How to Stay Merry and Mindful This Holiday Season

Remember what Ram Dass said about spiritual progress? If you think you’re enlightened, go spend time with your family! The holidays are in full swing and so are our triggers, blind spots and shadow selves. As the year winds down, so do our spiritual reserves but the holiday spirit is...

Maria’s Sunday Paper: These Are the Things I’m Grateful For

On this Sunday after Thanksgiving, I find myself reflecting. I am reflecting on the larger world we share. I am reflecting on our country and all that is going on here at home. And, I am reflecting on my own, smaller, world, right here within myself. Through reflection, I find that I ...

Cristina Ferrare’s Brain-Healthy Roasted Beet Salad

When I found these today at the open market I knew immediately that I wanted to make a delicious salad. When I came across wild organic baby arugula I knew the combination would be perfect! I can’t eat beets that have been boiled, to me they taste like dirt, I prefer to roast them inste...

A Love Letter To My Brain

Nadine Schiff is an accomplished journalist, a great mom, and a beautiful writer. She is also a dear friend of Maria's. Today, she shares this poem that she wrote entitled, A Love Letter to My Brain. I want to thank you for allowing me To view the Grand Canyon, Hear Itzhak Perlman, Sme...

Lu Parker Talks to Robert Shapiro About Loss of His Son and the Secrets to a Strong Marriage

If you take a moment to think about it, chances are you know someone who struggles with alcohol or drug addiction. The truth hits close to home way too often for many of us. I admit that it continues to affect my family, but that is a story I am not ready to tell.    I have watched f...

Social Media and the Pressure to Be Perfect

When I kicked off 2017, I made a pact with myself to make it my most honest year yet. I wanted to be truthful about how I felt and I wanted to put my integrity stamp on every decision made. For some of you, that may sound like an easy resolution to conquer. However, for many people, I thi...

Maria’s Sunday Paper: Why Thanksgiving Is My Favorite Holiday

We are heading into my favorite week of the year. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because it represents everything that is important to me: My family (I just spent a few days with two of my cousins. How deeply meaningful it was to share laughter and connection with them), my kids...

Siblings Devoted to Saving Heroin Users From Overdosing With Life-Saving Drug

Jennifer and Sam Plumb lost their brother, Andy, to a heroin overdose in 1996 at the age of 22. Their tragic loss motivated the Utah-based siblings to do what they could to prevent others from meeting the same fate. In 2015, They founded Utah Naloxone an organization that donates naloxone, ...

‘Angst’: Film About Anxiety Evokes Hope

Anxiety isn’t cool but talking about it is. Why a movie about anxiety and why now? I get involved with and make social impact films about topics like empowerment, bullying and screen addiction because I believe film is the most powerful medium on the planet. I also screen these films i...

Mom of Sandy Hook Victim Chooses Love

Five years ago, my six-year-old son, Jesse Lewis, was shot in the forehead in his first-grade classroom at Sandy Hook Elementary School. He was murdered by a former student, alongside 19 of his classmates and six educators in one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history. The world paused ...