Susan Palmer's Exquisite Now

A writer takes a minute for a closer look

recent posts

Category: Exercise

  • The auspicious beginning

    Bring it on! In her book on making changes, behavioral economist Katy Milkman calls it the fresh start effect. Everybody else calls it New Year’s resolutions. I love them and I do them, and sometimes they do me proud. Buying and reading Milkman’s book “How to Change” gave me a suite of tools to help…

  • My brain, on dance

    Thursday I danced a new-to-me Nia routine that included a few steps I’ve never done in quite the way we did them. It got me thinking about why I revel in both the new and the familiar in dance. There’s research describing reasons for this. The brain gets a dopamine hit from new experiences. Dopamine…

  • Rear view mirror

    New Year’s resolutions infuse me with excitement. But a week or so before my Jan. 1 ritual, I take a pause to ponder where I’ve been and what I’ve done over the previous year. This is easy for me because I maintain a “got done” calendar. It may be counter-intuitive — most people prefer to-do…