Dear Friends, Flourish - my transformative 12-week Jewish mindfulness immersion and certification program starts this Tuesday, March 10, and I wanted to write to you directly before the door closes. If you've been on the fence, I understand. Life is full. Money is real. And you may have wondered: is this really for someone like me? I've spent the last few weeks talking to people just like you with lots of questions like this. Let me answer them: "I don't have 5–7 hours a week." I hear this a...
6 days ago • 2 min read
Dear Friends, Did you know that a caterpillar becomes a butterfly by digesting itself inside its cocoon, dissolving its entire structure and becoming goo. This goo is filled with "imaginal discs" that later become the component parts of a butterfly. You can read all about it here and watch it happen here: Wow. So many parts of this process resonate with every major life transition I've ever had. The old thing has to dissolve - often painfully - to make way for the new. The in-between time is...
9 days ago • 2 min read
Dear Friends, I have become a major fan of Olympic Gold Medal-winning figure skater Alysa Liu. After becoming a phenom at 13, enduring a punishing, medal-focused training schedule, she dropped out of skating at 16. She traveled the world, played other sports, went to college, and got herself back. Then she decided to return — but on her own terms, with new coaches and a new system in which she held the reins: "She has been much more engaged in the process of creating the program from...
16 days ago • 3 min read
Dear Friends, In my latest conversation in my Desire & Dharma series, the brilliant Adreanna Limbach tells me about the moment that found her clutching the kitchen counter and group chatting her friends in excitement after seeing a certain very sexy movie trailer. We talk about the pleasures and joys of desire and the possibility that we’re already whole, even while wanting more. Rather than making desire the enemy, this conversation is a curious inquiry into what our wanting is trying to...
26 days ago • 2 min read
Dear Friends, There’s a moment many of us hit with meditation — maybe you’ve been there. You know how to sit.You’ve logged hours on an app, been on retreat, taken a course or two.And yet… the practice still lives in a kind of side pocket of your life. It helps, but it hasn’t quite reshaped how you meet stress, relationships, or the bigger questions of meaning and purpose. Flourish was created for you. Flourish is a 12-week Jewish mindfulness certification program for people who want their...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Dear Friends, Have you been feeling overwhelmed, unsteady, and/or spiritually depleted recently? You are in good company. The terror and murder inflicted by ICE in Minneapolis and elsewhere in our country - not to mention the horrors continuing around the globe - have prompted two knee-jerk reactions in me and many people I know: Reaction 1: Heartbreak, anxiety, rage, overwhelm, fear. Reaction 2: Withdraw and self-distract. It's easy to find myself wildly springing between the two reactions...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Dear Friends, I had the pleasure of talking with my friend Koshin Paley Ellison for my Youtube Series on Dharma and Desire a few weeks ago, and so much from our conversation has stuck with me as ever more heartbreak, fear and horror fills the news. We discussed how to experience the pleasure of desiring things without needing to posses them, about Dogen's idea of being time, rather than "spending" time, and Jung's idea of "being in the time in your life," which is a way to experience presence...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Happy New Year! Dear Ones, We made it to 2026! For many of us, that alone is celebration-worthy. This is your LAST CHANCE To sign up for my mini-retreat this coming Sunday, January 4, from 3-5pm ET: Reflect, Renew, Reveal. Sign up to reflect on 2025 and all its lessons, renew through meditation and "wisdom whispering" (h/t to my friend Ali Cohen for this practice) and reveal our intentions and plans for a powerful and joyful 2026. I have been working on custom-made worksheets, prompts, and...
2 months ago • 2 min read
How To Make Your New Years Resolutions Actually Stick Dear Ones, Many years ago, I asked my therapist: how do people change? He thought for a moment and answered, "In my experience, people only can change when they fully accept themselves." Huh? It was like a koan - a puzzle that is unsolvable through logical thinking. How could full acceptance be the catalyst for change, if the whole point is that we want to change something because we don't like it? I came to realize, however, that when I...
2 months ago • 2 min read