“ Relax your forehead, M’Lissa ." I momentarily leave my body and watch myself obey the instructions of the yoga teacher. I wiggle my eyebrows to show that I am ‘working on it’ with a spirit of playfulness— a spirit I would like to possess, but in truth do not. I am in the middle of a pose I have never done before, in an online class where I am the newest member. We are using blocks and straps and bolsters — items I do not use in my home yoga practice. I listen to the muscles of my forehead....

There is a quote by Viktor Frankl which is so hopeful. “Between stimulus and response there lies a space. In that space lies our freedom to choose a response.” But the more work I do with individuals who are seeking change, the more interested I become in the intention behind the responses we are already in the habit of choosing. Take this example: I never really learned how to swim. It's not like I need a floatation device to get from here to there. It's that if the water situation lasts...

Did you ever hear the story about the little girl who was watching her mom cook a ham for their holiday dinner? As the mother cuts the ends off the ham before putting it into the pan, the little girl asks her mother why she does that. When the mother says that it’s just the way Grandma taught her, the child calls her grandmother and asks, “Why are you supposed to cut off the ends of the ham before cooking it?”. When the grandmother tells her that’s just the way her mother taught her, they all...