Wisdom Teaching & Spirituality

In our book, The Well Life, Briana and I introduced three elements of life that are essential for happiness, balance, and peace: structure, sweetness, and space. I discussed the first two in my articles of the past two weeks. Now let’s look at the most…

Several years ago Briana and I wrote The Well Life, a book on how to achieve wellness and balance in all domains of life – physical, mental, spiritual, financial, career, community, etc. It was a monumental effort; we put so much energy, care, and professional…

Over the years of practicing medicine and teaching, I’ve been increasingly drawn to the word “expansion” as one of my primary goals for clients and students. When we suffer, we’re in what I think of as a “contracted” state. Our perspective shrinks around our problems…

I believe that anyone can find ways to evolve and do their personal development work through whatever career they have. Whether you’re a custodian, a farmer, or the CEO of a lollipop company, you’ll inevitably encounter challenges that will push you to stretch and grow….

Several years ago, a growing number of people who had read my and Briana’s books or taken our courses began asking us to train them to coach others using the concepts we teach. Without consulting with me, Briana announced that we were going to do…

When Briana and I were creating the Dragontree Life Coach training program, we had lots and lots of meetings to discuss the curriculum. During one of those meetings I suddenly remembered something that happened in a classroom about 20 years earlier . . . I…

Even if you’re not in the medical world like me, you probably still hear a lot about the COVID vaccine. There are people with very strong feelings for and against it, and lots of folks somewhere in the middle. Since I’m naturally drawn to gather…

Among the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac, the ox is probably the hardest working. Oxen are bred to put in day after day after day of manual labor – plowing, pulling carts, towing water, threshing grain, and more. Without the ox, countless humans would…

It seemed to take longer for winter to start but we’re finally in it, and I’d like to share some Eastern philosophy about this season. Much of my career as well as my personal spiritual practice has focused on the lessons of the natural world….

Desire is a confusing idea. We’re taught that desire is what leads us astray, that it makes us materialistic and unsatisfied with our lot. To be free from desire implies that we’ve achieved a state of moral and/or spiritual perfection – plus deep inner peace….

The first of January has often felt to me like an arbitrary date to divide our lives by, since most of our projects and phases don’t conform to the calendar year. I’ve decided this as good a time as any to make resolutions, and perhaps…

Over the past several weeks, I’ve been discussing the 14 primary themes in our book, Rituals for Transformation. It’s a 108-day process with a short lesson each day, designed to help people release baggage, pain, and stories, and welcome a life of greater freedom, joy,…

As I explained last week, a few years ago Briana started writing a book that directly speaks about spirituality and the awakening of human consciousness. I like the word awakening because the condition of everyday consciousness is often like being in a dream. A dream…

As a teenager I spent a lot of time in the tunnels of Boston’s subway system. They were brightly tiled in red, blue, green, and orange, and there was a smell that I’ll never forget – not terrible, not pleasant – that poured forth in…

Being the parent of an adolescent is a fascinating thing. I get to watch someone begin to consciously shape her identity, and I’m often reminded of how that process went for me. We make choices that are influenced partly by our own inclinations and partly…

In the past two weeks, I wrote about what I consider to be the basic principles of a cleanse. This week I’ll discuss a few additional practices that can further promote clean spaciousness of the body and mind. We usually focus on the digestive tract,…

In early scientific experiments, scientists would give a drug to a group of test subjects and then report, for instance, that “70% of the participants improved due to this drug.” But some smarty pointed out that some of those people might have gotten better without…