Everyday I find myself astonished and humbled by the infinite recipes for eating and living. My experience in architecture, philosophy, yoga and food has blended into a strange kaleidoscopic lens adjusting awareness, responsibility and joy in every interaction. I see cooking as transformative, as an event that helps me to take the other in, to… Read More Bittermelons and Brownies: A recipe to grow myself
You know the feeling when you wait for the person in front of you on an airplane to lean back and restrict you even further in to the the tight small seat? You know that feeling, right? Wishing and hoping they won’t but at the same time realizing that they are perfectly right do so.… Read More Anticipating Restriction
Can self-awareness be taught? Yes and no. I prefer the idea that self-awareness can be guided, safe guarded. As someone guiding efforts of increased self-awareness and self-actualization, I see my role as holding space and sometimes modeling, similar to teaching a yoga class. The sequence I call out is not the experience. Parallel to every… Read More Guiding self-awareness
Just like a fever indicates a medical concern, anxiety indicates an emotional concern. What is your anxiety telling you? Anxiety indicates that a conflict is ensuing, and so long as there is conflict a positive solution is within the realm of possibility. In this respect anxiety has been likened to the prognostic value of fever:… Read More Take your emotional temperature
A few blog posts ago I talked about whose fault is loneliness. Feeling lonely often corresponds to feeling unloved. I’d like to consider the dynamics of loneliness and love a bit longer. How do you relate love and loneliness in your life? The following quote from Irvin Yalom might help clarify what we search for… Read More Existential Love
It is not surprising that I’m drawn to Existentialist Psychotherapy in the lineage of Rollo May, Irvin Yalom, Vicktor Frankl practicing the philosophies of Kierkagaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, Husserl and others. The basic premise as Irvin Yalom explains below is the humble defense of the ancient belief that self-awareness leads to a meaningful fulfilling life… Read More Self-Aware Ease
Let’s not get romantic or dismal about death.Indeed it’s our most unique act along with birth.We must think of it as cooking breakfast,it’s that ordinary. Break two eggs into a bowlor break a bowl into two eggs. Slip into a coffinafter the fluids have been drained, or better yet,slide into the fire. Of course it’s… Read More Food Poem – Death Again by Jim Harrison
How often do we feel in ourselves or notice in others the pangs of isolation and loneliness? We feel misunderstood, judged, rejected and diminished by others, and so we begin to self-isolate. In reading Irvin Yalom’s Existential Psychotherapy I came across a shift in perspective. What if I am responsible for my loneliness? What if,… Read More Whose fault is loneliness?
My dear fellow readers, writers, yogis, therapists, eaters and travelers, I want to share this first with you. I’m nervous and you have already patiently and generously read about my loves and losses. Thank you for being my sounding board and inspiration. Suspecting that I’m not alone in my travel anxieties and discomforts, I wrote… Read More (Travel)-Guide Post
The symptoms of cherophobia or fear of happiness can often be confused with depression. While depression is a persistent feeling of anhedonia (inability to feel pleasure), cherophobia is an active avoidance of things that might bring joy. Cherophobia can be culturally prescribed. For example, I remember growing up with the Bengali (or was it a… Read More Cherophobia – Am I afraid of happiness?
