Did Your Relationship Pass the Pandemic Test?

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Did Your Relationship Pass the Pandemic Test?

Whether your relationship passed the pandemic test or not, you might be wondering, “what’s next?”

The past year tested us on many levels, and perhaps nothing was tested more than intimate relationships. Early on in the pandemic, many relationships with longstanding vulnerabilities cracked under pressure and there was an uptick in breakups and divorces. For these, the pandemic was truly the straw that broke the camel’s back. Many other couples had the experience of their relationship growing stronger as a result of weathering the pandemic together, finding that their partnership was stable and resilient enough to withstand the challenges…

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Managing Post-Pandemic Anxiety as Life Returns to “Normal”

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Managing Post-Pandemic Anxiety as Life Returns to “Normal”

With Memorial Day – the unofficial start to summer – upon us, people are out in throngs. Many state officials have followed the CDC’s loosening of mask restrictions and are allowing larger crowds to gather. In whiplash fashion, we have gone from “stay at home” and “mask up” to “hot girl summer.” Are you ready?

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Tips for the Holidays; 2020 Style

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Tips for the Holidays; 2020 Style

As with everything 2020, it’s going to be a different kind of holiday season this year. In light of the ongoing pandemic, many health and government officials have strongly recommended that we avoid holiday travel this year; if we can at all help it. There are elderly relatives to consider when making plans and a general need to continue socially distancing and/or remaining in our smaller circles of friends and family. I’ll be the first to admit this “new normal” has gotten pretty old, and yet there are still ways to enjoy this time of year and stay grounded…

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Teletherapy for Distance Mental Health Support

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Teletherapy for Distance Mental Health Support

During this time of social distancing, protecting your mental health is especially important because our sources of connection are more limited. Whereas before the pandemic, you may have relied on social gatherings, group activities, family events, or unwinding at the end of the week over drinks with friends, you’re now having to adjust those connections to video calls, phone calls, emails and text. Even the change from working at an office and being around the same people daily to working from home is an adjustment that can make us feel more isolated and alone…

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Fire: Let Your Light Burn Brightly

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Fire: Let Your Light Burn Brightly

As summer approaches, the element of fire moves into focus.  Fire is the blazing sun that gives us life and illuminates our days.  Like the center of our solar system around which all life revolves, it makes sense that the organ that corresponds to fire is the heart, the life-giving center of our bodies.  Aside from the essential function of pumping blood throughout the body, delivering oxygen and nutrients to all its cells, the heart is the source of love, passion and connection with others.  Healthy heart energy is expansive energy, full of enthusiasm and joy.  The heart wants to go out into the world and engage fully with life…

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Wood: Channel Your Frustrations and Expand

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Wood: Channel Your Frustrations and Expand

This week we explore the element of wood, which is associated with the liver and gall bladder and also corresponds to the energy of springtime. Like the tree, wood energy is both rooted in the earth and reaches upward and outward in expansion. This pandemic presents a few challenges for wood, as when liver energy is activated within us at this time of year, the impulse is to move up and out, to burst forth with renewed robustness. As the emotion related to the liver is anger, it is no surprise that many people are experiencing anger, frustration and other related emotions as a result (aggression, irritability, etc.) But the wood element has much to teach us about how to weather this situation we are in…

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Water: Riding the Waves and Finding the Flow

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Water: Riding the Waves and Finding the Flow

This week we are exploring the element of water and how its properties can be particularly beneficial at this time. Water has always had a calming effect on me personally. When I was a teen, I lived near the ocean, and at that time in my life I remember how looking out at the sea always had an immediate calming effect on my restless soul. Now I live within walking distance of a river, and it still amazes me how the sight of it can lift my mood and make me feel instantly refreshed…

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Metal and the Lungs: The Breath as the Instrument of a Calmer, Clearer Mind

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Metal and the Lungs: The Breath as the Instrument of a Calmer, Clearer Mind

As COVID-19 has swept the globe, it has brought many of us back to the awareness of our cherished breath. The feeling of being able to fill one’s lungs with air from top to bottom and then have a satisfying release is not to be taken for granted. In the West many of us tend to habitually breathe rather shallowly as we rush from place to place and as we sit hunched over our computers. While the adoption of yoga and meditation by the mainstream have made us more aware of the importance of breath for health and mental clarity, there are so many benefits as well as layers of meaning that seem quite apt at this time when the pandemic has impacted all of us…

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