Posts tagged with “stress”
3 Things That Are Helping Me Deal with Stress, Pain, and Loss
“Being on a spiritual path does not prevent you from facing times of darkness; but it teaches you how to use the darkness as a tool to grow.” ~Unknown
Life has not been kind lately.
My aunt passed away in October. She had been suffering from cancer, but her family kept the extent of her illness to themselves, and hence I did not have a chance to see her before she passed away. I felt bad about that.
My father followed her a month later, just after Thanksgiving. He had been ailing from Parkinson’s Disease, but his death as well …
Why Trying to Feel Good Can Make You Feel Bad
“The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.” ~Paulo Coelho
We’re bombarded by images of people living apparently perfect lives. They suffer no bereavements or breakups or losses or failures. They look perfect, make perfect choices, and act perfect.
Everyone seems to love them as they sail from success to success, with zero misfortunes, mistakes, or regrets.
So, it’s easy to believe that we, too, need to be perfect.
I had a simple definition of success when I was younger. It was whatever made others admire, or at least accept me.…
20 Reminders That May Comfort You When You Feel Anxious
Your heart races. Your body temperature rises. Your hands may shake. Your stomach may churn.
Your thoughts start spiraling to the worst could that happen, and suddenly you feel so unequipped—like everything’s going to fall apart, and you won’t be able to handle it.
It can feel so powerless when anxiety takes over, almost like your brain and body are being hijacked, and there’s little you can do to feel safe or in control.
Except that’s not actually true. Though anxiety can have both physical and mental symptoms, and we can’t just will it away, there are things we …
6 Things My Heroes Taught Me About Overcoming Hard Times
“A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.” ~Christopher Reeve
It all happened so suddenly that it felt just like a flash flood. One minute the road was clear and drivable, and the next it was a raging river. Before I knew what happened, my life went from being only slightly a mess to being a complete mess, my car teetering on the edge of the water, ready to go for a swim at any minute.
I had left a job I liked and found a job I thought …
Boost Your Happiness: 10 Mindfulness Tips for Busy People
“There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way” ~Thich Nhat Hanh
Do you ever feel as though you would be happy if only things were a little different?
You know that happiness is important, but you keep putting it on the backburner because there simply isn’t enough time to prioritize your own inner joy.
And at the same time, you know that meditation would help, but you can’t even imagine where you’re going to get the spare time you need to sit still and meditate.
In an ideal world, we would schedule moments every day in which …
How to Get Out of Your Head and Stop Overthinking Everything
“It’s not a matter of letting go, you would if you could. Instead of ‘Let it go,’ we should probably say ‘Let it be.'” ~Jon Kabat-Zinn
I always believed that a busy mind was a bad thing.
And for a large part of my life, it was.
Looking back, I don’t ever recall a time when I wasn’t caught up in my thoughts. There was always a “narrator” in my head. A constant commentary.
I tried meditating but would spend ten agonizing minutes trying desperately to push my thoughts away or make them stop, which we know is impossible. Not …
5 Reasons Why I Tried Mindfulness and How It’s Changed My Life
“We have only now, only this single eternal moment opening and unfolding before us, day and night.” ~Jack Kornfield
Almost two years ago, I kept seeing the word “mindfulness” pop up everywhere I was looking, and I had no clue what it was.
I kept seeing blog posts with titles like How Mindfulness can Help You at Work¸ How Mindfulness can Help You in Relationships, and How Mindfulness can Help You in the Bedroom.
Then, I saw a short video explaining mindfulness. It was a monk drinking coffee, and the narrator was talking about how much better …
Letting Go of the Worry That Weighs Us Down
“Worry pretends to be necessary but serves no useful purpose.” ~Eckhart Tolle
As a child, I remember my daily walks to elementary school. It was an uphill walk for the most part. Quite symbolic of later years, now that I think about it.
I would walk to school every morning with my backpack filled to the brim with things that weren’t even necessary for my day at school. I had extra clothes, toys, and books. It was so heavy that after a few months the straps would begin to break down due to the pressure.
Fast forward a few decades …
How My Drive to Succeed Led to Crippling Anxiety (And How I Got My Life Back)
“The only way out is through.” ~Robert Frost
The suffocating pressure from being obsessively focused on achievement and improvement led to escalating stress and anxiety over the years, but I ignored my feelings and kept attacking my goals.
Over time it became darker and heavier. It became crippling. It forced me to put a stop to almost everything in my life.
I’m a type A personality driven by a need for accomplishment. When I was in elementary school, I did my homework immediately after getting home even though my mom begged me to take a break. In high school, I …
How to Breathe Your Way to Inner Calm
“Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths.” ~Etty Hillesum
Today I’d like to discuss something that I’ve found to be very important: our breathing.
“What do you mean our breathing? Don’t we do that all the time? Why do I need to read a blog post about it?”
Yes, we do this involuntarily, but did you know that there are different ways we breathe? Improper breathing can affect how we feel, mentally and physically, and, in reverse, how we feel can lead to improper breathing (if, for example, we’re …
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