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Chattering Mind

Last Sunday the Chattering clan gathered at my in-laws’ suburban home to celebrate the birthday of Mr. Chattering’s father Martin. Near the table was a vat of caffeine-free, sugar-free Diet Coke. As our eleven-year-old son lunged for that bottle like a man stranded on a desert isle, I calmly asked my mother-in-law what else she…

Speaking of that smarmy Stuart Smalley, did you know that years ago, Al Franken wrote a hilarious book based on his classically nasal, co-dependent, self-help group-addicted SNL character? As the King of Affirmations, in I’m Good Enough, I’m Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me!, “Smalley” recommends repeating slogans like: When I go home…

There’s a “smarmy Stuart Smalley” quality to the affirmations I posted yesterday, writes faithful reader Pacific231. As an antidote, she or he suggests discussing Buddhist “pith” teachings. Great idea. A pith saying is a distilled lesson, a gist, a bit of wisdom boiled down to its essence. In the same way that “pith” can also…

Do you need a good laugh? In response to my blog item about drugs and kids getting high, a reader named Robert reminds us that laughter triggers healthy, euphoria-inducing chemicals in the body. “Laughter is, in my opinion, the best high there is,” he writes. “We need another Dean Martin or Bob Hope to get…

Human anatomy is God-made at birth and becomes man-made as he grows. —Master yogi B.K.S. Iyengar to Beliefnet’s Corinne Schuman.

Waverly Fitzgerald has a wonderful essay about the meaning of the Spring Equinox (the first day of Spring) on her website. In it, she describes a planting ritual you can use this week. She writes: Several years ago, my family celebrated with a very simple but effective ritual, based on the ceremony suggested by Nancy…

Do your chattering thoughts tear you down? Do negative memories become your life’s story? You need some affirmations then, little sayings that you can repeat to yourself as you walk or meditate. You can also post them on your bathroom mirror or automobile dash. Dr. Kathleen Hall of The Stress Institute offers a menu of…

“Mom, Mom, it’s that shadow guy!” the kids said, jumping with excitement. After reading about him in The New York Times a few months ago, the kids and I bumped into Ellis Gallagher yesterday. Actually, we almost fell over him. Gallagher was tracing with a thick piece of chalk the late-afternoon shadows on the Brooklyn…

“Yoga practice should not conflict with our life but contribute to it. Whatever connects us to our essence is our practice. Whatever clears our head so we can see what is important is our practice. Once we get clear that we are practicing to live, not living to practice, we can bring the concept of…

“God is not a being; God is Being. For those who have found God, his presence shows in honesty, kindness, carefully chosen words, and an absence of shame about the past. The pain may still be there, though quieted, but the grandiosity and false ego that insists on either secrecy or great sinnerhood is burned…
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