Isisara Bey offers a heartfelt holiday reflection — on connection, gratitude, stillness, and the quiet spiritual gifts hidden inside every season of celebration.

It takes many hours to click one’s way through the New York Times online, especially on the weekends. And with this being African American History Month, there is a treasure trove of articles and profiles to explore. One can burrow down a warren of links and prompts through literary riches. A series of Times articles, coupled with live events, have captured my attention. Black History Continued explores pivotal and transformative moments and figures in the culture. The se

You’ve probably seen several different emails and social media offers to sign up for a workshop, training or multi-day challenge on crafting your resolutions for 2021. By all accounts, 2020 was a slog, a disaster, a dumpster fire, the most villainous of years, and there are plenty who’d say they’re glad to put this in our rearview. Time to ring out the old, bring in the new! What new intentions, goals, projects, habits, and accomplishments are on your vision board, wi

All across the country and around the world, things are speeding up. It’s nearly summer. The planet is warming up, budding and blossoming. The season of alphabetically-named tropical storms is brewing. For better or for worse, we are in various stages of emerging from our collective long pause with an overlay of mass protests - long-simmering discontent bursting forth in a deluge of defiance, anger, hope and a persistent demand for change we cannot just feel, but see. “The

My friend Sylvia, a hospital administrator, has been working from home during the pandemic. Her boss, who is the chief executive, sent her home as soon as the dimensions of the Coronavirus’ impact became clear. She foresaw there needed to be a clear mind and able hands beyond the front lines of critical care to help with the immense coordinating tasks that lay ahead. Sylvia’s job quickly evolved into managing the many donations of food and supplies that began to pour in from

The only thing making me write this blog right now is stubbornness. You see, I made a commitment at the beginning of 2020 to a year of Radical Resilience. Not just to be committed to doing the things I say I want to do, or to enduring whatever comes, but to do both of those things with a vengeance. Now, resilience is a grand and lofty word. It actually pretties up what is really going on. I liked the sound of it as my New Year’s resolution. But what I actually need is stubbo

If you’ve ever taken a dance, exercise or yoga class, you know what is meant by the core. Or perhaps you just think you do. Since the start of 2020 I’ve been taking twice weekly private yoga instruction. 10 sessions in, and I can already see the difference. And it’s not just the yoga. My wellness intention encompasses many other elements – meditation, journaling, massage, acupuncture, eliminating sugar and white flour, taking supplements, and drinking more water on a regula

This morning I was reveling in my morning practice and how it was rescuing me from “the simmer.” What’s that? It’s the slow, low burn of toxic emotions like frustration, discouragement, worry and criticism that I wake up with quite often. It’s not a bonfire, consuming all the air and light. Most days it’s, well, simmering, like a pot of something quietly bubbling on the back burner of the cook top. I suspect I wake up that way because while I do have a morning practice, I’

I LOVE LISTS! l delight in writing down all of the tasks I have to do in the day. It helps relieve my memory and enhances my peace of mind. When I’ve got it together enough to do it the night before, it helps to insure a good night’s sleep. Otherwise I wake up in the middle of the night, fretting about something I don’t want to forget. And I’m a paper kinda gal, although my VA has been easing me onto Trello, an online board for organizing your life and work. But nothing bea

My dear friend Gail is highly creative and imminently talented. She can turn a barren half acre of land into a landscape to rival the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the seven ancient wonders of the world. She breaks up old Italian ceramic plates and cups and creates one-of-a-kind mosaic tables. She takes clam shells and some paint and produces works of art in miniature. Everything Gail touches blooms. Gail is an artist, but not to hear her tell it. In fact, the last time

My friend Richard (not his real name, you'll see why) has a thriving firm in the nation's capital. His offices are in a modern building with fine art and eclectic architecture, bamboo flooring , brightly colored plush seating, lots of windows and glass partitions with natural light streaming in. There's also a break room with a gleaming steel sink, coffee maker, an island counter top and ---- no chairs. Uh-huh that's right, no chairs. You see, Richard wants to provide an area

What I am about to say may be tough to hear. But here’s something to chew on: whatever is happening in our lives, whatever circumstances we find ourselves in, we are the cause. We are not to blame; it’s not our fault and this is not an accusation. And yes, there are usually other factors and most likely other people involved. They are themselves the cause in their own lives. So blaming other people or circumstances and being the helpless victim is not the move if we want to f

Recently, I’ve begun an internal inquiry into the origins of self-esteem. I, like most people, have several areas of my life where I am supremely or at least sufficiently confident. So confident in fact, that performing excellently in those ways is second nature and always fun. But I have also long detected an underlying feeling of unease and lack of confidence in other areas. Given the right set of challenging circumstances that unease can quickly bubble over, discoloring m

You’ve seen those hoarder shows. A psychologist, concerned family members and a camera crew visit archaeological digs masquerading as people’s homes to help them remove years and layers of trash, old food, clothes, papers, magazines, toys, books and furniture. As a viewer, our first totally judgmental reaction is, “How could they let that happen?” Then we see how these very vulnerable and damaged people starting using things to replace love and connection, and were now grippe

There is a wonderful theater game I love to play when I am leading workshops, retreats and conferences, and even at large gatherings in my home. It’s called Stand If and its very simple and powerful. I read off a list of statements. If the statement applies to you, you simply stand for a moment, look around to see who else is standing for that same statement, and then sit down again. The statements vary from ones that most people can stand for, like “stand if you are a high

2014. And so we begin. The question is how. I’ve been casting about for an auspicious theme for this blog, a profound message to convey. It all crystalized for me over the December holidays. I spent Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and the first day of Kwanzaa (what the British and its former colonies call Boxing Day) at the home of my dear friend Hazel, her husband Butch, their daughters Quetta and Ayana and their families, and Hazel’s Aunt Jackie. Four generations, 11 people

Weekly blogs as food for body, mind and spirit. Last summer, I read an article in Vogue magazine about a wellness clinic in Austria called Viva Mayr . The article was so intriguing, and I was so desperately in need of a complete physical overhaul, that I contacted the clinic immediately and booked a week’s stay. Over-weight, sluggish, aching joints, a flabby midriff, depressed and deeply disappointed in life were the symptoms I took with me. It was not a pretty picture. I’d

Thanks to the writings and teachings of so many light workers, from ancient sages and saints of old to contemporary preachers and New Age practitioners, we are inundated with reminders of how vital and transforming it is to have an attitude of gratitude about life. There are journals in which we can document the things for which we are grateful; meditations on gratitude to focus and relax the mind; books and CDs with affirmations and a myriad of processes we can use to remem

Last year, as Journey Agent for a series of national live events, I began every event with a quote by 19 th century Lebanese poet and philosopher, Khalil Gibran from his book, The Prophet, published in 1923. The chapter I read at each event began with the words, “Then the plowman said, ‘Speak to us of work.’ “ There is nothing more satisfying than doing work that we love, for which we have a talent or skill, and that brings us success. When we can make money from work

Awhile back, on the subway, I ran into a former colleague from my Sony Music days. It was good to see her again, and we spent the next few stops chatting about what we’d been doing lately. We’d last seen each other a few years before at the “Farewell to All That” going away soiree I threw for a couple hundred of my closest co-workers, musician friends, and community, corporate and non-profit partners in the exclusive Sony Club. It was a wonderful affair and a fitting end t