I had an odd moment this past week. I realized that, in spite of ten days without any physical socializing at all, I was feeling something familiar: the fatigue I tend to get when my introvert self has been more extroverted than usual. It seemed impossible, until I thought back to the number of text exchanges, FaceTimes, phone calls, and social media chats I’d had. A lot more than usual. To say nothing of the heightened exposure to news and information. I couldn’t…

When I’m my yoga nidra class, my teacher sometimes invites us to imagine a personal paradise. She tells us it can be any place we like: outdoors or indoors, faraway or nearby, past or present, with others or private. The goal is never to force an image, but rather to let what comes up come up. Week after week, the place I go when I’m asked to find a paradise of my own is my apartment. I always have a little internal laugh…

Happy Sunday, all. It’s been a long and tough week for everyone, and I hope you’re all finding small ways to rest and soothe your nervous systems. I don’t really have much to say that hasn’t been said about the current crisis. It’s really frightening, but it’s important for us all to keep calm even as we’re taking all possible precautions. My heart aches for those affected directly, but it also swells up each time I hear about an act of kindness or…

The mood in NYC has been a little tense this week, as we all endeavor to be intelligently cautious about COVID-19 while also avoiding unnecessary fear. I’ve felt relatively calm, but I had a moment of worry a few days ago when I learned that an acquaintance was self-quarantined. To be clear, this acquaintance is fine and well: the self-quarantine was a voluntary and temporary precaution. But it’s hard for the mind not to spin at these moments. I wondered about the last…

I’ve been reading Frank Ostaseski’s wonderful book, The Five Invitations. It’s a compassionate and sensitive meditation on what can happen when we allow ourselves to acknowledge, and even to befriend, the reality of dying. Ostaseski is the cofounder of the Zen Hospice Project, and he’s dedicated his life to being a companion to those who are at the end of theirs. The book is making me think back to my long-term care and acute care rotations last year. I didn’t witness a lot…

It’s good to be back! Two Fridays ago, on Valentine’s Day, I participated in an act of bhakti, or devotion, with some members of my yoga community. We made garlands of flowers with needle and thread, and we dressed the large figure of Ganesha who adorns our studio alter with the “jewelry.” It was a beautiful night, a commemoration of love and spirit. For me, it was also a reminder that love is everywhere, all the time, if only we open up our…

In When Things Fall Apart, Pema Chodron writes that “Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know.” I realized the truth of her words this past week. Something important—a lesson I keep thinking I’m finished with—returned to me. And without wishing to enfold the story in neat endnotes, I can say that I think I may finally have learned what I needed to know. A big chunk of it, anyway. There’s more to this: lessons in healing,…