The hard truth is this: To move forward, we have to first ACCEPT what is, as is, right now.  So what the heck does that mean, you ask?  Sitting with our racing minds, overwhelming emotions and pain-infused bodies is one of the most challenging things we can do. If you are anything like me, then you want them gone, and you want them gone NOW.  Interestingly enough, they won’t go away until we acknowledge them, accept them, and make...

What is LOVE? It’s Valentine’s Day. To many of us this is a day that makes us feel excited to get flowers, chocolates and cards. For many of us, this is a day that makes us feel inadequate because we do not have a partner and are longing for love. So today I ask, what IS love? Often we have idealized visions of love. We have dreams of everlasting romance, happiness and laughter. However, these beautiful idealizations are often not realistic...

“There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.” ― Nelson Mandela How many times do you encounter a person or have an experience that challenges you to your core? That takes you right into the depths of your past? Where you are faced with feeling misunderstood, ashamed, saddened and/or angered? We are faced with our pasts every day. Perhaps we have a history of...

I ask, “How are you?” You respond, “I’m great! How are you?” I then reply “I am great!” The truth is you feel nauseated today and I am worried about my finances.  You can tell that I am out of it, and I am sensing a glaze over your eyes. But it remains unspoken. So I ask myself. What is missing from this conversation? So many of us go through life with a shield surrounding us, like a veil we create to protect ourselves from the...

How much do you hold on to self-anger, shame and guilt? Many of us are walking around with a lot of extra emotional weight. As one of my clients put it, “[she has] a whole lotta baggage.” I have always been so fascinated by human emotions: how we carry them, how they affect our interactions with ourselves and others. Many times in my life, I have experienced this self-anger, shame and guilt…for having said the wrong thing, for having done...

I am a yoga teacher. I am a psychotherapist. But, most importantly, I am a human being just like everyone else. I have doubts, I have fears, I have thoughts that do not serve me. In my psychotherapy practice, one of the phrases I hear the most frequently is: “I can’t do it”. We place so many limitations on ourselves, enclosing ourselves in a little box, defining our capabilities without any validity. Of course, there ARE certain...