Dr. Daniel A. Shaye

10/25/2025

Get outside. Stop reading this post. Go be in, and one with, nature.

Strange advice, right? Who in their right mind would suggest NOT reading their precious posts?

I would. I am. And I'm going outside... right now. Join me!

Health care providers are trying a new tactic to promote the healing effects of nature: They're actually writing prescriptions for it.

10/24/2025

“In just over a week, nearly 42 million people in the U.S. who get federal food assistance are in danger of seeing their benefits disappear because of the ongoing federal shutdown.” ~NPR

Regardless of your politics, please do what you can to be generous and kind to those in need. Some locals can't afford to wait for Washington to figure things out. Consider a trip to a grocery store with local roots, purchase some extra food, then drop it off at your nearest food pantry (consider checking in with them in advance to determine what they most need). Bonus: Research shows that acts of generosity are good for your health. Everyone wins.

PS: Consider doing this (donating to the food pantry) now-and-again even when government is NOT shut down.

10/12/2025

The weather report won't warn you that the storms of life are coming. They are. Train, be ready, be strong, be flexible, don't fight the current, keep on swimming. These are lessons for the water, and far beyond.

10/12/2025

Too few are brave enough to lead with integrity. This coach (and team) lives out real leadership -- not just of future generations, but of self.

The greatest leadership challenge we face is how we choose to lead ourselves. Until we've mastered ourselves, how can we lead others? That challenge isn't a challenge for a day, or a month, or a year. It's a continuing challenge for a lifetime -- a lifetime made up of moments & the choices those moments offer.

Choose well. Be strong. Lead.

After an exciting championship win for the girls' basketball team at Academy High School, a coach watched the tape, leading to an unthinkable act of sportsma...

10/08/2025

"DO YOU HAVE YOUR LIFE FIGURED OUT YET? IF NOT, CONGRATS—YOU’RE NORMAL."

That's the teaser for the book, "How Teens Win," written by Jon Acuff & his 2 daughters L.E. and McRae. It's a great resource for young adults... and not-so-young as well ("Fear gets a voice, not a vote" is great counsel for all of us).

I highly recommend this resource. Consider giving it as a holiday gift to someone special in your life -- or give a gift to yourself! You're worth it.

Check out this great listen on Audible.com. DO YOU HAVE YOUR LIFE FIGURED OUT YET? IF NOT, CONGRATS—YOU’RE NORMAL. That said, how do you figure it out? The good news is, your life is already leaving you clues—about what matters to you, what you’re good at, what’s wor...

09/20/2025

In a world where division and negativity are normal, even encouraged... I stand for love, communication, and the best in each of us.

Enjoy this beautiful story of love, and family.

Susan and Jeffrey Bergeman of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, became an inspiring duo.https://www.kare11.com/article/news/local/land-of-10000-stories/teen-who-pus...

09/17/2025

My dog was feeling icky and needed a 3 AM walk in the rainy mist (he's fine, thank you). I did a little FB doom-scrolling, and came across a divisive meme (not hard to do these days). Here's my thoughts, inspired by a post on our being "unable to come together."

We are most certainly capable of coming together. Will we? That's a choice -- but we are capable. Division is easy, as is other-izing (xenophobia, for those who prefer long words), responding out of fear/anger, and other basic (some call it "lizard brain") behaviors designed to quickly and easily determine safe from unsafe, friend from foe. AND... we have a choice. Choose not to be manipulated by memes, or even by our own over-simplified mental and emotional shortcuts. Fight fire... with water.

09/13/2025

In the past, I've posted tips on creating wealth and investing. Here's a different take on that process.

Each month, automatically (key!), contribute money to your Giving Fund. It's not about how much you put in the fund ($5 a month, $25, $100, whatever), it's about the habit of giving. Beyond the warm fuzzies and documented health benefits of giving, it's an unusual and important way to grow your own wealth... literally, and perhaps spiritually.

When you automatically grow this fund, and an opportunity (they're everywhere and endless) comes for giving (and this is also key), the money you've saved is already "spent" -- and thus giving is just spending what you've already allocated. Think of it like a sort of tax (but a good and joyous one) that you impose upon yourself. You wouldn't NOT take the taxes out of your paycheck, right? Because a part of your paycheck automatically goes to taxes. Well, "tax" yourself -- and allocate it where it belongs.

One key to wealth is generosity. No, don't give to get -- but it's funny how being generous "pays off" not just for you, but for our world that very much needs goodness, light, love, and helping hands. Be the hands and hearts.

Jesse Melms, dedicated husband and father of three beautiful little daughters, suffered a life-threatening injury on Tuesday (9/9/25) at the Newport News Shipyard. Jesse is a beloved member of his family, his Catholic parish, his work community, the local theatre....

09/13/2025

Recognize anyone?

C.D. is going places.

09/11/2025

In a world seemingly teeming with divisiveness, struggle, pain, even violence, life can be HARD.

If you’re struggling or feeling hopeless, please know that you are not alone — and more importantly, that there are many good people who truly care.

You may feel alone in your pain, your struggles. Hopelessness and negativity may loom over you, sit in you, even seem to seek you and bore into you. “Be positive” is pat, easy advice. Climbing out of a deep pit is NOT so easy — but… it’s essential.

Feel what you feel. Your struggles are real. Yet know that love, caring, empathy, good… these are real, too.

My formal training is in bodies, in the neuromusculoskeletal system, in assisting a body to function its best… but I never imagine that a body, and a person, are the same thing. Caring, connection, love... these things matter. They are part of healing. They are part of being fully human.

Here’s to the best version of you, the one I hope to encourage you to seek, and grow.

Let’s make a better, kinder world together. We can all be healers — of others, and in no small part for ourselves.

09/01/2025

“How are you doing?”

That phrase is so often abused these days. It’s supposed to be a real question, an opening to connect. Instead, too often we use it as a way to check a box, to speak a hello because it’s required and not desired, to speak from our mouths and yet guard our hearts.

Today I was on a walk and said a warm hello to a passer-by. They returned a very flat, “How are you doing” — without passion, without feeling, without even a question mark really. The box had been checked. “I acknowledged you, we’re done, I go on with my life, you go on with yours, we shall never meet again.” And that’s sad. Maybe they were having a bad day, or distrusted strangers, or were struggling with any of a host of challenges that life can (and will) throw at us. That's an opportunity for empathy, even in a vacuum of real understanding. But even so… our lives crossed, for a moment that we can never recapture. We missed an opportunity, however small. Or maybe many small connections are NOT so small, and together we each can change the world for the better, leveraging the butterfly effect in tiny flutters of empathy, hope, vulnerability, love. I dare to dream.

Connections matter. Being integrated, connected and at peace with ourselves, is a great and essential start - but it’s not sufficient. We’re in an age where AI is a substitute for information, comprehension, integration and understanding reality. We’re in an age of artificial reality. Beyond COVID19 we’ve chosen an age of voluntary isolation where we can all be constantly connected (?) via phone and a barrage of texts and data and (anti) social media… and for all the pseudo-connection, loneliness is on the rise while empathy and being truly present seem like fads, binge-consumed and then forgotten.

The next time you hear, or say, “How ya’ doing?” — pause. Do you really want to know? Do they? Is this an opportunity to connect -- and how will you handle that opportunity? Are you too busy, or are you willing to find a moment, even a brief one, to empathize and connect and care for and with the person before you?

Here’s to the old-school (and cutting-edge) concept of caring. Here’s to connecting. Here's to empathy. And by the way… how ARE you doing?

08/19/2025

"Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food." ~ Hippocrates

I enjoy back yard (or front yard!) gardening. These grapes (concord, bronze muscadine, and "Razz Matazz") I picked this morning. They are full of vitamin C, Vitamin K, potassium, healthy fiber, and YUM (not technically a vitamin or mineral). Phytochemicals (natural compounds produced by plants) have a TON of health benefits for people.

You are what you eat. Be healthy! And enjoy.