I Hope Something Unexpectedly Good Happens to You This Week
How Yoga Gave Me the Courage to Stop People-Pleasing
“Yoga is the journey of the self, through the self, to the self.” ~The Bhagavad Gita
Growing up, I couldn’t have been further from my ‘self.’ Early childhood experiences taught me to focus all of my energy externally. To put everyone around me first and to be insatiably attentive to their needs. This kind of thinking instills you with an incredibly low sense of self-worth, disconnects you from your own feelings and desires, and ultimately leaves your happiness pinned to other people.
When you have low self-worth, you mostly want to contract away from the world like a turtle. …
What You Need to Know If You Obsess About Weight Loss
“By choosing healthy over skinny you are choosing self-love over self-judgment.” ~Steve Maraboli
If we actually care about health, in 2020, we have to stop trying to lose weight.
I know, that’s the opposite of what we’ve been taught to believe, but stay with me while I explain why I say that.
Dieting and weight loss obsessions are actually causing weight gain and poorer overall health outcomes in our population.
Our culture has been obsessed with weight loss for generations. We’ve been constantly bombarded with ridiculous “lose fat fast” claims by more and more supposedly miraculous diets. It’s been going …
Growth Isn’t Always Linear: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
“If you are going through a time of discouragement, there is a time of great personal growth ahead.” ~Oswald Chambers
If I were to look back at my life thus far, as I often do, I’d notice a pattern of events and feelings resembling the activity on an EKG monitor.
For every peak, there’s been a valley. For every leap forward, there’s been a stumble backward—sometimes just an inch, and other times, what seemed like miles.
Recognizing and embracing this has brought me a tremendous amount of peace, because I once believed that progress required a steady, consistent ascent …
If You Think Reaching Your Goal Will Make You Happy…
The path IS the goal.
The process is more important than the result.
Life is a journey, not a destination.
There are three very common, some might say cheesy and clichéd sayings you may hear when it comes to taking action to reach your goals.
Some of you are probably rolling your eyes already, and I did when I first heard quotes like these.
But I’ve recently realized something that has made me U-turn on a lot of my own old, outdated beliefs around goal-setting and achievement and acquisition of material things, or just generally “making it” in life.…
How Holding On to Unrequited Love Keeps You Alone and Stuck
“Let no one who loves be unhappy, even love unreturned has its rainbow.” ~James M. Barrie
My first experience with unrequited love took place when I was a little kid at swimming lessons.
I developed a huge crush on one of the instructors. I don’t remember his name, but I remember the excruciating feeling of absolutely adoring someone who didn’t even know I existed. I wish I could say that this was a one-time experience, but it wasn’t.
Sadly, this pattern continued for many years. I seemed to have a radar device installed in my heart that would automatically fixate …
Why This Will Be the Year I Stop Running from Pain
“One has to accept pain as a condition of existence.” ~Morris West
This may seem sounds counter-intuitive, but this year I want to let go of trying to avoid suffering.
It doesn’t mean that I am a masochist and plan to spend the next year being miserable. It’s more a question of learning to accept life as it is—uncertain, full of surprises, and with its full quota of difficult circumstances.
Our Wish for Happiness
The thing is that we all want to be happy. There’s nothing wrong with that, but if we fear not being happy, then we …
12 Habits to Adopt to Make This Your Best Year Yet
Many of us head into the New Year with big goals and ambitions. We think about everything that seems to be lacking in our lives and imagine ourselves far happier and more fulfilled on the other side of massive change.
There’s no denying that certain accomplishments can amp up our life satisfaction, but I’ve found that our daily habits are the biggest contributor to our happiness.
You can have a job that excites you, the best body of your life, and the perfect partner for you, but none of it will fully satisfy you if you don’t also prioritize the …
Why You Have to Share What You Really Feel and Want in Relationships
“Any relationship that could be ‘ruined’ by having a conversation about feelings, standards, or expectations wasn’t really firm enough anyway, so there isn’t much to ruin.” ~Unknown
So many of us believe that not expressing ourselves is a noble thing to do. We get to feel stoic and in control. Others get emotional and overwhelmed while we can keep it together. The idea that we are strong because we don’t express our feelings is also socially reinforced, so we keep doing it because it’s the right thing to do, right?
Not quite.
In my previous blog post “The Negative …
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.