Everyone knows that exercise is good for the human primate. Yet only a very small percentage of humans – around 2% at the most – like exercise, and the statistics show that no more than 30% of humans get enough of it to prevent ill health in later life…

Our bodies are genetically programmed to sleep for at least a third of our lives. This is where healthy living starts, and it’s also the foundation of a wise lifestyle. The factors that determine the quality of a person’s sleep are called sleep hygiene…

Since time immemorial, people have been discussing the quality of gratitude. Plato (427–347 BCE) said, “A grateful mind is a great mind, which eventually attracts to itself great things.” Aristotle (384–322 BCE), a pupil of Plato, pointed out the relationship…

Our relationships with others can make life a delight. If our lives are full of family and friends with whom we have a loving and fulfilling relationship, we have a treasure beyond price. When we’re sad, they can help us lift our spirits…

Our relationship with ourselves is the most important relationship in our lives. If it isn’t mature, no other relationship in our lives will be mature and happy. Wayne W. Dyer, one of my favourite self-help gurus, says very clearly, “If you don’t love yourself…

Rational maturity begins when we accept responsibility for our lives and our thinking processes. Developing our rational maturity is a question of facing reality honestly. To do this, we have to make the effort to throw off the conventional wisdom…

When Daniel Goleman published the book Emotional Intelligence in 1995, he sparked much public discussion about what “intelligence” really is. Until Goleman’s book came along, people generally used that word to mean brain power…

Mindfulness is something I have practised throughout my life, and you probably have too, without giving it a name. It is neither obscure nor exotic, and it doesn’t require us to change who we are. We already have the ability to be in the present…

A lucid dream is one in which the dreamer is aware of dreaming. Humans have been conscious of this phenomenon since time immemorial. In Hinduism, this ancient practice is called Yoga Nidra, and it was practised by early Buddhists…

In the late 80s, when I was living in Vancouver, Canada, I became involved in the city’s New Age scene. I had already been practicing meditation for many years, and I had read The Relaxation Response by Dr. Herbert Benson…