When I first met Stacy teaching a Thai yoga massage course I took a few years back, I knew that her gentle, grounding presence was a gift to anyone who works with her. I was fascinated by her journey from an office worker in chronic pain herself to a holistic healer practicing Thai and Shaitsu massage. When I asked her what drew her into the work, she explained to me that it was all about happiness!
“Tell me, what do you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” ~Mary Oliver
At the end of February, MindbodyExperience’s free e-course “Everyday Shavasana” launched offering people around the world the opportunity to find peace and ease in their daily lives. It has already gotten off to an amazing start with people all around the U.S. and as far away as France joining in. One participant told me that she finds “the exercises to be amazing. They’re the perfect length to easily fit into my busy day.” Check out the five reasons you might want to explore more ease and peace in your life now!
Rick Foster and Greg Hicks became two of my favorite authors with their first book, How We Choose to Be Happy. In that book, they layed out the nine basic choices that happy people consistently make. And I can attest, the more I make those choices, the easier I find it to be happy. A group of doctors, finding that their healthiest patients used the same strategies, worked with Foster and Hicks (with the help of Dr. Jen Seda) to create the Brilliant Health Program being offered by numerous hospitals around the country, which is the basis for their new book, Happiness and Health.
You might be surprised to find out that neither health nor happiness has much to do with what folks have traditionally believed will bring them joyful lives. Money, fame, position and even respect didn’t make it very high on the list. Want to know what did make it on the list?
In a city full of yoga divas, it can be hard to find a humble, spirit-filled guide to lead you deeper into the body and the mind. Recently, I have been fortunate to find such a teacher in Chad Stose.
In a comfortable yoga studio in the Mission, Chad gathers together folks eager to experience his special style of anusara-inspired yoga. As I join the class, chatting up my neighbors as I tend to do, one of the regulars to the class tells me he comes as much for the sermons as the practice. It doesn’t take long to understand that Chad is truly one of San Francisco’s yoga treasures. Continue reading San Francisco Yoga Treasure: Chad Stose →
Most people I work with start off having a lot easier time knowing what they don’t want. Chances are they are sitting on a great big pile of it. Maybe they don’t want to feel all the stress that they feel in their office. Or they don’t want to be upset with their kids so often. Maybe this describes you as well.
Starting in a place of what we don’t want is sort of like swatting at flies. You are happy to swing any old direction as long as they get out of the way. When you can get clear about what you do want, you can focus your actions so they lead you not only away from what’s bugging you but also towards what would really make you happy. For those of you who aren’t sure how to get there, here are five basic strategies to get you started. Continue reading Clarity on the Path to Everyday Shavasana: 5 Steps to Greater Vision in Your Life →
People seem to think that life coaching is mysterious. Coaches can rarely explain with much clarity what exactly they are doing. So when I’m asked what I do, I let folks know that I work to integrate the conscious and unconscious mind in a five step process I call the Integrative Life Path. You can use it with just about any problem that you might encounter. Continue reading Change in 5 Easy Steps: The Integrative Life Path →
In the West, we have adopted a feast (literally) or famine mentality to health. We seem to either eat whatever we want to, whenever we want to or we starve ourselves to lose it all. After experiencing both the life of luxury in his father’s palace and then the life of an ascetic starving himself away, Buddha came to what he called the Middle Way. Nowhere is a middle way more needed than in our relationship to diet and health.
A few weeks ago, my friend Bill invited me to a workshop led by Jean Elvin. Now Bill is 75 years old and one of the most vital, healthy people I know so when he suggests something I take it seriously. The workshop was an introduction to the Feldenkrais Method focusing on neck, arms and shoulders at City College and what a treat!
Jean led the group of 20 or so people through a series of very gentle motions while laying on a mat. For a yoga junkie like me I was skeptical that I would get too much out of it since it wasn’t a very “active” form of movement. But I poured myself into the movements and wouldn’t you know, by the end of the class I felt I had been in an advanced yoga class. My neck and shoulders felt so open and relaxed. Continue reading Jean Elvin Rocks Feldenkrais: A Hidden Treasure in San Francisco →
Life is full of difficult choices. We often try to make these choices from a purely intellectual place in spite of our own deepest intuition. For many, our inner guide has been listened to so infrequently that we can barely hear it. This simple, yet powerful guided meditation allows you to reconnect to that wisdom. It’s particularly useful if you have something that you’ve been wrestling with.
Enjoy!
You can watch it youtube here or download the podcast and listen to it anytime you like!
Scott Mills, Ph.D. 
