A wise friend of mine always said that what we experience in life is more important than what we believe, because it’s experience that actually gets into our bodies and makes us who we are; whereas our beliefs can be abstract, something we think is true, but that hasn’t fully sunk in, and parts of us can ... Read More
TIPS FOR GREAT MEDITATION
Over the past month or so, I had the wonderful experience of leading a three-part meditation series on Zoom, courtesy of Soberocity. To those of you who were there, thank you for your full, enthusiastic participation; your thoughtful questions; your kind feedback; and above all, your willingness to try out ... Read More
Sitting like a Mountain: Building Your Inner Foundation
I’d like to start this new blog in this New Year by asking you to visualize something. Imagine that you’re entering a meditation hall in a beautiful retreat center in the type of place in nature you love: by the ocean, in the mountains, or the forest; even on the moon, with a breathtaking view of the Earth ... Read More
The Art of Aloneness: Social Distancing and Spiritual Connection
“Don’t isolate.” It’s one of the first things anyone in recovery, anyone attending a 12-Step meeting or getting therapy, usually hears. It also happens to be good advice for anyone in any kind of healing process: if you need help, don’t isolate. Don’t be alone with only your own “stinkin’ thinkin’” to keep ... Read More
No-Self or Self-Love? Finding the Balance
Have you ever noticed that nobody you know looks like the people in the “inspirational” images you see online or on TV? You know the ones: the handsome, toothy, broadly smiling men and women with perfect hair that ride around in convertibles with the top down and thrust their arms triumphantly toward the sky, ... Read More
Think Big, Start Small: Building a Sustainable Spiritual Practice
We live in an age when all the corners of the world are talking to each other—even if they don’t always agree on much. That wasn’t true for most of human history. Until the last 500 years or so, it was hard for places that were far apart to communicate. It took a long time to cross the oceans in what today ... Read More
The Gifts of Light and Laughter
I don’t suppose that the poet William Wordsworth had the holiday season in mind when he wrote these famous words: The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers; After all, he was writing in the nineteenth century, long before the commercialization of ... Read More
Guarding Your Sobriety through the Holidays
"There’s no place like home for the holidays," according to the song made famous by Perry Como in the 1950s and played every holiday season ever since: Oh, there's no place like home for the holidays 'Cause no matter how far away you roam If you wanna to be happy in a million ways For the holidays you ... Read More
What I Am Thankful For
As we approach Thanksgiving Day once again—the national gateway to holiday madness and family food fights over football and politics—I’m especially thankful for all of the many animals that have blessed my life, domesticated and wild. (I ask forgiveness from the turkeys about to make the ultimate sacrifice ... Read More
12-Step and Non-12-Step Approaches to Recovery: What’s the Difference?
How do we know when it’s a beautiful day? What makes us say so? I stood on the lawn the other evening and wondered. Why was I responding so deeply, why was I so moved? And why did I feel so much lighter, like a burden had been lifted? When I looked around, the answer seemed obvious: beauty, harmony, and ... Read More