Remember This Next Time You’re Alone
What Helps Me When I Feel Down About My Chronic Illness
“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” ~Martin Luther King Jr.
A few months back, before the pandemic upended life for all of us, I went through one of those times when I could do nothing but sit at home and rest for my health’s sake.
I’d recently had another one of my surgeries; I was born with a genetic condition called vascular malformation, which grew and spread quite rapidly on my left cheek and into the mouth during my childhood. It’s the reason I’ve been paying visits to operation theaters for all …
How to Break Free from Your Inhibition and Start Living Life
“You are very powerful provided you know how powerful you are.” ~Yogi Bhajan
For most of my life, I felt that life was happening to everyone else and I just got to watch.
Someone else’s parents came to see their high school graduation and celebrated with them. I walked home alone.
Other people went to their own university graduation. I didn’t even bother turning up and had my certificate sent to me.
Other people dated and experienced what it’s like to spend their time with a variety of people in an attempt to find out who suits them and who …
How to Be Grateful When It Seems Like Nothing Is Going Right
“You can’t be fearful and grateful simultaneously.” ~Tony Robbins
It may be challenging to step into a state of gratitude during a time of tumult and fear. But now, more than ever, we need to practice grace. The practice of gratitude can lift us out from under the heavy weight of our unsavory thoughts and feelings and move us in the direction of loving-kindness.
My Personal Experience with Adversity
I have faced difficult moments in my life. One such time was when I had cervical cancer a few years ago. I remember going through a number of emotions. But when …
How to Survive a Breakup with an Addict and Heal Your Heart
“The positive cannot exist without the negative.” ~Alan Watts
My heart was empty. It had never felt that empty before. Sometimes I felt a gap gnawing at my chest making everything around me feel like half of a whole. I felt like a piece of me had died.
I painted my childhood bedroom grey that summer, picking out the color carefully after taping paint samples on the wall and pondering them for hours.
The old color gave me a headache; it glowed neon green and looked dirty now from years of feet on the walls. Hidden above the moldings, I …
How to Open Your Eyes and Make the Most of Life
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” ~Marcel Proust
I was asleep for the first thirty-two years of my life. I was jolted awake when my daughter was born unable to sustain her own breath.
I sat beside her in the NICU helplessly every day for three months, unable to hold or feed her due to her fragility. I watched as she endured two surgeries before six weeks of age.
She was diagnosed with a rare muscular disease that required significant medical intervention and around-the-clock nursing care. In those first few …
How to Meditate Like a Buddhist: Book Giveaway
The winners have been chosen! If you see your name below, please send your address to email@tinybuddha.com so I can get a copy out to you!
I’ve often wished I found meditation much earlier in life.
Like in high school, where I once burst a stress ball from excessive squeezing, shooting little beans or beads or whatever filled the ball in every direction around my overloaded desk. Or in college when the triad of my depression, anxiety, and bulimia began to feel like the foundation of my identity.
I wish I knew …
How to Gently Coax Yourself Out of Your Comfort Zone
“Everything you ever wanted is one step outside your comfort zone.” ~Unknown
We’ve all seen this quote or similar ones. All the magic, growth, and transformation seem to happen there. Not everything that happens outside the comfort zone is magical, though. So, when we go wandering, leaving the safe shores, we also need to be realistic and aware that mixed in with the good, there’s also potential pain and discomfort waiting for us.
Being aware of this, how can we still motivate ourselves to try something new and to step outside our comfort zone?
On the one hand, I …
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