoyed increased popularity in the west over the past several decades, yoga is, in fact, an ancient philosophy and spiritual approach to being. The word “yoga” comes from the Sanskrit word yuj, which means “to yoke,” and is often translated as “union.”
Change is an inevitable part of life. Transitions are all around us – births, deaths, graduations, anniversaries, moving to a new residence, marriage, divorce. Beginnings and endings are occurring constantly. Some are small and mundane: the ringing of the alarm clock to signal the start of a new day, or the finishing of a good book. Some are major and catastrophic: the destruction of the World Trade Center buildings, or the recent earthquakes in Haiti and Chile.
The information in this article comes from a book by the same title “The Five Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts” by Gary Chapman. As I was reading this book, I found myself going back and forth in my response. One second I was thinking “this seems to be surface level sort of stuff – how profound of an impact can it really have?” The next minute, I was truly blown away by the depth of what could be communicated and healed by speaking one another’s love language.
Trauma is a word that we use and hear often, but what is trauma? It is usually defined as the experiencing or witnessing of an event(s) that is threatening or dangerous and out of one’s control. Trauma usually involves a feeling of helplessness. Many people serving in the military experience trauma, as do individuals who survive a natural disaster, serious accident, or personal assault. While these are common examples of trauma, experts generally agree that what makes something traumatic to a person is determined by their response to it, rather than whether someone else considers it “traumatizing”.