Bore: (verb): 1. to weary by dullness, tedious repetition, unwelcome attentions, etc.; 2. To move forward slowly and persistently, as a hole-boring tool does; 3. To carry or support (past tense); 4. To be called by (past tense). Tao (noun): (in Chinese philosophy) the absoluteread more
“Why should you want to exclude any anxiety, any grief, any melancholy from your life, since you do not know what it is that these conditions are accomplishing in you?” —Rainer Maria Rilke The memory of waking up on summer mornings as a kid hasread more
Most likely, if you live in the United States you’re being bowled over by the gusts of spirit, cheer, and all the warm and cozy feels that roll over us like the first icy breeze of the winter season. These powerful gusts are conduits ofread more
When I felt I’d reached a true low point in my life at the ripe age of 26, apathetic about my career, regretting all the choices I’d made leading up to it, and feeling the physical ache of constant low-grade stress gripping my hip flexors and shoulders, Iread more
I grew up signing, rocking out to boy bands on my discman during car rides to Long Island, performing in choirs, and knowing that it felt good in my body to sing even if it wasn’t “good enough” (according to me, that is) to warrantread more
My yoga teacher has arranged our arms in Gomukhasana, Cow Face Pose, with a small looped strap around our wrists. It feels like a straight jacket in reverse, but she starts drawing circles with her elbows in a pattern that makes me miss my childhoodread more
In his book Being Peace, Buddhist monk Thich Nhat-Hanh describes the right way of perceiving in the classical mediation manual for Buddhists: “The practitioner will have to contemplate body in the body, feelings in the feelings, mind in the mind, objects of mind in objects of mind.”read more
In my childhood bedroom, my bed was almost always pushed into a corner in some configuration to maximize floor space—a design strategy my parents employed regimentally throughout the house. It took until my preteens to insist upon a more feng shui arrangement with the bedread more
This essay was originally published in a slightly different form in America Magazine Lokah samastah sukhino bhavantu…. I sit on my yoga mat, ankles crossed in a Half Lotus pose, eyes closed and struggling to form the shape of these foreign sounds in my mouth. Hornsread more
College is known for those uber-cliche moments where some incredibly brilliant person says something that changes your entire worldview. A professor’s genius insight that sends you on a path of intellectual inquiry, a classmate’s drunken/high/late-night eureka moment on the meaning of life, the day youread more
