Disease and aging are natural parts of life. We can’t keep our patients free from illness or forever young. But we can help them respond to challenging life events with grace. When Ram Dass, PhD, experienced a life-changing stroke, he focused on the grace his experience brought him. He found kindness from strangers, and used […]
How Altruism Can Change the World
I recently read a story that amazed me so much I wanted to share it with you. It started when Rick Ruzzamenti, a New Yorker, decided to donate a kidney after hearing a story about organ donation at his local yoga studio. The result? One altruistic act started a chain of events that linked 60 […]
The Science of Altruism: A Daily Act of Kindness
I recently read about a new blog started by a man who wanted to do one act of kindness a day for the entire year in celebration of his daughter’s birth. So far, he has done things like buy lunch for firefighters, put change in vending machines, compliment strangers, and let people go ahead of […]
Meditation in My Life
For the last two years, Fall has become a special mindfulness time for me. Speaking with mindfulness experts, reading new scientific studies on the effectiveness of mindfulness, and revisiting mindfulness materials helps me look at my own life to see were I could improve my own practices. It also doesn’t hurt to look around at […]
Compassion Fatigue: How to Treat Yourself so that You Can Treat Your Patients
I’ve been talking a lot about trauma and trauma prevention in the past weeks, yet there is one group of individuals with a potential risk of traumatization who I haven’t yet discussed: you. Anyone in the health or mental health community inherently knows about compassion fatigue, even if you don’t know the official definitions. How […]