As we enter this new season, celebrate when you get to choose the rebalancing of qualities like work and rest, structure and play, social and solitude.

Everything in nature responds to cycles and seasons.
Plants open and turn and close in response to the light.
Birds find food and migrate and mate according to the season.
The things in your garden - plant or vegetable - sprout and blossom and wilt and die in rhythm with a natural life cycle.

A new season is here! The weather has shifted, the light is changing and the holidays are upon us.

It’s a great time for a reset.

8 Keys to Healthy Eating

According to the system of Ayurveda, here’s how to keep your digestive fire, or agni, burning bright.

Here's how I've been feeling about the upcoming holiday season:

Anxious about uncomfortable conversations I need to have.
Grief and sadness over so much loss this year, as well as with the holidays.
Wanting to find ways to still connect with people and traditions and stay safe.

It’s the Autumn Equinox, the moment that marks marks the last day of the sun’s domination. While this is a time of abundance, from here out, slowly but surely, the nights will lengthen and the days will (eventually) get cooler.

Autumn is a tricky season for the digestive system, and with the stress of the pandemic along with puffy eyes and irritated sinuses from the smoke, our bodies could really use a re-set.

One of the most wonderful things about this season is that it is the only time of year when we are collectively encouraged to believe in magic. Flying reindeer, elves in a workshop at the North Pole, a man in a red suit coming down the chimney to leave presents. Isn't it fabulous? Maybe you've heard…

These were the words of my 23 year old stepdaughter at lunch last week:

"It's not like it is in the movies!"

She was talking about love.

Hard to believe we're into the seventh month of the year. And what a year it's been!

As I've been hearing from many of you as well, this year has been a doozy for me. Health issue after health issue, carefully crafted plans getting demolished, a lot of personal de/re-construction, all on top of family/ancestral wounds in need of healing.

Do you ever feel like it's just "one thing after another?" Or have you heard yourself say, with some amount of sourness, "it's always something!"

Of course you have. You're human and all kinds of things happen in life.

Mmmmm, there’s nothing like a warm, comforting cup of tea on a winter day.

Personally, I love chai. It’s my coffee (since I don’t like coffee).

And chai spices have their medicinal benefits. Fennel, cardamom and coriander are great for digestion and black pepper and ginger are fabulous for kicking on a little fire.

The holidays can be particularly challenging for introverts and empaths.

If you are exhausted by large groups or tend to pick up other people’s energy easily, parties can be a real drag.

You may have heard of compassion fatigue as a condition used to describe the stress associated with working with people who are in crisis, trauma or suffering. Think of people in caregiving or helping professions like nurses, doctors, therapists, veterinarians and animal welfare, child protection workers, journalists, EMTs, police officers and anyone who works with people in trauma or crisis, like natural disasters or crisis workers.

FEELING SAFE ISN'T JUST AN EMOTIONAL NICETY.

When we feel threatened, our biology steps in. Hormones are released that increase the heart rate, blood pressure and blood flow, small airways in the lungs expand, our vision narrows as our other senses sharpen. We can't control any of this. This response is millions of years old and happens without thought.

New York City is a wonderful example of how no system works in isolation.

The city of Manhattan, like all cities, has main systems that keep things running smoothly -- water, garbage, sewer, electricity, import/export, and traffic, to name a few. It may seem that these systems are separate and autonomous.

But consider this: if any one of those systems gets clogged or shut down, it will affect many if not most of the other systems.