How are you is a question that is frequently asked by rote and usually responded to in the same manner. Generally, we respond using one of the following well-known phrases: I’m good, I’m fine, OK, still alive, hanging in there, can’t complain… Our emotional vocabulary...
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A New Kind of Partnership
It greets me first every morningAnd also tucks me into bedIt’s my constant companionThe voice within my head I set every intention to lose itTo give it wings—to set it freeYet it always chooses to stayAnd to inhabit ALL of me My overthinking mind is very much like...
Which is the Bigger Bully?
A poem to ponder: I’m feeling lonely and tired Tired of being teased and bullied—by life Life teases and taunts me, daily Playing with my overthinking mind Offering me things I cannot do Suggesting ways I cannot be Proposing healing that does not work Tempting...
Goodbye Should; Hello Must
What I should have done this summer: I should have invested in… Updating my website (launched in 2014) Developing better branding and business marketing strategies Expanding upon my pre-existing wellness curriculum Creating new PowerPoints to support that new...
Sympathetic Joy
Buddhist wisdom has expanded my understanding of both suffering and joy. My intention today is to focus on the joy—more specifically on one particular state of mind known as “sympathetic joy.” Buddhism teaches that there are four inner states where it is most valuable...
Making Peace With My Pain at 50
I consider every birthday to be a cause for celebration and most to be a time for healthy reflection. By that I mean, it’s a good time to review the past and to set goals for the future while at the same time not attaching to any particular outcome. One very important...
Redefining Change: From Transformation to Liberation
So many people get anxious just thinking about change. Every feeling we have and emotion we experience is the result of a thought, a story—of what we have made something mean. So many of us have made change mean something that feels uncomfortable and is difficult to...
The Truth – Redefined
Warren Buffett wrote: What human beings are best at doing is interpreting all new information so that their prior conclusions remain intact. In other words, he was confirming the human need for “confirmation bias.” Confirmation bias is defined as the human reflex to...
Living from a Place of Surrender
Many years ago I read a fascinating book by Michael Singer entitled The Untethered Soul. The book intrigued me from beginning to end. I remember reading the words and thinking they were written precisely for me. I think Singer was the first person to help me truly...
The Power of Other People
There was a title that caught my eye in The New York Times on Sunday, Oct 29, 2017: Happiness Is Other People. Being that I have studied the science of happiness and have learned that happiness is predominantly an inside job, which has nothing to do with other people,...