The world-renowned family therapist Virginia Satir used to wear a medallion around her neck. The word yes was emblazoned on one side of the medallion, and on the other side, the word no. She often said that one of her primary tasks was to help her...
Since most of us spend more than half of our time in communication as a listener, we should be experts at it by now. If you are, though, you are the rare exception. Most people listen passively, planning what they are going to say next, or they...
People need people. And often they don’t realize how great their need is until some moment of great joy or deep sorrow. At some point in your life you’ve probably experienced this yourself—wanting to share some great news with a friend or, perhaps...
Commonsense safety is easily overlooked as an integral part of a personal wellness program. A person may exercise extreme caution about diet, yet be quite lax in attending to accident prevention. Most accidents—both in the home and on the road—are...
This series of articles doesn’t prescribe a single system that everyone can or should follow. That would undermine its underlying premise of making your own choices. However, since we strongly advocate eating well for living well, some consideration...
Food and nutrition are enormously popular subjects today. Food companies are climbing on the bandwagon, offering products that are vitamin enriched, low in salt, high in fiber, or caffeine or cholesterol free. People are preoccupied with cutting...
Everything inside your body is moving. Your heart pumps, blood flows, lungs expand and contract, eyes roll, eardrums vibrate, atoms dance, and neurons fire. As a result, you walk, reach out and touch the world around you, stretch yourself, and dance...
The process of becoming healthier can be presented as such serious business that you lose much of the humor and joy of living that characterize wellbeing. Many books about health are filled with predictions of dire consequences for failure to follow...
The skin is the largest organ of your body and accounts for almost one-fifth of your total body weight. The skin is constantly growing and changing in sensitivity as it performs its many functions: protection, sensation, temperature regulation...
All humans come from the water - evolving from the creatures of the sea, bathing in the uterus of the mother. Everyone is primarily made of water, which accounts for about 70 percent of our overall body weight. Water is essential to balanced health...
John W Travis MD MPH