Menu

How to Break Unstable Relationship Patterns

By in Blog, love & relationships

“Being willing to accept responsibility for the situation you’re in is the first step to a more fulfilling love life.” ~Renée Suzanne

Remember the haunting ballad “Foolish Games” by Jewel?

Jewel wrote the song when she was sixteen. She kept a serious journal, and said in an interview that a verse in the song was “about a relationship that I was dramatically involved in on paper.”

That pretty much sums up my first relationship, which was a dramatic pseudo-relationship in many ways. I was sixteen going on seventeen, hopelessly romantic yet shrewdly skeptical of love at the same time. …

You Either Like Me or You Don’t

By in Fun & Inspiring

My Pain Was a Gift and a Catalyst for Growth

By in Blog, change & challenges

“Sometimes pain is the teacher we require, a hidden gift of healing and hope.” ~Janet Jackson

I was becoming more and more confused as to what my feelings were toward my husband. Longing for that personal adult male connection, I started to feel trapped in my marriage. However, I still had a very strong sense of our family unit and my commitment to it.

I wasn’t going to do anything to jeopardize the family, even if it meant sacrificing my personal happiness. I made a conscious decision that my life was enough. It wasn’t perfect, but it was enough.…

Family Does Not Mean…

By in Fun & Inspiring

Inside a Panic Attack: What It’s Like When Anxiety Strikes

By in Blog, change & challenges

“Those who suffer from mental illness are stronger than you think. We must fight to go to work, care for our families, be there for our friends, and act ‘normal’ while battling unimaginable pain.” ~Unknown

It’s strange having a panic attack while surrounded by people. I’m experiencing something so private and so personal, but unless I externalize it, they are completely unaware. It’s almost an art to be able to hide it—to train myself well enough to function in front of others to the point that, if I do reveal to them the nature of my anxiety, they reply, …

How We Dance to It

By in Fun & Inspiring

The 6-Minute Diary: More Mindfulness, Success, and Happiness (Book Giveaway!)

By in Blog, happiness & fun, mindfulness & peace

The winners of this giveaway are:

Please send your mailing address and cover choice (grey, dusty rose, or sky blue) to me at email@tinybuddha.com.

—

We all know that we should be grateful. It’s right up there on the list of things we’re supposed to do regularly like get enough sleep and exercise regularly. But we don’t always prioritize the things that are good for us, which means we don’t often get to enjoy the benefits.

For many, gratitude doesn’t become a habit until life gives a reason to …

Honor Your Progress and the Path That Led You Here

By in Blog

“In time and with water, everything changes.” ~Leonardo da Vinci

This is a story about our past and progress. It’s about holding on and letting go, moving forward by moving inward, and time. And like any good story, it’s a love story in the end. I’m talking about the kind of love that eases suffering and restores peace. The love we show ourselves through patience and unconditional acceptance.

It begins with a box in the back of my hall closet, tucked neatly beneath the snorkeling equipment and board games we always forget about. I’ve moved that box from Texas …

Being Able to Be Openly Weird

By in Fun & Inspiring

Acceptance Is Not Passive; It’s the Path to Peace

By in Blog, change & challenges, letting go

“The price of our vitality is the sum of all of our fears.” ~David Whyte

Acceptance by its very nature is imperfect; it’s messy and often unpleasant, while ultimately leading to a place of growth, a sense of freedom, and a life familiar with ease. I know this because I have had a lot of painful acceptance in my life, and it has been crucial to helping me move beyond the stuckness of fear and suffering.

Years ago, being the natural striving, fun-seeking, achievement-oriented person I was, I ignored the fact that my body felt like a truck had run …

A Hot Shower, Clean Sheets, and a Long Nap

By in Fun & Inspiring

Your Emotions Will Not Drown You; They Will Save You

By in Blog, change & challenges, mindfulness & peace

“You weren’t built to be calm, cool, and collected all the time. If you were, it wouldn’t feel so exhausting.”~Ryan O’Connell 

There’s a lot of talk nowadays about “highly sensitive people” and “empaths.” It can be difficult for people who don’t relate to these labels to understand, or even believe what more sensitive folks experience. As a culture, we’re just beginning to grasp what sensitivity is and how to manage our energy.

What Sensitivity Actually Is

It’s easy to get caught up in cultural biases and stigmas concerning personality traits, and sensitivity has always been a part of that. …

What Severe Early Childhood Trauma Does

By in Fun & Inspiring

Be Like an Elephant

By in Fun & Inspiring

Growth. A Concept. Embrace It.

By in Fun & Inspiring

When It’s Hard To Be True To Yourself, Remember These 7 Things

By in Blog, mindfulness & peace

“Sometimes when you’re in a dark place, you think you’ve been buried, but you’ve actually been planted.” ~Christine Caine

The phrase “personal growth” has always felt counterintuitive to me. Personal growth feels less like growth and more like stripping away—of peeling back the expectations, fears, and shame that we’ve been conditioned with since birth. Beneath these layers lies our truest nature—our inner divinity—our most aligned selves. I view my work on this Earth as getting as close to that aligned self as I can.

Despite the barrage of positive affirmations and uplifting memes encouraging us to “live our truth,” …

Life Is Bigger Than That

By in Fun & Inspiring

I Refuse to Inherit My Parents’ Pain and Problems

By in Blog

“I wonder how much of what weighs me down is not mine to carry.” ~Aditi

My dad once told me about his early experiences with my mother’s parents. He shared that he knew right from the start that there was something extremely off with them.

They were an elderly couple who would constantly curse at one another, belittle and embarrass each in front of others, and yell hate-filled words such as “I hate you,” “I wish you were dead,” and “I’d be better off without you.” He said the fighting would get so aggressive, that sometimes the police had to …

You’re Reminding Them That They Lived

By in Fun & Inspiring

What Helps Me Put Things in Perspective

By in Blog, change & challenges

“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.” ~Douglas Adams

The Buddha famously said that life is full of suffering. While I acknowledge there is much suffering in the world, for my privileged life in the West, I like to think of it more as life being full of challenges. You see, sometimes the suffering part is optional.…