After almost two years of not getting a cold, last week I had one. But it was mild and short and I fully believe all my "woo woo" oils and herbs and "face rubbing" (as my guy says) made the difference.

After sharing pieces of what I do to keep immunity high, I thought I'd just give you the whole low-down. So here it is.

Most of us do not have a steam room or sauna, and even if you have one at your gym, it's not always practical to do. If only there was a way to spare your hairdo from the sweatfest. Oh wait, there is! It's the mini personal steam. This doesn't mean you have to hunch over a pot of water on the stove. Just pour some steaming water in a mug, drape a kitchen towel over your head and breathe slowly in and out through your nose for a few minutes.

A few years ago there were different versions of a popular post going around called Why Your Smoothie is Making You Fat.

The articles all talked about how smoothies are generally larger than we plan, more calories than we know, full of sugar, and digest quickly, leaving us hungry.

Those are all good considerations about your smoothie. But I'm talking about ditching the smoothie for another reason.

Like many people, at the end of every year, I do a general review of how things have gone the past 12 months and some dreaming and scheming for the coming seasons.

This has been especially helpful in business -- assessing what programs and events were well received, which did not go over so hot and what new things I want to create.

Like many of you, I like to choose a word of the year. Something to use as a filter for decisions, a guiding idea, a reminder. I choose a word that brings a felt-sense of something I want more of in my life.

2018 seems to be a multi-word year, warranting the power of a full-on phrase.

If you love ginger, gingerbread, molasses, or if you are vegan, these cookies will be your dream come true.

I'd never made gingerbread cookies before, but every year a girlfriend and I have a standing holiday cookie-making date (truth be told, we mostly drink mimosas), and this year I was determined to find delicious vegan recipes.

If you think about winter in elemental or weather terms, our climate here has been cold and dry. Hopefully, we're are headed into some wetter months ahead, which will change how we ideally care for the physical body and our overall health.

There's a system of health and healing out of the Indian/Tibetan lineage and related to Yoga called Ayurveda. Ayurveda in Sanskrit translates to “Science of Longevity” or “Knowledge of Life.”

Mark's most popular book, The Book of Awakening, was recommended by a friend many years ago and has since become my constant companion and my go-to gift to loved ones. It's a daily reader that will have different meanings each year. You can read it every day, put it down and come back months later or pick it up randomly and it will offer exactly what you need that moment.

People throughout history have celebrated the winter solstice as a symbol of hope, promise, rebirth, and the ongoing cycles of life. Monuments, tombs, and temples have been constructed to celebrate and capture the solstice light since as early as 3200 B.C.E.

So what does "celebrating the solstice" mean?

The shift from winter to spring can be tricky for the body, digestion and sleep. In our climate, winter is cold and spring is generally wet — qualities that together can create mucous, heaviness and sluggishness in energy and digestion.

You know the phrase, "You get better at what you practice?"

The follow up to this truth is the real wisdom: "So be careful what you practice."

The spiritual path is hard work, and sometimes it's lonely.

But we do it because we want to grow and learn and evolve as human beings. We want practical support for the things life throws our way.

A couple of years ago I had the idea to organize a group to sing carols at a local senior center. This time of year is loaded with baby memories and anniversary dates and ultimately incredible loss. It's also been my favorite season for as long as I can remember. So I wanted to get some of that magic back.

Singing that year at The Carlton brought tears to my eyes several times. As we caroled around the large community room, some residents were eating, some were watching and many were singing along.

Why I don't make this for breakfast all year long makes no sense, given how excited I get when I remember that it's fall, the perfect time for a little sweetness and warmth. In Sacramento, we get fresh Apple Hill apples at the local Co-Op, which is usually my cue that stewed apples are what's for breakfast.

In-season fruit is always best -- for the environment and your body. A variety of foods throughout the year is ideal.

Food truly is medicine.

And while exercise and eating well should not be mutually exclusive, if scientists have to pick one as the biggest determinant of your health, it's what you eat.

Isn't that amazing? More than exercise, eating nutritious food determines your health.

The science of Ayurveda agrees -- digestion is the seat of health. It's the first place to look when something is out of balance.

As a long-time insomniac, I have tried every prescription, over-the-counter, mail order remedy I can find. I have a drawer of things that didn't work, including those that actually made me jittery and anxious rather than relaxed.

And from conversations I've had with just about every group I've been a part of lately, I am not alone.

Our brains are constantly making predictions based on our concepts and past experience to interpret the pleasant and unpleasant sensations in our bodies. The feedback from the body (in the form of sensation) about how the physical systems are working is called interoception -- being aware of the internal world.

Those concepts and guesses are how we make sense of sensation so we know what caused the sensation and what to do about it. More intense sensations are used to make emotions; less intense sensations are used to make thoughts and beliefs.

In spite of, or maybe because of, all the things going on in the world -- from political insanity to indefensible misogyny to nature's massive pandemonium with the California fires closest to home -- I found myself slightly obsessed with a recent 60 Minutes segment on the Hubble Space Telescope.

Of all the striking images and jaw-dropping facts (they now estimate that there are 2 trillion other galaxies in our universe), what spoke to my heart was the piece on the "Pillars of Creation" where stars are born.

Our culture does not acknowledge the profound impact of major life events, and definitely does not provide the space for these types of losses to be openly discussed or shared.

In fact, we are often urged, subtly or overtly, to deal with the loss privately and swiftly.

Yet it is critical to our heart’s health and the wholeness of who we are to integrate the loss into this new way of living, eventually learning to live wholeheartedly with – not in spite of – that loss.

It's pretty common this time of year to see people talking about or advertising a "fall cleanse."

Seasonal transitions are a popular (and useful) time to mark a shift in nature, prepare our bodies for a change in weather, light, and activities, and check-in with how our systems fared in the last season. And it makes sense to eat what is in the season to ensure a variety of nutrients.

S’s in Sanskrit can be a little confusing. There are three sibilants — one is pronounced like our ‘s’ as in such. The other two are pronounced very similarly, both with the “sh” sound, as in should. It depends on the markers on the letter s. This is why savasana is pronounced shavasana — there’s an accent acute on the s, giving it a sh sound.

Turns out there’s also an accent acute on the s in Saucha and I’ve been mispronouncing it for over 20 years. Even teaching it incorrectly. It’s pronounced “show-cha” (the “ow” sounds like the “ou” in “loud”).