Yoga Nidra is an excellent practice for reducing stress, improving brain function, and guiding the body into a calm, relaxed state. It is sometimes referred to as dynamic sleep. A 30 minute Yoga Nidra practice can be equivalent to about a two hour dose of sleep, according to practitioners. Yoga...
The Different Kinds of Empathy
I recently listened to a podcast (one of my favorite!) from The Model Health Show with Shawn Stevenson. He interviewed Dr. Austin Perlmutter, New York Times best-selling co-author of "Brainwash" (one of my favorite books!). They discussed many things on the episode, from diet to immune function to greater mental...
Kelly McGonigal: Stanford Health Psychologist
Kelly McGonigal is a health psychologist at Stanford University, who has written several books about stress, exercise, compassion and willpower. She takes insights from her work in the fields of psychology and neuroscience, and creates practical strategies for living a better life. She is also lecturer and has a TED...
Are We In Control?
The things that we experience in life oftentimes seem to be binary. There’s a sense of randomness combined with a sense of order. There is a sense of control and a lack of control. Specifically, with respect to the things that happen to us and also the things that we...
Inflammation: An Unhealthy Result of Chronic Stress
One of the reasons why chronic, self-inflicted stress that is caused by the mind is so bad for us, is because it doesn't just involve the mind. It very much involves the body. The brain activates the stress response because of our thinking or our external environment. And then a...