What’s weighing you down? Living lightly is about more than physical weight. Explore how emotional eating, stress, perfectionism, mindfulness, and self-compassion can shape your relationship with food, your body, and yourself.

SEPTEMBER 2026 • ESSAY THE MINDFUL EATING INSTITUTE OF SANTA BARBARA The Strawberry Notes on presence, uncertainty, and the sweetness of being here. In her profound work The Wisdom of No Escape, Buddhist teacher Pema Chödrön recounts a timeless story that speaks directly to how we navigate life when groundlessness arrives. A woman walking across a field encounters tigers. She runs, with the tigers chasing closely behind. Arriving at the edge of a sheer cliff, she grabs hold o