During this period of time I am often asked what I recommend for preventing illness. In fact the best thing is also what I recommend for healing from illness. Joy. Let me explain to you why the emotion of joy is the best physiological medicine you can give your body.
Read MoreIn the last year I have found myself sitting in front of patients with not just physical conditions, but emotional conditions. In finding solutions for these people, I began to see the similarities with people I've treated who had chronic immune disorders, unresolved head trauma, ADD, Autism and a plethora of other conditions that affected the nervous system and specifically the brain where inflammation, infection, injury or irritation can affect our neural connections.
Read MoreGrowing up one of the phrases that I think I heard more often than any other was "it's all in your head!". This would usually be said in response to my stay home from school mystery illness, or when I tried to tell my mother that aliens had landed in the back yard. But the truth is that everything really is all in our head, every symptom, every illness, every ounce of healing.
Read MoreHave you ever noticed when you're driving, that you can almost think that you want to move over into the next lane, and the car that's in your way obligingly moves?
Read MoreI can't tell you the number of people who come in to see me for insomnia. Want to know the biggest reason they tell me? Something to do with their partner, a pet an open window, someone steals the blanket. I think the Vanderbilts had it right when they would always have separate bedrooms.
Read MoreThis weekend is Mother's Day and I'm spending it with my mother. Now it may be the fact that it gives my mother lots of time to think, or it may be the grey Maine rain, but she is haunted by the fear of Alzheimer's Disease or dementia.
Read MoreNow we have all known commitmentphobes. Usually men, usually the great-looking men with flashing smiles who smell great and say all the right things. But we are all commitmentphobes of one sort or another.
Read MoreMany years ago I had the most wonderful old salty client. His name was Tom and he was a grizzly old Irish guy from Southie. He used to swear that a drop of the creature (a bit of imbibing) was the cure for every ill.
Read MoreRecently I had a difficult experience with a client. It took me a while to realize that all her protests were attempts to drown out her inner voice. She had blocked her ability to heal.
Read MoreI began my Sudoku journey ... easy, then on to medium, then on to tricky, then on to challenging, etc. Now I have developed a habitual rhythm to solving them and actually find them very relaxing and stress-reducing. My point here is that practice really does make perfect, and not just with mindful time wasters. It also is true with your body.
Read MoreWhat I find myself missing is the silence and the time outs that were an inherent part of my earlier life; my life before cell phones, e-mails, texts, twitters, and the general oppressive and compulsive nature of technology. After I came back from a vacation, I found myself not answering my cell phone, not returning messages, not turning on my computer and generally craving being outdoors and unplugged. And an interesting thing happened.
Read MoreLoneliness affects people's health. Don't doubt it for a minute. Up until this generation, older people were always kept at home where there was a sense of belonging. Where they were surrounded by their favorite things, ate the healthiest of foods, and were supported daily with love and devotion. And now?
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