Spirituality and Mental Health

Given my conviction that the vast majority of psychiatric conditions are caused by inflammation of the brain, most of the recommendations that I make to patients in my practice of holistic psychiatry are designed to support the immune system which decreases inflammation. Depression, anxiety, attentional difficulties, brain fog, and other cognitive changes are all mediated…

Be Realistic. Expect a Miracle. Be Patient. The Impossible Takes Slightly Longer than the Difficult. Tonight is the seventh night of Chanukah, a Jewish festival of lights celebrating a miracle in very dark times. The Winter Solstice was a week ago, and on the day after Christmas, there was a new moon in the sign…

On April 5, 2019 at 4:50 AM EST there will be a new moon at 15 degrees Aries. A new moon occurs every 29.5 days when the orbiting Moon aligns with the Sun. The energy of the new moon is associated with new beginnings and the planting of seeds, literally and metaphorically. Farmers know that…

Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system. It weighs twice as much as all the other planets put together and is 1300 times the size of Earth. It has a twelve year cycle, meaning that it takes twelve years to orbit the Sun as compared to the Earth, which takes only one year.…

This morning I gathered with my congregation at Temple Emanuel, a synogogue very similar to the Tree of Life in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Squirrel Hill, where a hate inspired massacre occurred yesterday during a baby naming ceremony. Temple Emanuel is in Newton, Massachusetts, in a community very similar to that of Squirrel Hill. Our rabbi,…