Climate Change, Current Events and Culture

I recently listened to a dharma talk by Buddhist teacher Tara Brach about honesty. She described a cartoon featuring two dinosaurs who look up and see an asteroid hurtling towards the Earth. One reassures the other, “Maybe it won’t be so bad.” The problem with denial is that it prevents us from seeing things as…

Hopelessness, helplessness, and fear are emotions that predispose to passivity and despair. In the face of pandemic exhaustion, bitter political polarization, and the alarming daily news of the collapse of the biosphere, it is small wonder that so many people feel not only deeply pessimistic about the future but are frankly depressed. But what if,…

One of the most frequent suggestions that I make to patients who consult me in my holistic psychiatry practice is that they learn the Dynamic Neural Retraining System, (DNRS), a program designed to rehabilitate the limbic system of the brain. I make this recommendation to patients suffering from a wide variety of conditions including depression,…

Conspiracy theories abound these days. In a rapidly changing world overrun with uncertainty, governmental distrust, and fear, it’s one way of making sense of the chaos. A conspiracy theory is defined as a theory that rejects the consensually accepted explanation for an event such as the pandemic and instead credits a covert powerful group or…

The Autumnal Equinox falls on Tuesday, September 22 at 9:30 AM EST in the Northern Hemisphere. This is the moment in the cycle of the seasons when the amount of daylight and darkness will be exactly equal. It is the time of perfect balance between the polarities of day and night. I find it reassuring,…