The six weeks encompassing Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s—collectively called “the holidays”—are for most a magically unique time of year, filled with holiday carols, reunions, displays of colorful lights, love, and affection, often expressed through gift giving. But for some, the holidays bring hurt. Caused by factors including the weather, separation, death, stress, unrealistic expectations,...Continue reading
Is anything good in excess? Most of us can make the argument that excess has its place in life: pets, shoes, cars, art, love. Others, like Mahatma Ghandi, prefer the ascetic existence in which material things are roundly denounced. Throughout history even the greats can’t agree about excess: Hippocrates espoused that “everything in excess is...Continue reading
Dear Mr. Dad: A few years ago, you wrote about the benefits of meditation for children. I honestly thought you were joking. But a counselor at my son’s school just recommended it, saying it could help my son’s severe anxiety. When I asked how to do it, he handed me a copy of your article!...Continue reading
You found the love of your life early on and feel lucky compared to others who remain single around you. And, then suddenly, you notice subtle and then drastic changes in your relationship. There are many reasons a relationship can fall apart. Lifestyle changes like a loss of a job, or a lack of communication...Continue reading
As a business owner, you may at times feel like a circus performer trying to juggle several plates in the air at once while on a unicycle. While you’re doing everything in your power to not fall off the unicycle — or break any plates in the process — it’s almost inevitable that at least...Continue reading
Recent technologies allow doctors to diagnose the degenerative brain disease earlier. A dense forest of 100 billion nerve cells flourishes deep within each of our brains. Each of those nerve cells has about 15,000 dendrites that branch out to connect with dendrites from other nerve cells at more than 100 trillion points. Electrical signals race...
When I was growing up there were certain things that boys did and other things reserved for girls. Boy sports included boxing, basketball, and football. Girl sports…Well, girls weren’t encouraged to engage in sports at all. They were the pretty cheer leaders who did back flips when we scored a touchdown. They were the ones...Continue reading
Sex and gender differences are central to our lives. We all think about them, struggle with them, and seek to better understand them. From Professor Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady who lamented “Why can’t a woman be more like a man” to Sigmund Freud who wondered “What do women really want?” to our nursery rhymes which...Continue reading
Growing up in the San Fernando Valley was a delight. It seemed that summertime lasted forever and our little home in Sherman Oaks was the center of a wonderful universe from which I began to explore. The front yard was big and it was lined by trees, which I soon began climbing. I was a...Continue reading
You know the saying: Good things come in small packages. Like jewelry. Ah, but good things also come in large packages. Like time-off from work. But breaks from work don’t always need to be big to be good. Small ones do just fine, really. A Break in Plans Do you worry that if you take...Continue reading