I recently had a birthday. My son, Casey, wanted some ideas for a gift. And my practical suggestions, like oven mitts or kitchen knives, would not do. He insisted that […]
Body & Soul
Outermost ways for nurturing body, mind, and spirit.
Browse all Body & Soul stories below or dive into a topic:
WRITERS
A Zen Priest Retreats to the Dunes
Percussionist Douglass Fugan Dineen’s residency combines musicology and spirituality
Douglass Dineen received a new name in 2004: Fugan. It’s his “dharma name,” given by a Buddhist teacher to a newly ordained priest. In Zen teaching, fugan means “universal vow,” […]
IMPROVISATION
Finding the Balance
To come to an agreement with death, I had to make a new agreement with life
One day in June, my wife and I left our cottage to walk straight out the mouth of the Herring River in Eastham. Low tide had exposed acres of sand […]
MOVEMENT
The Knee Bone’s Connected
Learn to treat your knees right
A lot of people complain about their knees. Some of the things that go wrong with this joint — the largest one in your body and one of the most […]
BODY/MIND
Are You ‘Life Hacking’ or Living?
How to keep the itch to be productive from co-opting your practice
With the move to remote work for so many, the already tenuous lines separating work and life have pretty well dissolved. One result is a thriving productivity industry. It seems […]
MOVEMENT
Running With Dogs
Dryland mushing along the Outer Cape’s trails
My friend Liberty Schilpp has progressed from taking short jogs to becoming a devoted runner. She started just last year, following a run/walk program I wrote about in these pages. […]
BODY/MIND
Whose Pose Is It Anyway?
Stop worrying about what your asana looks like and try to notice what it feels like
Have you ever been in a yoga class and thought to yourself, “I don’t look like the teacher or the person next to me — I must be doing this […]
MOVEMENT
To Lose Pandemic Pounds, Aim to Gain Strength
The right snacks and plenty of sleep help, too
If you gained weight last year, you’re not alone. Studies show that, in America, more than half of us put on unwanted pounds. Chalk it up to a combination of […]
BODY/MIND
Cultivating Ease With Yoga Nidra
A way to spend a while outside the mad rush
Western culture urges us to create lives that are outward facing. We measure the progress of our existence by external gains. We work, attain promotions, have families, perform chores; we […]
MOVEMENT
Buff Up Your Rotator Cuffs
Four moves to strengthen those small but essential shoulder-supporting muscles
Rotator cuff troubles. We hear about them all the time — everyone from famous pitchers, to house painters, to Aunt Myrtle seems to have them. What is the rotator cuff, […]
BODY/MIND
Good Is Better Than Perfect
All you need to do to begin a home yoga practice (or anything) again
Spring is on the way. Covid is on the way out. And many people I know are in the grip of a tense kind of anticipation that is equal parts […]
MOVEMENT
Lay Your Shoulder Burdens Down
Strength and stretching to keep your most mobile joints in shape
Truly, our shoulders are overworked. They bear burdens, carry chips, and provide places upon which others may cry. If you have, at any point this winter, looked in the mirror […]
METAPHYSICS: PERSONAL HISTORY
Ending Where You Began
A journey without travel: irony and contradictions
…I am waiting to get some intimations of immortality by recollecting my early childhood and I am waiting for the green mornings to come again youth’s dumb green fields come […]
BODY/MIND
How Breathing Control Can Improve Your Health
It’s as plain as the nose on your face
There is much that we can’t control. This has always been true, of course, but it’s never been more apparent than now, in both our personal sphere and in the […]
MOVEMENT
Yoga for Better Bones
Exercise is part of the treatment for osteoporosis
We tend to think of the skeleton as an inert frame, but it is actually dynamic, living tissue. Bone cells are constantly breaking down the old and building up the […]
