Deconstructing Yourself

By Jessica Graham   “Like someone is trying to slice my sternum open from the inside of my body.”   “Like prickly pins in my stomach.”   “It feels like a hollowness of air in your heart and chest, in a place that should be filled with fluid.”   “Very, very heavy, exhausting.”   “Feels [...]

By Aidan Gardiner for The New York Times La-keeyatta Steward, 17, sat on a small black pillow one recent Tuesday afternoon, her legs tucked under her. Her meditation instructor told her to imagine her body pulled upward by a string, so she lowered her shoulders and straightened her back. Then two of her classmates burst [...]

by Aran Levasseur, for pbs.org Think of sitting quietly in a spartan room. There are no TVs, computers, smartphones, books, magazines or music. If you’re like most people, this probably sounds like a recipe for boredom. In our culture, we avoid moments of “not-doing” because we don’t associate boredom with having any value. And our [...]

I used to have a very hard time relating to people. As a bald-headed punk, my personality was so intense that my friends jokingly nicknamed me “Toxic Mike.” I felt that I was  different from everyone, and that the world was sort of out to get me. That was almost thirty years ago now, and [...]