Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, famously said, “Let food be thy medicine.” Since ancient times, people have eaten exotic things to alter the state of body and mind. Whether they wanted to heal sickness, grow a stronger body, or celebrate, every band of people had their own local flora to choose from. One thing all of the healthiest included in their diets were fermented foods.

Waking up on Monday morning after a long weekend of play can be tough. Even if we’re starting on a new project — a new school year, job, or work season, — the excitement doesn’t always mean we’re up and ready to go full-tilt. 
Sure, we say we’re looking forward to something, or happy to be doing it when we talk to our friends, co-workers, and family, but in my experience, happiness is a verb.

Okay, you've made time in your day to have a sweaty yoga practice: bending, folding, and twisting every way possible before a relaxing 5 minute rest in corpse pose. Rock! Now that your body's had some practice, the mind is primed for meditation. Perfect. You set a timer, sit down and get comfortable, close your eyes and ... now what?

Have you ever felt guilty for not going to yoga class? I used to. There were days that I would keep willing myself to go to yoga, and as each hour passed I would resolve to go to the next class. By the time it was evening, I promised myself that I would practice harder the next day and make up for my laziness. 

There are three practices happening simultaneously throughout your life, whether we're aware of it or not- practice with the body, practice with the breath, practice with the mind. In most yoga classes, physical poses are the focus, with occasional mention of breath here and there. You're lucky if you find a class in NYC that adds in meditation at all. What's backwards about this? Meditation is the whole point.

One of the things we miss most about being (mostly) wheat-free is Italian food. Luckily, wheat-free pizza crust is becoming more widespread, brown rice & quinoa spiral pasta is a standard Trader Joe's item, and rice flour for frying is commonly available in the flour or "green" section of most supermarkets. If you wanna take it back to basics, or are part of the pale-craze, you've got to break it down to basic ingredients. Instead of noodles, why not just use a big, firm, chewy vegetable? Eggplant will do nicely.

TO BE HOPEFUL in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.

"What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places – there are so many – where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."
                                                                                                                                Howard Zinn

One of the most profound things I've ever learned in my life was in my sophomore year acting class. We were learning the Stanislavsky method, which usually involves a lot of writing. Some of us weren't really getting it, even though we were writing pages and pages of character backstory. The teacher offered us this simple acronym - K.I.S.,S. - Keep It Simple, Student.

I fell in love with headstand pretty quickly into our relationship. I had never experienced anything like it, (remember – I have no background in dance or gymnastics) and every time I was in headstand, all was still; all was quiet. I never imagined that being upside could feel so amazing.