Addiction and Recovery

We all like to feel special. When someone NEEDS to feel special to feel good, then needing to feel special becomes an addiction, in a misguided effort to treat the […]

Be a little wary of your mind, especially of your default, automatic feelings, thoughts and responses. Left to it’s own, the mind can be a great troublemaker. The ego is […]

No one wants to be in pain. Yet sometimes being in distress is worthwhile because of the benefits it brings. Short-term pain does sometime lead to long-term gain. Examples include […]

As animals, we share with all animals strong, instinctive survival drives to gratify desires for food, water, sex, and comfort. We have strong drives to avoid pain, danger, or anything […]

No matter how skillfully we live our lives, pain and loss visit us all. We all have endured or will endure one or more seasons of great suffering. This is […]

A Zen master once asked me, ‘Why do you eat?” I replied that I eat to sustain my body. I then asked him why he ate. He smiled at me […]

Part of savoring life entails the capacity to experience “wow.” Wow is when you feel wonder or awe. You might experience this on special occasions, such as the birth of […]

With the concern with the opioid overdose epidemic, it is easy to overlook the most insidious and malignant of all addictive substances: nicotine. Tobacco use results in nearly a half […]

The flame of addiction burns in nearly 1 out of every 3 people (if one includes food addiction). This results in hundreds of thousands of deaths each year and great […]