Deliberate Optimism

So, I guess I got into that age old question on human nature, is it essentially bad and self-seeking, or good and generous? But it was also a question about the nature of nature and of the [...]

The Weakest Link

Oftentimes people tend to think of their injury as the result of a specific event, the one time they lifted something wrong for example. I tend to think of the injury event, the moment “it [...]

Strategies for Aging

Is it better to “Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.” Or is better that we: “Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and [...]

Are You Strong Enough?

When I started my journey of exploring my own physical potential through strength and fitness training, one of the things that impressed me the most was learning just how weak I was. One of the [...]

Ambivalence

Have you ever felt like you wanted something--for example, to start an exercise program, to get to know an acquaintance better, or to start taking steps toward a vision of the future...but found [...]

Feeling Alive

We were hunkering down on a steep side hill as the thunder rolled just above us. Each reverberation lasted for an unbelievable length of time. Periodically there would be a crash, like a [...]

Boundaries and Power

I wonder if you’ve had a feeling now and again of connecting with a huge well of power? I’d had this happen at random a few times over the years. It’s unmistakable from other feelings. The [...]

The Art of Sensation

I often wonder how we can have perspective on our own experience. I’ve heard that some people taste more than others. Some might have stronger basic tastes like salt and sweet. And others [...]

How to Exercise

A lot of people feel challenged with getting started with exercising. I know I did. I’d been getting what I felt was a fair amount of exercise through recreation and lifestyle, but I [...]

Trekking Pole Tirade

I don’t think trekking poles are bad--I use a trekking pole myself. I just take issue with the usefulness that’s attributed to them. I don’t think they're doing what they tend to be described [...]

Social Isolation

Here’s a bit from a book I’ve been reading, Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers, by Robert Sapolsky. It’s a good book. I recommend it. Though it’s a bit more heady than the light-hearted title sets [...]

The Story We Live By

Is there more than one possible story? There is the story that sees trees as lumber and mountains as quarries, and the death of the Orcas as lamentable collateral damage that we can’t really [...]

Foot Massage and Balance

There are an impressive number of nerve endings on the bottoms of the feet. Many of these are the types that function by changing shape and reporting the fact that they changed shape to the [...]

Exercise and Power

I’ve been thinking about power. What you might call inner strength or personal agency, or confidence. Like many people at this moment, inequality and unfairness has been on my mind. And like [...]

Practicing Feeling Good

What does the best feeling spot in your body feel like right now? We often notice when our body doesn’t feel great, when there’s outright pain or uncomfortable stiffness--but what does good [...]

Is it safe (to move)?

It will probably happen to all of us at some point that we’ll have a physical experience that is painful, and that the pain resulting from that experience stays with us for an uncommonly long [...]

Is your pain real?

The other day, in a social setting, a former client was sharing how it had been eye opening for him to make the connection between how his thoughts and emotions had an effect on his physical [...]

Wasting Energy Surviving

This is really why massage is relaxing, because all the sensations bring our attention into the present. As we come to more fully inhabit the present we might notice that we’re safe. That our [...]

Massage is Movement

I talk a lot about movement. The reason being that movement is essential for all body processes and for tissue health. It’s also a way for us to bring our mind into our body. Massage is [...]

The Tool of Witnessing

I had a powerful experience of one of the tools for living with more ease the other day. I believe there is a significant difference between knowing something academically, when it sounds like [...]

How to Get a Massage

I know massage has an image of being a very passive activity. And I know that despite one’s best intent it’s still super easy to fall asleep. I don’t actually think there’s anything wrong with [...]

Giving and Receiving

There’s this fairly universal tendency to overestimate our capacity. When we have an expectation for how much we can get done and then we fail to meet that expectation we can feel ethically [...]

Shin Splints

One common cause of shin pain is hyper irritation of the tibialis anterior. This is the muscle on the front of your leg, just to the outside of the bony ridge that runs from your ankle to your [...]

How Can We Relax?

Relaxation is not just a physical state. It is a complete state of being. When your body is in a relaxed state so is your mind. When your mind is keyed up so is your body. Relaxation won’t be [...]

Movement is Life

In a basic way everything that’s alive moves. Trees move, they wrap around rocks and other immobile things, they miraculously transfer liquids to their upper branches, they sway elastically in [...]

Feet Need Exercise

There are a great many people whose feet hurt, whether this has been called plantar fasciitis or is something with no name it can be a significant problem for ones quality of life. I just [...]

Breaking the Jump

What if we can train ourselves to do what scares us? There’s a physical practice called Parkour that I’ve been interested in for a bit. It’s sometimes also called natural movement and a few [...]

Who’s the Expert?

“How can we as health care providers, admit that we’re still learning, still practicing...even though people’s quality of life, and sometimes even their lives, depend on our being experts...on us [...]

Movement Breaks at Work

I was talking with a client the other day about taking movement breaks while doing computer work. She was lamenting that although she knows it doesn’t make her feel good to sit at her desk for [...]

Spring is Here!

Spring is here! Despite several ski trips this year, I still feel like I’m coming out of a long period of inactivity. I’m starting to spend more time out in my yard and garden. I’ve been [...]

Illness and Shame

I’m reading this book of Norwegian folk beliefs. It says in there that illness, especially particular kinds of illness are signs of moral degeneration in the household.

An Impeccable Word

How can you keep doing the things you know are healthy for you? We might make new goals that stretch us, particularly at the beginning of the year. Or we have a habit we’ve been building for [...]

Can you love exercise?

A lot of people struggle to do exercise with any regularity … even though they know it’s good for them and they’ve noticed that they feel better afterward.  Maybe they see it as a boring waste of [...]

Stand, sit…or move?

If you prefer a taller workstation that allows you to stand up while you write or draw you would be in good company.  Leonardo da Vinci used one, as well as Albert Camus and Virginia Woolf, but [...]

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