Good Clean Reads

For me, learning to feel means learning to relax.

Sometimes when I feel rushed or busy, I try to pull myself away from the edges of my body, of my life, into a narrow zone where nothing, especially emails, can reach me. I’m protected there, but I’m also contracted and tense because trying to block things out. I feel like I already have too much to do — experiencing my own sensations would be too...

“The whole world is you, yet you keep thinking there is something else.” -Hsueh-Feng

Lately, I have been taking a class with one of my all-time favorite spiritual teachers, Sally Kempton, about tapping into the pulsing vibration of the universe. She recently shared a story about her teacher, the well-known guru Baba Muktananda, about when he was visited by some Franciscan monks. The monks said to...

It’s been over 20 years since May was named National Masturbation Month by a group of hip sex stores in response to the firing of then Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders for suggesting that masturbation would be a healthy addition to educational curriculum. It was a reasonable suggestion given the cloak of shame and secrecy that masturbation has long carried, being derided and not considered “real sex”. And yet, solo sex is, without question, the most common of all sexual acts on the planet and arguably one of the safest. Masturbation has long been referred to as the cornerstone of partnered sexual capacity.

In true late adopter fashion, I’ve finally jumped into watching “Game of Thrones” after, well, years of seeing headline after headline about the epic novel-turned-TV series. I got completely sucked in from the first episode. However, a curious thing happened while I watched some of the sex scenes — I noticed that I had completely turned off my ability to feel, because it was honestly too painful...

At first it may not be obvious how sex and chronic illness are related: what context could they possibly share? Yet spend any time at all not feeling well, or worse, and you’ll know intimately how sex and illness both depend completely on the body. And how, paradoxically, when the body is ailing, a desire for pleasure, any desire at all, can feel impossible.

As Wendy has written, “Our body...

“There is no perfection,  only life.”  Milan Kundera

A dear friend of mine who will be signing divorce papers next week was lamenting to me about how he wishes he had paid better attention to the moments earlier in his relationship where things began to come apart. “I don’t know why I didn’t understand how serious the problems were then…” Most of us don’t see the gravity of the moment when things...

Making Love Sustainable was fortunate to have been able to sit down and chat recently with Emily Lindin, founder of the UnSlut Project, author of UnSlut: A Diary and a Memoir, and director of a recently released documentary, UnSlut. We’d been eager to talk with Emily because of the important work she has been doing to help women and girls speak up about sexual bullying and shaming. We believe this...

Making Love Sustainable was fortunate to have been able to sit down and chat recently with Emily Lindin, founder of the UnSlut Project, author of UnSlut: A Diary and a Memoir, and director of a recently released documentary, UnSlut. We’d been eager to talk with Emily because of the important work she has been doing to help women and girls speak up about sexual bullying and shaming. We believe this...

“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.” –Steven Covey

Usually, when people leave each other they cite irreconcilable differences. What they don’t realize is that the things that end up feeling so big and unworkable all start out being little things. Annoying habits that don’t change, emotional insecurities that play into blame and shame,...