Tiny Wisdom: On Being Openly You
“What I am is good enough if I would only be it openly.” -Carl Rogers
When I was in high school, it was trendy to be “alternative.” It was a time of Green Day, grunge, and wallet chains, and everyone …
Posts by Lori Deschene
Lori Deschene is the founder of Tiny Buddha. She’s also the author of Tiny Buddha’s Gratitude Journal, Tiny Buddha's Worry Journal, and the upcoming Tiny Buddha's Inner Strength Journal and co-founder of Recreate Your Life Story, an online course that helps you let go of the past and live a life you love. For daily wisdom, join the Tiny Buddha list here. You can also follow Tiny Buddha on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Tiny Wisdom: On Forgiveness
“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” ~Mahatma Gandhi
Someone wronged you. Maybe they treated you thoughtlessly without your feelings or best interests in mind. Or maybe they hurt you with full awareness in a …
Tiny Wisdom: On What We Envision
“We are limited, not by our abilities, but by our vision.” -Unknown
Have you ever cut yourself off right in the middle of imagining a possibility? I did it to myself earlier today. As I wrote in my recent blog …
Tiny Wisdom: On the Power of Dreams
“The poor man is not he who is without a cent, but he who is without a dream.” -Harry Kemp
A while back, I found a research study that revealed a lot of trust fund babies end up struggling with …
Tiny Wisdom: On Being Part of the Solution
“Never look down on anybody unless you’re helping him up.” -Jesse Jackson
I’ve always believed that there is a fundamental difference between compassion and pity: Compassion stands beside someone; pity stands above.
Sometimes it’s tempting to stand in that place, …
Tiny Wisdom: On the Power of a Smile
“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.” -Thich Nhat Hanh
Last weekend, I had a difficult day. My brother had just flown 3,000 miles across the country …
Tiny Wisdom: On Choosing Optimism
“I am a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will.” -Antonio Gramsci
They say that ignorance is bliss, and there’s a really good reason for it. There are a lot of things we learn as we get …
Tiny Wisdom: On Feeling Good
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” -Eleanor Roosevelt
My boyfriend makes me feel unworthy. My mother makes me feel inadequate. My sister makes me inferior. My boss makes me feel incompetent.
Have you said something like …
20 Things to Do When You’re Feeling Angry with Someone
“If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow.” ~Chinese proverb
As Tiny Buddha grows larger, I find there are a lot more people emailing me with requests. The people-pleaser in me …
Tiny Wisdom: On Committing and Achieving
“Continuous effort—not strength or intelligence—is the key to unlocking our potential.” -Winston Churchill
If you’re anything like me, you probably noticed at some point in your life that you’re not the best at everything.
Maybe it was when you were …
Tiny Wisdom: On Asking for Help
“It’s not the load that breaks you down; it’s the way you carry it.” -Lena Horne
We often think that admitting struggle is a sign of weakness, but we all struggle sometimes. We all get overwhelmed sometimes. We all need …
Tiny Wisdom: On Being Honest
“It pays to be honest, but it’s slow pay.” ~Proverb
There are two types of rewards we can enjoy in this life: the kind that appear to come immediately, and the kind that we generally don’t realize are accumulating over …
Tiny Wisdom: On Prosperity
“Prosperity depends more on wanting what you have than having what you want.” -Geoffrey F. Abert
No matter what you have, you can always identify something that is lacking. If you have a great relationship, you might ascertain that you’ve …
Tiny Wisdom: On Being Honest with Yourself
“Integrity is telling myself the truth. And honesty is telling the truth to other people.” -Spencer Johnson
Only you know if you’ve been lying to yourself. Other people may think they know what’s going on in your head and what’s …
How to Help Someone Who Won’t Help Themselves
“We work on ourselves in order to help others, but also we help others in order to work on ourselves.” ~Pema Chodron
Recently I got into a hypothetical conversation with someone who very quickly turned hostile and accusatory. Let’s call …
Tiny Wisdom: On Getting Un-stuck
“What you are is what you have been. What you’ll be is what you do now.” -Buddha
We all have goals–things we’d like to accomplish and ideas of who we’d like to become through the process. But sometimes we get …
Tiny Wisdom: On Strangers
“Strangers are friends you have yet to meet.” -Unknown
Since I live in LA and my family lives in Boston, I take long flights several times a year. During many of these flights, I read a book or watch a …
Tiny Wisdom: On Constant Change
“When you’re finished changing, you’re finished.” -Benjamin Franklin
A few years back, I reconnected with an old friend from high school. Years after we met, we both struggled with depression and dealt with messy, public recoveries.
He said that seeing …
Tiny Wisdom: On the Joy of Mistakes
“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” -Einstein
Sometimes it’s more effective to track your progress in mistakes than it is to track it with successes.
There are days when I have tons of mini-victories, …
Giveaway and Interview: The Book of (Even More) Awesome
Update: The winners have been chosen! If you didn’t win, you can purchase a copy of The Book of (Even More) Awesome on Amazon.
Last year, I posted a review of The Book of Awesome, by Neil Pasricha—a compilation …
Though I run this site, it is not mine. It's ours. It's not about me. It's about us. Your stories and your wisdom are just as meaningful as mine. 
