Since I became ill with rheumatoid arthritis in 1996 my life has changed radically. Initially it seemed for the worse, but, gradually, as I surrendered to the way illness was ripping my so-called life apart, I began to open to the amazing lessons to be learned. Practicing meditation became my main work, on formal retreats and informally at home, and I began to see all the pain that was held in my heart and in my body and, slowly but surely, begin to let it go. Five years ago when I began to be mostly symptom free, I trained to teach Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction in the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts . Since then I've been leading an increasing number and range of meditation and stress reduction programs and workshops and writing a book on the topic of illness and spirituality with a working title of Healing from the Inside Out.

I am a published author and journalist and I offer a perspective that reflects my somewhat eclectic spiritual background, but is firmly rooted in Mindfulness which is also known as Insight or Vipassana meditation. I have done extensive practice in silent meditation retreats primarily in the Theravaden Buddhist tradition where one's actual experience is considered the primary path to understanding the truths of the Dharma, the natural laws of life.

I was brought up as a Christian and I started practicing yoga and meditation in the late Sixties. Since then I've studied with teachers in most major Buddhist traditions, in Zen, and Tibetan as well as Theravadan, and in the Hindu traditions of Kundalini Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Hatha Yoga and Advaita Vedanta. For me, the practice of illness as a path to awakening is constant.