Wipe Hate Out of Your Heart
How to Enjoy Social Media and Stop Comparing Your Life to Others
“You never know what someone is going through. Be kind, always.” ~Unknown
A few months back I was at the park and passed a family taking what looked like holiday photos.
The mom’s hair was perfectly coifed, dad was nicely shaven and looking quite dapper, and four kids stood smiling between them—all wearing matching khaki and surprisingly clean white shirts.
I watched the khaki family out of the corner of my eye as I pushed a stroller along the gravel trail, thinking of what their holiday post might say as my baby yodeled her displeasure at facing the sun.
“Kayden …
I Am a Survivor, Not a Victim, and I’m Grateful for My Pain
TRIGGER WARNING: This post deals with an account of sexual abuse and may be triggering to some people.
“Emotional pain cannot kill you but running from it can. Allow. Embrace. Let yourself feel. Let your yourself heal.” ~Vironika Tugaleva
I was nine years old, sitting on the couch with my dad, watching a Very Brady Christmas (on my sister’s birthday, December 20th) when he first molested me. Terror, confusion, disbelief, and shame comingled to create a cocktail that would poison me for many years to come.
We grew up in a family that, from the outside, seemed …
How Are You Trading Your Time, Energy and Life?
“The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.” ~Henry David Thoreau
We all make trades in life.
We trade our time. We trade our energy. We trade our hard-earned money. We trade our attention.
Many of us move through life in constant motion, never stopping to reflect on where that motion is taking us. If it’s helping or hindering us. If the trades we are making daily are letting us live our best lives. If the trades are giving us more quality time with those we care about most. If we can turn up for …
How to Be Your Own Best Friend When You’re Grieving
“This is a moment of suffering. Suffering is part of life. May I be kind to myself in this moment. May I give myself the compassion I need.” ~Kristen Neff
Your best friend just lost her husband and her mother within five days of one another. Her husband was terminally ill. Her mother was eighty-six. You don’t know how she is going to get through this. You know that she was assuming that after her husband died, she would console herself by spending time with her mother. But that is not how it is going to work out.
Your best …
How to Welcome Uncertainty into Your Life and Release Your Worry
“Fear, uncertainty, and discomfort are your compasses toward growth.” ~Celestine Chua
Uncertainty can be the glue for anxiety if you allow it. One thing can snowball into another and soon you are looking at the road ahead, absolutely dumbfounded about which way to go. It shakes us to our core; it disrupts our security, our stable foundation and makes us feel unsettled, even a bit lost.
But can our lives change without uncertainty?
I don’t believe they can.
Two years ago, I found myself wondering: Is this all there is? The road I’ve been on is where I’ll stay; no …
How I Stopped Obsessing About the Wrong Things to Stay Healthy
“To change your life, you need to change your priorities.” ~Mark Twain
Every year, come December, I used to obsess about air pollution. This was the time when my husband and I would take our young daughter to Poland, the country of my birth, to spend Christmas with the extended family. There my anxieties would hit the roof.
Once the heating season kicks off, and the coal starts to burn in home furnaces, Polish air becomes unbreathable. The particle pollution may exceed norms by as much as 3000%. Some days you can actually feel the air burning the back of …
How I Found the Secret to Happiness in the Jungle
“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” ~Mahatma Gandhi
I’d like to bring it one step further and say, “Happiness is when what you feel, what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”
Some people may argue that there is no need to add in “what you feel,” but I think there is. There is a difference between feeling and thinking.
For example, I thought I wanted to be a travel writer, I said I was going to be a travel writer, and I did …
Free Online Summit to Cultivate Mindfulness & Loving-Kindness
There’s no denying we’re living in stressful times, marked by uncertainty and suffering for many. We’ve all been through a lot this year. We were physically disconnected for months, and now many of us feel more divided than ever—politically, economically, and ideologically.
Many of us are grappling with grief, stress, and anxiety, while others are succumbing to fear, anger, and hatred—which only create more fear, anger, and hatred. We all need to collectively find a better way to live, starting within and then extending without, to the world around us.
How can we skillfully work with difficult feelings and learn …
How To Set Boundaries With Your Racist Relatives
As the Black Lives Matter movement gains traction across the nation and the world, many of us are being called to use the skills we’ve learned to improve ourselves—such as speaking our truth, setting boundaries, and breaking the people-pleasing pattern—to improve our communities, our countries, and our world.
Those of us who are allies are conveniently positioned to have conversations about racial justice with our family members, friends, and coworkers. However, historically, many of us have balked at these conversations out of fear of our own awkwardness, others’ anger, or the possibility of creating rifts in relationships.
In …
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. 