profile

Flourish Weekly

Wow, I am alive!

Published 4 months ago • 1 min read

Dear Ones,
​
​Wow, I am alive
Aliveness is just like this
Aliveness just is
​
​I made this haiku for you!

I’ve been thinking about real, human aliveness in the age of rapidly all-encompassing AI everything.

At the science museum this weekend, I stood in the heat-seeking camera and saw my body heat reflected on the screen. I felt so comforted by the red and orange glow reflected back at me - proof of my aliveness! I didn’t really realize I was doubting it before that moment, but its undeniability on the screen made me almost feel like crying.

What am I feeling so much of the time, if not alive? Distracted? Afraid? Alienated? Lost in my thoughts and plans and stories?

If that’s how you are feeling right now, let this be a moment to remember:

You are alive.

Breathe. Feel the heat of your body. Notice what you are hearing, touching, tasting, smelling and seeing.

This is what aliveness feels like.

NOTES FROM MAY:

I taught about faith in a bunch of places this month - from Columbia Law School Commencement Week, to the Islamic Center at NYU, to Or Ha Lev. It was very much on my heart and mind. If you would like to hear the core message and practice the meditations: You can see the Islamic Center version here.

We also closed registration for our Listening Lab Facilitator Training taking place in just a few weeks! We have an AMAZING group of people from several different sectors who will be coming to NYC to strengthen their skills and support their communities. Can’t wait.

I have a brand new piece published through Happier (formerly Ten Percent Happier) called "It's Not About The Cookie" and discussing my favorite subject – desire. Check it out and let me know what you think!
​
Sending Love,

Yael

Flourish Weekly

by Yael Shy

Yael Shy is the CEO and Founder of ​Sefira Wellness​ with over two decades of supporting others in uncovering their inherent worth and capacity for deep joy through mindfulness. She is the author of the award-winning book ​What Now? Meditation for Your Twenties and Beyond (Parallax, 2017)​ and teaches at NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service.

Read more from Flourish Weekly

August 27, 2025 Through Heartbreak and Renewal: Introducing Sefira Wellness Dear Ones, How are you all holding up? This summer has been busy and wonderful and challenging. I've been crying and praying about the horrors - near and far - and donating money to groups like Standing Together and the Immigrant Defense Project. I've spent a LOT of time with my kids. I spent a few weeks doing some deep Jewish learning with the Shalom Hartman Institute in Berkeley CA, combined with a life-changing,...

15 days ago • 2 min read

Dear Ones, I've been thinking about scarcity mentality a lot lately. Scarcity mentality is the belief that there isn’t enough—enough time, enough love, enough success, enough space at the table. It is not about the very real resource scarcity that many in our world are facing at the moment. Scarcity mentality is when we actually have more than enough of what we need but instead we feel like if someone else has something, there’s less left for you. But scarcity mentality is just one way of...

3 months ago • 1 min read
a view of a mountain range in the desert

Dear Ones, Last week I shared a haiku that I wrote* and it led me to find this gem on the internet from 2018, when John Paul Lederach was on the On Being podcast and offered a number of haikus. Here are some of my favorites. Don’t ask the mountain / to move. Just take a pebble/ each time you visit. Wild and unruly. / Quiet enough to be held. / Silence between words. Smile. Offer gratitude. Leave the poem. We never know, really, where change begins. Do you have any favorite haikus that you...

3 months ago • 1 min read