“Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass … it’s about learning to dance in the rain,” wrote Vivian Greene. Dancing in the rain is the modus operandi of folks living with chronic pain. They spend a lifetime figuring out how to dance gracefully–with little effort visible to the observer—and to resist the urge...
All over the world, research has shown that Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) can halve the risk of future clinical depression in people who have already been depressed several times—its effects seem comparable to antidepressant medications. But how? In 2007, renowned psychologists John Teasdale, Mark Williams, and Zindel Segan penned the bestseller “The Mindful Way Through...
Mahatma Gandhi once said that “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” Consider the findings of the 2010 Do Good Live Well Survey (www.VolunteerMatch.org) of 4,500 American adults. Forty-one percent of Americans volunteered an average of 100 hours a year. Sixty-eight percent of those who volunteered reported...
A Buddhist proverb says that when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. After five years of trying to learn and practice mindfulness—moment to moment awareness, or paying attention to the present moment—on my own and ending up … well … different than the bald guys in the ochre and saffron robes, I decided...
One of the main tributaries feeding into the river of depression is loneliness. It can both trigger depression and can prevent us from recovery. But loneliness doesn’t just affect mood disorders. It has a hold on heart disease, immunity function, nervous system disorders and many other illnesses. It is not an exaggeration to say that...
