When I was a child, my parents had a small garden. In order to get us to help with its care, they would pay my sister and me a penny for each strawberry harvested from the berry patch. After hours of work in the Las Vegas sun with only a meager bounty to show for it in the end, I quickly realized …
Yoga for Real People
Is this "real people" yoga? Maybe for some... After a few years of largely ignoring yoga, I've returned to the mat. I was really hesitant to do so, but I'm very happy I did. The backstory: I had been practicing yoga on a fairly regular basis (once or twice a week) since the 90's. It was a part …
Got March Madness? Stop Bracketing Your Life
March Madness month is almost over, and some lucky (and skilled) players are about to reach their ultimate goals. It's also a time when people spend lots of energy predicting brackets and outcomes, expecting certain teams to win. The appearance of the bracket sheets remind me of my pre-medicine days …
Think of it as one, long pregnancy
I knew he meant well, but he could not and would not ever really understand. "Think of it was one, long pregnancy," he said. "I mean, all those eggs were all taken out of you on the same day and fertilized on the same day..." "So it's like they're all part of the same process." At first …
Realms of Balance: How to Assess Yours
I recently heard a very good interview of a man named Stewart Friedman. My ears perked up when he said, "You have to constantly figure out what is important to you." The concept of self-care through continuous reflection and assessment is something of central importance to this blog. The Wharton …
New Year: Different, Yet Same
It's the new year, and I often start it off by doing a little decluttering. In efforts to clean out my study, I came across my medical school yearbook. Each student in my class was given a page in the book that was headed with our (new and strange) "MD" signature and a picture of us in our white …