Lately, we've been experimenting with a new twist on the classical martini in our house.
It's not an dirty martini.
It's not an apple-tini.
And it doesn't have an orange wedge on the rim.
In fact, it's not even something you drink at the end of the day. It's something you do.
Martini pose.
We got the name from Annie Carpenter, one of our favorite modern yoga teachers.
What is martini pose?
It's a way to instantly downshift the state of your nervous system -- without the next-day hangover.
If you've ever done yoga, you know martini pose. It's that blissful moment of ...
Originally published in Inc. Magazine.
I'm 40 years old, and I've burned myself out twice so far in my career. In both cases, it was painful, terrifying, and yet life-changing in its positive effects.
The first time happened in my late 20s. I was in the final year of finishing up my PhD. The stress of graduate school combined with a serious bike accident left me drowning in waves of anxiety, depression, and fatigue. The second time happened just recently, in a milder form. It sprung from a combination of stress, long hours, and forgetting to rest.
Each time it happened, the...
Originally published in Inc. Magazine.
Have you ever wondered why, after spending hours on email, you feel tense and tight? Why you feel more anxious than before? Or why, even when do you stop, your mind keeps spinning?
This is the state that psychologist Linda Stone calls "email apnea." It's characterized by "shallow breathing or breath holding while doing email, or while working or playing in front of a screen."
Email apnea occurs for a variety of reasons. First, our posture slumps the moment we pick up our phone or computer, which compromises our ability...
Originally published in Inc. Magazine.
We live in a world that seems to have forgotten how to relax.
At work, we rush from one meeting to the next. We use the microscopic gaps in our day to fire off emails and texts. And we frantically try to complete all the items on our to-do list by the end of the day, and mostly fail.
At home, we finally have the space to take a breath and relax. And yet most of the things we do to take the edge off the day keep us stimulated and caught in this "always on" state: social media surfing, binge-watching Netflix shows, and catching up on texts and...
I have a confession to make. I struggle almost every day to stay resilient in the face of stress.
I realize the irony in admitting this. After all, I work in the industry of self-improvement and resilience – an industry where most “experts” purport to live a perfect life, where happiness and success arise almost effortlessly.
I wish I could make a similar claim. But even after over a decade of intensive mindfulness training, on some level, my experience of reality still feels utterly normal. My mind is more open than it was...
10 years ago, I lived what appeared to be a perfect life. I had recently married my high school sweetheart. I was one year short of completing my PhD. And I was on the fast track to realizing my dream of becoming a professor of political philosophy.
On paper, everything was perfect. Marriage – check. Friends – check. Long list of academic degrees – check.
But in my mind, everything was a mess. The stress of grad school, a recent bike accident, and my own...
