My friend Kevin was telling me of his weight loss struggles. He realized he kept procrastinating about working on the weight loss because there are about 10 habits he wanted to focus on to make it happen. He realized he was overwhelming himself by thinking about the 10 habits, and…
Over the last two weeks I shared some background, and then some highlights from a wonderful book, Zen Habits: Mastering the Art of Change by Leo Babauta. As Leo explains, quitting a bad habit is harder than starting a good one because you have the urge to continue the bad habit. Here…
I just finished reading a wonderful book, Zen Habits: Mastering the Art of Change by Leo Babauta. Last week I introduced the book and shared some background, and this week I’ll share some of the highlights from Leo’s book, which I highly recommend. Mindfulness. Leo learned to watch his mind. He…
I just finished reading a wonderful book, Zen Habits: Mastering the Art of Change, by Leo Babauta. Leo has written, in many ways, what I have envisioned as a possible follow-up to Six Simple Rules for a Better Life. I wanted Six Simple Rules for a Better Life not to be another one…
A few weeks ago, I woke up and my left hand hurt, specifically the lower half of my thumb down to where it met my wrist. After two weeks of trying to avoid using my thumb in certain ways, it was better, but not all the way, so I went…
After receiving quite a bit of positive feedback on a recent newsletter piece, I am publishing it here... At an end-of-year yoga class, the instructor asked us to form an intention for the coming year. I decided to focus on respond vs. react. Responding instead of reacting is something I…
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about some catchphrases I like. As I said, I don’t use many, but the ones I use I use a lot. That day I wrote about how “This Too Shall Pass” helps me. Shortly after, a friend sent me this insightful, helpful note: I…
I like catchphrases. I don’t use many, but the ones I use I use a lot. In Six Simple Rules for a Better Life, I wrote about a few. Two examples: Mind Over Mattress, which helped me to get out of bed when I was getting into the routine of…
I saw full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal just before Christmas from AT&T that said: Put the "happy" in holidays. That was incredibly distasteful to me. The iPhone 6 is not what makes holidays happy. Neither you nor your family members are going to remember 20 years from now…
I was reading a wonderful blog post about the way the impermanence of things enhances our appreciation of them—and how instead of lamenting loss, we can realize if we had these things all the time we would begin to take them for granted; their beauty is tied to their impermanence.…
This is a guest post by Alissa Jones. In it, she talks about what she learned about the dangers of diet soda. It's perfect timing for this piece because Thanksgiving kicks off the season, between now and the end of the year, where people often eat too much and feel…
After having some oral surgery, which I was told was as the result of improper brushing, it was recommended I use an electric toothbrush. The one the periodontist (gum surgeon) recommended was pricey, but I found a coupon on the Web and was able to cut the cost. Of course,…