profile

Flourish Weekly

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.

video preview
Featured Post

She quit at 16. Then she won gold. 🏆

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...

video preview

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...

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...

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...

video preview

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...

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...

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...

In the Dark With You Dear Ones, I was driving home after dark last week and I thought to myself, is it always this dark at this time in December? The night felt inky thick and all-encompassing, wrapping itself around everything that wasn't in the direct line of my headlights. I noticed myself tensed up, clutching the wheel unnecessarily tight, my shoulders and arms clenched. It made me think about the quote from E.L Doctorow (via my friend Liz, via Anne Lamott): "Writing a novel is like...

November Round-Up! Dear Ones, I celebrated my birthday last Sunday! It was a quiet one - brunch with my family, a visit to a bookstore, and then an escape room, which was SO fun, even for a claustrophobe like me. We even actually escaped, which is how I am able to write to you today. ;) Sometimes my birthdays have BIG messages for me -- like last year, when I heard the words loud and clear that guided my entire year: STOP making decisions based on what people think about you. That one had me...

video preview

Your Thanksgiving Survival Guide This time of year can be stressful for a whole BUNCH of reasons, including (but not limited to): (1) challenging relationships with family members (2) Stress of hosting or traveling and (3) Trickiness around our relationship to food. So with the hopes of making things a bit easier, here are some things that might help. IF YOU HAVE A CHALLENGING FAMILY SITUATION ON YOUR HANDS... In this video, I share my top three tips to help you make it through the...