My client called me the day after it happened… “I went to the emergency room, she said.  “I thought I was having a heart attack. I guess I’m really anxious about this speech.” Her tone was heavy with shame and self-recrimination. “Well, it’s better to die of embarrassment than a heart attack,” I said,

  For several years I had been addressing my fear with reasons why I shouldn’t feel that way. I had been looking for the underlying “reason” (read excuses, or judgement, or rationalizations), and then addressing each of these by talking myself out of them. Find a fear and smash it had been my approach. I

“I want winning!” the three-year old seethed as he plucked the dreaded peppermint candy card from the pile.  He was so close to the castle, the finish line, the grand ending where he could declare himself the winner, but instead he boomeranged back to the beginning only to watch others race to the finish. Candy

  I often get asked by clients, friends and acquaintances how to get to where they want to be in life. All of us have aspirations for our future. Self-help books and gurus tell us to dream big – if you can dream it you can be/do it. And we all know about the Law

  After rehab, I entered ‘the rooms’ as a protocol for what I, and others, believed would be helpful. I was desperate to overcome the feelings that I had tried to outrun my entire life. As life would have it, my life improved for some time. I went religiously to meetings three times a week,

If you remember the famous Tina Turner song, you remember the refrain: “What’s love but a second hand emotion.” That is the way it used to be. I loved you if my needs, thrills, cravings, or wants were being met. I didn’t see YOU, I saw my desires. I was loving the “if…then” experience, not

    It’s been a tricky week. A week where I’ve been evaluating the triggers of a deep depression I’ve experienced for a month or two. Perhaps a bit longer. Gladly I seem to be out the other side of it, but boy was it brutal. It rendered me breathless, thoughtless and bottomless. It felt

  I was diagnosed with Anxiety Disorder in 1994 in the seventh year of my recovery from addiction, by a specialist in the field. I know I’m not the only one. Many of us deal with the debilitating symptoms of anxiety at different times in our lives. For a few years medication helped to blanket

Like most people, I like to look my best. For me looking my best coincides, or in fact begins with, feeling my best. Pre recovery I’d try to make myself feel good by obsessing over my appearance. Endless buying of clothes, sweating at the gym and purchasing of miracle creams ensued to summon up even

What it used to be like, what happened and what it is like now is the traditional framework for sharing at a meeting. This progression holds true for both my recovery and my yoga practice. At one point my life was consumed by suffering which eventually became overwhelming. I had a life changing experience and