It turns out that our bodies need a spring cleaning just like our homes do. Have you noticed feeling sluggish or stiff as spring comes on? In the winter, we […]
Body & Soul
Outermost ways for nurturing body, mind, and spirit.
Browse all Body & Soul stories below or dive into a topic:
MOVEMENT
A 15-Minute Core Workout That Gets Beyond the Belly
Stability exercises are subtle but powerful strengtheners
If you read my 15-minute workout advice this winter, you know what’s coming. I promised to add a core routine to those basic upper- and lower-body programs. An effective set […]
HARD QUESTIONS
Existence and Nonexistence
A Four-Year-Old Considers Death and Rebirth
Around his fourth birthday, my son, Noah, started asking probing questions about life and death. It began innocently enough. He wanted to know if he would become a baby again. […]
MOVEMENT
Armed for Spring With a 15-Minute Workout
Get toned in time for sleeveless-shirt weather
Two months ago, I wrote about how you can build strength in as little as 15 minutes a day. That piece covered the legs. Of course, you can’t just work […]
MOVEMENT
Skiing Without Stress
Hitting the slopes does not have to be scary
I love the snow. Except for our recent blizzard, it’s been in short supply here on the Cape. Several times, my son and I got our hopes up when a […]
MOVEMENT
Strength Training Isn’t All or Nothing
Getting fit in 15 minutes, part one: the legs
Strength training is important because it makes you feel better. Its health-related virtues include decreased blood sugar and increased strength of bone, muscle, and other connective tissues, increased release of […]
SURFING
The Complex Stuff of Simplicity
Boards, suits, straps, wax, and other things surfers need to ‘be in the moment’
Surfing exemplifies simplicity: a human, on a board, riding a wave. There is a presence and purity to it. When you are surfing, everything falls away and the only thing […]
BODY/MIND
Please Enjoy the Ride
Here’s your ticket to a year’s worth of adventures on Outer Cape Cod
Welcome, dear reader: here is your very own free ticket to the adventures ahead — the year 2022. All that’s required of you is to strap in, pay attention, and […]
WONDER LAND
By Any Other Name
The gifts of gratitude
Attention is a form of prayer. —Simone Weil The season of gratitude is upon us. It’s plugged from every pulpit, platform, card, and commercial. It breathes down our necks as […]
BODY/MIND
To Prepare for the Holidays, Just Lie Down
Starting with the simplicity of a single pose, yoga’s explorations of quiet
In just four weeks, we’ll be celebrating the winter solstice, the shortest day and longest night of the year. Pre-pandemic, this time of year always felt frenetic. We were all […]
MOVEMENT
Heading to Class on a Search for Motivation
Groups are good for hibernators, the hesitant, and those with hectic lives
Motivation has been a theme for me this fall — I find that’s true of a lot of people I work with. As the weather cools, most of us need […]
SURFING
There’s Togetherness in Surfers’ Small Transgressions
On the practicality and satisfaction of peeing in the ocean
Surfers pee in their wetsuits. I’ve never met one who doesn’t. All those people you see out there in the ocean, looking calm and free? They are. They’re peeing. This […]
WONDER LAND
The Year of the Rat
Why do we assign such menacing imagery to this critter?
CAMBRIDGE — Two days ago, while I sat on my bed talking on the phone, a rat scrambled across my bedcovers and slipped down between the mattress and the wall. […]
BODY/MIND
Remixing the Basics
When the source of pain is hiding in old routines, it’s time to get out of the groove
After 15 years of both classical and new-age yoga training, I still find my home practice beginning the same way. Somewhere in the first five minutes: tabletop, on hands and […]
MOVEMENT
Why It Works to Work Out With a Friend
The buddy system builds in motivation, competition, and fun
It’s 5 p.m. on a Friday, and I’m exhausted after a long work week. I spend all day motivating other people to move, but right now I feel like lounging […]
