Inner Peace to Go

You do a lot. You juggle tons of responsibilities and relationships at home and at work, and nobody gives you any awards or praise for most of it. Well, that ends now, because today we're talking about celebrating yourself and how acknowledging your wins supports inner peace. In this episode, we talk about the psychological benefits of celebrating ourselves, why we don't generally do it...

Whether you've been to dozens of sound baths or have no idea what a sound bath is, you're bound to learn something from guests Julie Afsahi and Jessica Cross, both sound healers and yoga teachers and the authors of the new book, "Seasons of Sound." In this conversation, Julie and Jessica explain what sound healing is and why it works and how anyone can access the benefits of so...

Uncertainty is part of life, so when I heard a commercial for a psychic company recently whose tagline was "Discover the joy of certainty," I had to laugh.  Humans prefer certainty -- it was key to our ancient ancestors' survival -- but uncertainty is the way of reality. Besides gravity on Earth, few things are reliably certain. Who could have imagined a global pandemic would shut d...

Loving ourselves might not feel easy, but it's a practice we can cultivate -- and it's totally worth it! Self-love increases resilience, helps reduce stress, boosts confidence and inspires us to go after our goals. In this episode, we talk about what self-love is and why it matters, some signs you might need more self-love in your life, myths about self-love, and eight strategies for cul...

As the owner of a human brain, you possess one of the most complex and sophisticated pieces of machinery on the planet. And you're in charge of it! We're talking this week about your brilliant brain and how to use it to generate greater inner peace. What do you need to feel more peaceful? Let me know! I'm on Instagram @thesandycohen and at innerpeacetogo.com . And want to see me in...

Want a better brain? Of course you do! This week, brain health expert Mary Lou Tierney is on the podcast, sharing tips for turning down the stress response and keeping our brain healthy throughout our lives. In this episode, we discuss negative self-talk, limiting beliefs and how to bring your higher thinking back online when your nervous system has been "hijacked" by the amygdala and th...

Have you ever eaten something so delicious that you spontaneously close your eyes so you can more fully immerse yourself in its scrumptiousness, so you can truly savor it? Savoring isn't just for food. Research shows that allowing ourselves to savor the delightful but ordinary moments in our lives boosts our mood, increases well-being and can reduce feelings of depression and anxiety. It only...

Life can feel like an endless to-do list, with lots of "stuff" but not a lot of meaning, to the point where we look around and go, "Is this it?! Is this really what life's about?" One way to shift out of this view and bring more richness and pleasure to our lives is by practicing gratitude. I know it sounds corny! But reams of research studies confirm that intentionally lo...

Learn a quick and easy technique to ground yourself, get out of your head and change your mental energy in about a minute. I hope you love this "find your feet" exercise as much as I do! What do you need to feel more peaceful? Let me know! I'm on Instagram @thesandycohen and at innerpeacetogo.com . And want to see me in your inbox on the regular? Get my (Not) Everything Sucks newsle...

No matter how old you are, no matter what you've done or not done, it is not too late to go after your dreams or create a life you love. The biggest obstacle standing between you and your dreams is the mistaken belief that it's too late. Ava DuVernay, Julia Child, Stan Lee and Susan Boyle are just a few of the people who started building the life they desired in middle age. The inspirati...

Multitasking may be the norm, but monotasking is where it's at when it comes to making meaningful progress while maintaining inner peace. This week, I share my favorite technique for time management and mental focus -- the Pomodoro Technique -- and how breaking big tasks into bite-size chunks is a powerful antidote to overwhelm. I use this timer-based technique to make progress on writing pro...

Nothing interferes with our inner peace like having too much to do and not enough time to do it.  This week, we're talking about what contributes to that feeling of overwhelm and how to shift how we think about the things on our to-do list in a way that allows for more breathing room. We talk about the "four burner theory" framework for our lives and how paying attention to which bu...

The 1981 movie "Stripes," starring Bill Murray and John Candy as enlistees in the Army, features a scene with a tough-guy character  who says his name is Francis but everyone calls him "Psycho." And if you call him Francis, he'll kill you. And if you touch his stuff, he'll kill you. And if you touch him, he'll kill you. He gives this whole speech about how he&apo...

We often think of inner peace as a state of mind, but it's actually a physical part of the brain, according to Harvard neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor. Dr. Taylor is the author of the fascinating book, "My Stroke of Insight," in which she shares her experience of having a stroke at age 37 and what she learned about her brain in the process. The human brain has two hemispheres that...

What if a 20-second "micropractice" is all it takes to feel less stress and more self-compassion? That's what researchers at U.C. Berkeley found in a study being published this month. They taught students a 20-second self-compassion practice and asked them to do it daily. After a month, the students who did the practice most often experienced less stress, more self-compassion and fe...

If your inner critic is working overtime to help you reach your goals -- and reminding you what a loser you are any time you fall short -- you're not alone.  But there's a better way, and not only does it feel WAY better than constant berating and belittling, it actually makes you more likely to reach your goals and to feel good doing it. It's self-compassion, and it's scientif...

What did you have to do to earn the ability to circulate your blood, digest your food, grow your hair and heal your broken bones? Not a damn thing! This week, we're talking about how our body's capacity to heal itself is evidence of your inherent worthiness. You don't have to do anything to earn it. You don't have to prove that you deserve your broken bones to mend or a cut on...

Most of us have been raised to believe that our value comes from what we do -- whether we're successful at work, get good grades, make a lot of money, etc. But when you were a baby, you did none of those things, and yet nobody around you doubted your worth. Even you believed you were 100% worthy. You cried for what you wanted and expected it to be provided, never considering whether you deser...

When we think about who we are, we generally go to our name, maybe age or gender, and the roles we play in our life: a mom, a sister, a lawyer, etc.  But there's bountiful peace to be had when we expand our notion of who we are to the consciousness that perceives our name, age, gender and life roles. When we identify more as the observer, the witness of our experiences, rather than the experi...

Our thoughts are a key way we make sense of the world, so it's easy to default into thinking our thoughts are true. It must be true because I thought it! Of course, our thoughts are just as fallible as any other human endeavor. Our thoughts aren't always true, and they definitely aren't always helpful. Our thoughts can stress us out and make us feel stuck. They can make us feel bad...

Years ago I saw a bumper sticker that said "Don't believe everything you think" and I thought it was so funny -- like that's even possible!?! But now, more than a decade into my journey into developing more inner peace, I know that deciding which thoughts to invest in and which to ignore is essential to living with less stress and more happiness. In this episode, I talk about t...

How do you know when it's time to take a break and if you really need one? Breaks are part of the rhythm of life -- and they're essential to success. We all need them. That's why football games have halftime and bears hibernate all winter! I will be taking a break from producing weekly episodes of "Inner Peace to Go" until I finish the internship required for my Master&apo...

In the hustle culture we live in, it's always about GO GO GO! What's next, whatcha doing, whatcha getting? We look out at the horizon at all the things we want and goals we hope to achieve. There is great value in taking a moment to look back and appreciate how far we've come. Yes, there are things we're working on, dreams we're in the process of making come true. But we c...

Because it's Mental Health Awareness Month, I wanted to share my own mental health and medication journey with you. It can be so scary to confront our own mental health issues (it certainly was for me), and it's often complicated by whatever stigma and hangups we have about medication, therapy and all of that (true for me). So I am sharing my warts-and-all journey through diagnosis and t...

Sharing gems of wisdom from Mel Robbins' newest book, "The High 5 Habit." The Self-Help Circle book club ( join us! ) dug into this title this month and we all gleaned some practical tools and eye-opening insights from it, so I wanted to pass our discoveries along! My favorite takeaway, which I've been doing daily, is "high-fiving my heart" and telling myself, "I...