There’s no denying it: we are collectively in a season of uncertainty and change. It has been one whole year since COVID-19 upended our lives here in California. That’s 12 months since the first lockdown. At this point, masks feel normal (making us comment, while watching movies, why are they so close together?), group gatheringsContinue Reading »
For many of us, stress is such a normal part of our daily lives that we have come to expect it. Yet, this familiar hamster wheel of anxiety isn’t good for us, and leaves us tense, irritable, exhausted, and perpetually drained. We lose patience easily, struggle staying focused, and constantly long for a vacation. We’veContinue Reading »
The other day, a patient shared with me the number of years that she has suffered with her pain. She told me how she just kept going, kept pushing through, until her pain worsened to the point that she couldn’t ignore it anymore. I commented that her journey with pain is something that I haveContinue Reading »
For a lot of us, yoga class isn’t calm and relaxing. We aren’t soothed by the prospects of dangling upside down or stretching our limbs into geometric shapes. Instead of breathing deeply, our panicked breath comes fast and quick as we feel like a giraffe being taught ballet or a hippopotamus attempting the splits. StretchingContinue Reading »
Cognitive Decline. Memory Loss. Alzheimer’s Disease. Dementia. These words strike fear in the hearts of everyone. None of us want to lose our memory or cognitive function. None of us want to feel like our brains are betraying us. Even mild, normal forgetfulness can be frustrating and exhausting. Continue Reading »
2020 has undoubtedly been a hard year for everyone. We’ve wrestled with a pandemic, a global shut-down, unpredictable and explosive politics, and a generalized sense of anxiety.I’m certain that, if someone had asked any of us in January what we thought this year would be like, none of us would have predicted this. Perhaps unsurprisingly,Continue Reading »
Are you sick of counting sheep night after night only to have them run away from you, leaving you clutching the grass in slumberless exhaustion? Do you go to bed later than you should, sleep lighter than you’d like, and wake up feeling dead tired? If so, you are not alone. Almost one fifth ofContinue Reading »
We often know the right thing to do but have trouble actually doing it. We understand how our bad habit is harming us or why a new, healthy habit would benefit us, but we still don’t feel motivated to change. This habit might be exercising three times a week, consistently eating healthy food, or stoppingContinue Reading »
I distinctly remember when my 17 year old teenage son wanted to go to the movie theater with me: I knew it was a rare opportunity, so I didn’t want to miss it. The problem was, though, that we ended up watching a movie one wouldn’t want to watch even after the film goes toContinue Reading »
One of the questions I’ve been asked most frequently as a physical therapist is: “what exercises do I need to do?”. There are so many different kinds of exercises, from stretching, cardio, core, resistance, and balance, all the way through to breathing and everything in between. With different names such as Yoga, Pilates, Crossfit, andContinue Reading »