Menu

Posts by Lori Deschene

Lori Deschene is the founder of Tiny Buddha. She started the site after struggling with depression, bulimia, c-PTSD, and toxic shame so she could recycle her former pain into something useful and inspire others to do the same. You can find her books, including Tiny Buddha’s Gratitude Journal and Tiny Buddha’s Worry Journal, here and learn more about her eCourse, Recreate Your Life Story, if you’re ready to transform your life and become the person you want to be.

Lori Deschene's Website

Tiny Buddha’s 2023 Day-to-Day Calendar & Planner – Pre-Order Now

By

Hi friends! I’m excited to share that my 2023 day-to-day calendar and eco-friendly planner are now available for pre-order!

The colorful daily calendar pages feature quotations (all from me and Tiny Buddha contributors) on happiness, love, relationships, change, meaning, mindfulness, simplicity, self-care, letting go, and more.

With an easel backer for desk and tabletop display, the calendar will hopefully keep you encouraged, uplifted, and motivated all through 2023!

Some of you suggested last year’s quotes were too long, so I aimed for mostly shorter quotes this year.

You can see sample pages and pre-order a calandar on Amazon here. …

[Free] Collective Trauma Summit: Creating a Global Healing Movement

By

The FREE Collective Trauma Summit 2022: Creating a Global Healing Movement is starting soon, and I’m excited to extend an invitation to you! This is a nine-day online event to explore emerging solutions for healing individual, ancestral, and collective trauma.

When you register, you’ll be able to see the powerful lineup of speakers including therapists, scientists, researchers, activists, poets, artists, visionaries, and more. You will also get access to special live events, musical performances, as well as movement practices to support your integration and healing.

Some of the topics that will be addressed during the Summit include:

  • Bringing aid and
…

Toxic Positivity: 10 Things Not to Say When Someone Is Feeling Down

By

“When you can’t look on the bright side, I will sit with you in the dark.” ~Unknown

It’s hard and uncomfortable to sit with pain, our own or someone else’s.

We don’t like to see people hurting, especially people we love, because we instinctively want to make them feel better, and we feel powerless if we think we can’t.

We feel like we have to do something. We have to say something. We have to somehow pull them out of the darkness—and we often try to do this by dousing them with light.

We do this to ourselves as well, …

FREE 30-Day Take Your Power Back Challenge

By

Do you ever feel like you’re stuck in a pattern of waiting?

Waiting on things to change or people to change.

Waiting for closure or clarity or certainty.

Waiting for life to get easier. Waiting for your heart to feel better.

Waiting for an opportunity or a relationship or something you think you need to finally feel happy and at peace.

I suspect most of us spend years and even decades waiting, feeling powerless over some, if not all, aspects of our lives.

I know I’ve been there before. This is when I was the most depressed. When I felt …

Last Day for FREE eBook with New Inner Strength

By

I know I don’t know you, but I see you. I get you. And I know you’re a survivor.

You’ve been through so much your life could be a movie, though you don’t always feel like the hero of your story, or always want to be.

Because sometimes you feel tired of being strong. Tired of wounds to heal, problems to solve, and crises to avert.

Sometimes you wish that it was all easier. That the ups and downs of life would stop so you could finally breathe, relax, and be.

I get that; I’ve wished that many times, …

Take Your Power Back: 15 Things You Don’t Have to Do Anymore

By

There’s little more frustrating than feeling stuck or trapped—like you have to accept things that aren’t good for you and can’t do the things you need to do to feel and be your best.

I think we all feel this way at times, and sometimes we do have to accept things that aren’t ideal, at least in the short term while we figure out a plan to make things better. Until we address our health issues, or find a less stressful job, or slowly unravel layers of grief or trauma to find some modicum of peace and healing.

But when …

10 Signs You’re Being True to Yourself

By

“The most confused we ever get is when we try to convince our heads of something that we know in our hearts is a lie.” ~Karen Moning

It’s painful and stressful to feel like you’re living a lie. Like you’re hiding how you really feel, saying what you think other people want to hear, and doing things you don’t actually want to do—just because you think you’re supposed to.

But sometimes we don’t recognize we’re doing this. We just know we feel off, or something feels wrong, and we’re not sure how to change it.

It makes sense that a …

10 Things to Tell Yourself When Going Through a Hard Time

By

When life gets challenging, we often make things even tougher by being hard on ourselves.

We berate ourselves for feeling down, as if we should be positive and happy all the time. We minimize our feelings, as if we have no right to be struggling since things could be so much worse. And we hold ourselves to ridiculous standards, pushing ourselves to do more, keep up with everyone else, and respond to life’s stressors with perfect composure.

Or at least these are things I’ve done.

I know that life is messy and I’m only human, but sometimes I expect more …

15 Things You Can’t Control and What You Can Control Instead (Free Printable!)

By

This post is for anyone who stresses themselves out trying to control life. Which I’m guessing means it’s for most people.

It’s easy to convince ourselves we have power over things we don’t—as if we can force people and situations to go our way simply by trying or pushing harder.

The world would feel a lot safer if this were true. If people did what we thought was best, situations worked out as we believed they should, and nothing challenging or painful ever caught us off guard.

But some things are simply uncontrollable, and it’s exhausting and futile to obsess …

Does It All Feel Too Hard? Tiny Buddha’s Inner Strength Journal Can Help

By

Do you ever feel like calling into the day? And I don’t just mean work. I mean everything. I mean turning it all off for a while. Freezing the full gamut of this messy human experience—the regrets, the fears, the adulting, the drama. The constant onslaught of anxiety-inducing news and personal problems to face.

When everyone needs you and everything worries you and nothing helps you feel better, it’s tempting to disconnect. To numb out, shut down, or give up.

But we can’t, at least not for long. And really, that’s not what we want. Or at least, that’s not …

Free Thich Nhat Hanh Audio Series: Living Without Stress or Fear

By

When you think of the teachers who’ve had the greatest impact on your life, who comes to mind?

For me, it’s the calm, the humble, the patient—the people who not only imparted useful life lessons but also embodied their message with their grace and equanimity. People I was fortunate enough to know personally, like my grandmother, and others I never met that brought me clarity and peace from afar, like the inimitable Thich Nhat Hanh.

Thay, as his students called him, was a Vietnamese Zen monk, author, poet, peacemaker, and founder of the “engaged Buddhism” movement—the act of leveraging our …

20 Inspiring Acts of Kindness and Giveaway Winners for HumanKind

By

Last week I ran a giveaway for Brad Aronson’s HumanKind: Changing the World One Small Act at a Time—a heartwarming book that highlights ordinary people doing extraordinary things and offers practical tips for everyday kindness.

I had ten books to give away—four for the blog, three for Facebook, and three for Instagram—and I invited you all to share an act of kindness you’d recently received or witnessed for a chance to win. The four blog winners, chosen at random, are:

Please email me at email (at) tinybuddha.com so I can get a book …

HumanKind: The Inspiring, Uplifting Book We All Need to Read (Giveaway!)

By

A while back I shared a quote by an unknown author that reads:

“You know who’s going through a lot right now? Literally everyone. Just be kind.”

It got me thinking about all the struggles we assume other people don’t have—because we’d never guess from the looks of them.

You’d never guess that your confident colleague struggles with PTSD from childhood abuse and neglect.

You’d never guess that your boisterous brother-in-law beats himself up because he doesn’t earn enough to get his family out of debt.

You’d never guess that your collected cousin cries in the bathroom every day because …

10 Positive Things to Do for Yourself in the New Year

By

I think I know you pretty well. I know I don’t know you, know you, but I’m guessing since you’re here, you’re a lot like me.

You want to be your best self. You want to make the most of your life. You want to be the best you can be, physically and mentally, for the people around you. And you quite possibly will take a little time today to think about what you should embrace or release in the year ahead to boost your happiness and make a positive impact on the world.

Maybe you’ll make a list …

Tiny Buddha’s 2022 Day-to-Day Calendar & Planner, Available Now!

By

Hi friends! First things first, happy December. I hope you’re all enjoying the holiday season so far!

I’m excited to share that I’ve launched my first ever day-to-day desk calendar, along with an eco-friendly planner, for 2022.

The colorful daily calendar pages feature quotations (all from the Tiny Buddha blog) on happiness, love, relationships, change, meaning, mindfulness, simplicity, self-care, letting go, and more.

With an easel backer for desk and tabletop display, the calendar will hopefully keep you encouraged, uplifted, and motivated all through 2022!

As I write this, Amazon only has three calendars left in stock, with more …

7 Things You Need to Know If You’re Going Through a Painful Breakup

By

Last year my uncle died shortly after someone I love went through a pretty traumatic breakup. I love all my family, but I wasn’t really close to my uncle and didn’t know him all that well, so I was more grieving for my mother and aunt than myself.

As I bore witness to the deep pain around me, I started thinking about the expectations we often hold of people when grieving a breakup, as opposed to grieving a death. We often expect them to feel sad for a while and then just get over it. Because the person didn’t die, …

10 Quotes You Need to Read If You Struggle with Anxiety

By

Have you ever received well-intentioned advice while facing intense anxiety, only to feel judged, misunderstood, or condescended?

Like, “Calm down!” Or “Just be positive!” Or “Don’t worry so much!”

The people who try to help generally want to do just that, but it’s always easier to advise someone when you’re not feeling what they’re feeling, because you have the benefit of rational thought—which goes out the window when fight-or-flight mode takes over.

And if you’ve never felt the depth of anxiety some of us experience—perhaps because you weren’t conditioned that way through trauma, or you’ve learned to block or …

20 Powerful Self-Care Quotes to Help You Feel and Be Your Best

By

Hi friends! I decided over this long holiday weekend to give myself a break for some much-needed self-care, which I imagine we could all use right now.

We’ve all been pushed, stretched, and challenged this year. We’ve all given our all, done our best, and perhaps wondered at times if it was good enough.

That’s the thing about difficult times—we often make them so much harder by expecting a lot from ourselves, pushing ourselves, and beating ourselves up when we fall short.

We expect ourselves to always be happy. Or productive. Or confident. Or present. Or there for other …

How to Make Someone Smile: 10 Mindful Acts of Kindness

By

“The greatest gifts you can give someone are your time, your love, and your attention.” ~Unknown

The other day I saw this phrase on social media: “Spread kindness, not COVID-19.” And I started thinking about how kindness is contagious, which reminded me of a viral video I’ve always loved:

A skateboarding kid falls, and a construction worker helps him up. The kid then sees an elderly woman struggling with grocery bags and helps her carry them across the street. That woman then gives coins to a woman at a parking meter who’s rifling through her purse. And on and on …

How to Safely Enjoy the Pandemic Holidays

By

“Surreal” is the word that keeps coming to mind. Life has felt like an alternative universe for quite a while now, and it feels even stranger during the holiday season.

After a year of much sacrifice, reality is requiring us to forgo traditions we hold dear and distance ourselves from people we may feel we’ve already gone too long without seeing.

And many are navigating the season with a sense of grief—for lost loved ones, lost purpose, maybe even lost hope.

Maybe that’s not you. Maybe you are full of gratitude for everything you have, and now appreciate even …