CHAPTER 31 : Is America having a True North moment? I have not wanted to get frankly political in this book, but watching the events in our country since the 2025 inauguration of our current president, I am worried that we have lost our way. Is the USA having a True North moment? We have learned that losing touch with our true north, our best selves, leads to stress, disease and possible early death. We also learned that, in order to stay on track with one’s True North, we n

Three Things With the onslaught of bad news this holiday season - the murders at Brown University and MIT, the horrible ant-semitic massacre at Bondi Beach, and then the murder of the beloved Rob Reiner, possibly by his own son, one is reminded that horrifying things in life do not take a break for the holidays. The other day I saw a patient, whom, when I asked about the holidays, teared up stating that it was her son’s 11th birthday, His grandfather was just admitted to ICU

Complaining All of us know someone who complains frequently, maybe it’s you! It turns out that although you may think expressing your opinion, positive or negative, is liberating, complaining may actually be damaging your brain. Neuroscience research has demonstrated that complaining for more than 60 seconds can lead to actual structural and functional brain changes, particularly  in the region known as the hippocampus, which controls memory and emotional regulation. It turns

Fawning Lissa Rankin, MD ( www.lissarankin.org ) is one of my heroes in the Wellness space. She is a board certified Ob/Gyn physician who realized that traditional western medicine was not effectively treating her patient’s wellness needs, focusing as it does, on extensive testing and prescribing, depersonalzation and profit. I tend to agree, so consequently I read Dr. Rankin’s blogs as often as I can. Recently she discussed the pathologic relationship behavior known as “fawn

Life - The Season of Plenty I apologize to my few, but loyal readers. I have been away for a while to deal with, well...Life. But now I am back to the blogs, and also working on a new book, tentatviely titled TRUE NORTH: How Living Authentially Could ave your Life. An inauthentic Life, it turns out, can lead to deep seated anxiety and stress, which, if left unchecked, may eventually lead to disease and pemature death. To understand why and to learn the tools to prevent such

Improving Self-Esteem In my Wellness work I come across many patients who struggle with maintaining healthy self esteem. They feel...

Take a Walk 15,000 steps,10,000 steps, 7,000 steps. does it matter how many? Probably not. More on this later…The point is to move. And...

Healing Our bodies are programmed to heal. Virtually every organ system and tissue structure of our bodies, once injured or diseased,...

The Vagus Nerve We have long known and oft discussed the “brain - gut connection”, and there is recent scientific interest in the...

TOXIC SHAME Shame is an important emotion which, in healthy amounts, can help us to live the moral lives we hope to live. But when...

Nutrition or Nourishment? We are all familiar with these terms, and many of us think they are synonymous. In common usage they may be. I...

Being Alive The musical number “Being Alive” occurs at the end of Act II of the Steven Sondheim Broadway musical “Company”. It is sung by...

Renewal Everyday we have the opportunity to renew and reinvent ourselves. Especially this time of year, spring time with Easter, Passover...

Entropy The Second Law of Thermodynamics  states that the entropy of a closed system always increases over time.   The best synonym for...

TRANSITION STRESS Change is stressful. People facing new environments - jobs, school, living situation, marital or relationship status -...

Nature and Health It has been well documented that one’s environment  plays a very important role in improving and maintaining health....

The War on Empathy A high ranking unelected government official recently stated on a podcast that “Empathy is the fundamental weakness of...

Spring, Baseball and Life This time of year is about renewal - new grass, baby birds, flowers blossoming, spring cleaning and…baseball....

The gut-brain axis We now understand that there is a very close association between the gut and the brain. The status of one’s gut...

The FAMILY OF EMOTIONS We are our emotions, positive, negative, productive, nonproductive. They exist within  us simultaneously.  We...