Memorial Day weekend signals the launch of the summer season. With long, warm days beckoning us outside to exercise, play and simply relax, now is the perfect time to consciously reconnect with the beauty and healing energy of Mother Nature. I’m thrilled to mark this occasion by sharing one of my all-time favorite meditations: “Connect with the Natural World”—a 20-minute guided outdoor meditation led by Katie Dutcher, a seasoned meditation teacher and certified Mindful Outdoor Guide.
Read MoreEvery week, I look forward to reading Maria Popova’s inspirational and thought-provoking philosophical musings in her popular Sunday digest, The Marginalian (formerly Brain Pickings). Maria is a Bulgarian-born, US-based writer who exposes readers to powerful ideas, artwork and poems from gifted artists, thinkers, and writers from around the world and across centuries. Maria’s weekly offerings delve deeply into tender topics, often focusing on what it’s like to be a human alive on planet earth
Read MoreThis week, I’m sharing an article I wrote for Spirituality & Health magazine in collaboration with a wonderful psychotherapist and author, Andrea Wachter, who specializes in tools to ease stress, anxiety, and overwhelm. The article contains some wonderful practices, including a 12-minute meditation where you’re guided to speak directly to your anxiety, giving it compassion and loving redirection.
Read MoreWhen I was 25 and pregnant with my first child, it became clear that I had to deal with my constant fear of an impending catastrophe. I’d been plagued by intense anxiety as long for as I could remember, but it was becoming increasingly difficult to manage. Unremitting worry that something would go horribly wrong with my baby was swelling along with my belly.
Read More“A hero is one who heals their own wounds and then shows others how to do the same.” —Yung Pueblo
This quote from the best-selling author and poet, Yung Pueblo, makes me think of two very special men: my beloved father, Mendek Rubin, and my dear friend, Bill Harvey, who passed away on March 31, less than two months shy of his 98th birthday.
Read MoreToday, the United States is celebrating our 52nd Earth Day. In 1970, the inaugural Earth Day inspired 20 million people to take to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate against the environmental and human health impacts of 150 years of unchecked industrial development. Remarkably, that was 10% of the total population of the United States at the time.
Read MoreThis week marks the second anniversary of the publication of Quest for Eternal Sunshine—A Holocaust Survivor’s Journey from Darkness to Light, the spiritual memoir I posthumously co-authored with my father, Mendek Rubin. Being able to learn and share my father’s remarkable story and deep wisdom has been one of the biggest blessings of my entire life. Since writing the book, I always feel my dad close to me. He continues to be my teacher, sharing important life lessons as I am ready to receive them.
Read MoreI recently had a magical experience. While being guided through a 10-minute “Outdoor Refresher” mindfulness meditation, I was able to see everything with fresh eyes and became completely enchanted by the world around me. It felt as if my senses had been reawakened, and my childlike awe rekindled. Remarkably, I still feel a positive shift two weeks later. It’s as if after many decades of neglect, some of my essential wiring has been dusted off and is coming back online—wiring that connects me to the innocence and openness of my inner child.
Read More“You don’t see the world as it is—you see the world as you are.” This ancient piece of wisdom from the Talmud is something my father discovered for himself during his healing journey. As he worked through his trauma from childhood and the Holocaust while retraining his mind to let go of suffering and embrace joy, he came to realize that the bleak, indifferent universe he’d lived in for decades was actually the result of his own projections.
Read MoreI recently learned about a field of study dedicated to the collection and study of proverbs: Paremiology. As someone who greatly appreciates cleverly conveyed wisdom, this discovery made me both curious and happy.
Read MoreIs it terribly naïve to dream of a world without war? As I sit in the sunshine on my deck sipping tea while writing this post, bombs are falling on Ukraine. 3 million people have fled their homes, families are broken apart, thousands of precious lives are being lost. Around the world, fears of nuclear warfare are intensifying. Unlike the pandemic and natural disasters we’ve been enduring, humans are intentionally inflicting this immense suffering upon one another. The escalating situation and accompanying heartbreak are difficult to bear.
Read MoreAs a New York City kid who moved onto a small heirloom raspberry farm in Carmel Valley right after college, I quickly fell deeply in love with working with the soil and living in sync with the rhythms of nature. Being outside most of the day, using my body rather than my mind to accomplish the tasks at hand, brought me a level of peace and wellbeing I hadn’t ever experienced before.
Read MoreEvery Tuesday morning I receive an email with an intriguing writing prompt from my writing mentor, Laura Davis. I always respond to them in my head, if not on paper. A while back, the prompt was, “Write a letter to a great, great, great, great grandchild, or to another child living far off in the future. Impart your hard-fought wisdom about what truly matters in life.” My response surfaced at lightning speed: “I hope you’re not spending your life glued to a screen.”
Read MoreThere are times when life unfolds to reveal gifts we could never have imagined. Quest for Eternal Sunshine—the spiritual memoir I co-authored posthumously with my father, Mendek Rubin—has brought me many of these unexpected blessings. There are times when life unfolds to reveal gifts we could never have imagined. Quest for Eternal Sunshine—the spiritual memoir I co-authored posthumously with my father, Mendek Rubin—has brought me many of these unexpected blessings. One of them is becoming a regular contributor to Spirituality & Health magazine, which gives me the opportunity to interview people I greatly admire. Today I’m sharing a Q&A with one of my all-time favorite writers and spiritual teachers, Zenju Earthlyn Manuel.
Read MoreToday I want to share a short post featuring calming artwork and gentle wisdom from Thich Nhat Hanh’s lovely book of Zen calligraphy, This Moment is Full of Wonders. I only recently discovered how much Thich Nhat Hanh loved calligraphy, and that throughout his life he created over 10,000 images. It was one of his favorite forms of meditation.
Read MoreLast week, I wrote about my aunt Bronia’s 90-minute private meeting with President Biden on January 27, International Holocaust Remembrance Day. I was very moved by the many people who reached out to let me know how touched they were by the story. Those emails validated that the event was not only incredible for our family—it was also deeply healing for others as well.
Read MoreLast Thursday, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a dream came true for my 90-year-old aunt Bronia—she was able to share her life story with the President of the United States of America.
Read MoreYesterday, January 27th, was International Holocaust Remembrance Day. As I’ve been honoring my four grandparents and dozens of aunts, uncles, and cousins who were murdered at Auschwitz, I’ve been pondering the possibility of true progress in this world.
Read MoreOne of the biggest lessons I’ve learned from my father is that each of us has a perspective that is totally subjective, and that the world we see is never independent of our individual projections.
Read MoreI’ve been reading a wonderful book, Fear: Essential Wisdom for Getting Through the Storm, by Thich Nhat Hanh, the extraordinarily wise Vietnamese Buddhist monk and peace activist. Much of Thich Nhat Hanh’s teachings revolve around the benefits of mindfulness, and he emphasizes the importance of regularly bringing that deep attention to our fear.
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