All You Have to Do Is Show Up
How to Make Anxiety A Lot Less Painful
“You are not a mess. You are a feeling person in a messy world.” ~Glennon Doyle Melton
Anxiety can be hardwired and genetic. It can be passed down from generation to generation. It can be a result of trauma and high-stress scenarios, including divorce, moving, and death. These things are out of our control, and can be really challenging to work through.
But, anxiety can also come as a result of certain behaviors, lifestyle choices, and beliefs that you have about yourself and the world. And that, my friend, is always within your control.
I want to challenge the …
What It Means to Be Loyal to Yourself and Why We All Need to Do It
“This above all: to thine own self be true. And it must follow, as night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.” ~William Shakespeare
A little while ago, a friend gave me a compliment that stopped me in my tracks. “I really admire how loyal you are to yourself.”
In time-honored self-questioning mode, I immediately thought, “Oh my gosh, what does that mean? Does she think I’m selfish?” But once I decided not to go down that road, I started pondering what it might mean to be loyal to one’s self, and how it truly is …
Overcoming a Negative Body Image: 4 Things to Remember
TRIGGER WARNING: This post deals with an account of anorexia and may be triggering to some people.
“You will never be free until you free yourself from the prison of your own false thoughts.” ~Philip Arnold
I really don’t remember my life before anorexia. I think back to my early teenage years when I ate peanut butter sandwiches and drank hot chocolate without a single thought of how many calories I had consumed. There was no guilt, no worry, no need for perfection. How I wish I could get those carefree moments back.
A few years ago anorexia completely …
We Can Choose Different Ways Without One of Us Being Wrong
“You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.” ~Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
Many of us are committed to a journey of change and personal growth. While these are traits to be admired and celebrated, they can also have a darker side. We can become a little militant and dogmatic when we’re on our journeys.
As we focus on our attempts to make changes in our own lives, our views can start to narrow and become very black and white. We become so tuned into what …
Book Giveaway: Tiny Buddha’s Gratitude Journal and The Self-Love Experiment
UPDATE: The winners for this giveaway are Alexandra Martinez and Kathy Kortegaard.
Happy October, friends! Over the past several months since I launched Tiny Buddha’s Gratitude Journal, I’ve been excited to receive some wonderful feedback on the thought-provoking prompts and questions, and the coloring pages.
I decided to create this journal because adopting a gratitude practice has been life changing for me; it’s shifted my perspective, boosted my mood, and enabled me to hold on to optimism during some of the darkest times of my life.
And I chose to include coloring pages because I’ve been obsessed with adult …
Why Self-Compassion Is the Key to Living the Life You Want
“The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.” ~Carl Rogers
When was the last time you stopped trying to improve something about yourself or your life?
I’ve spent a lot of my life chasing goals. I guess it goes with the territory as a cancer survivor who always felt like she had something to prove, even twenty years later.
For everything the doctors told me I could not do because of my Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (or as a result of the chemotherapy that healed me), I gave my all to accomplish and …
Why I Keep My Heart Open Even Though I’ve Been Deceived
“You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you’ll live in torment if you don’t trust enough.” ~Frank Crane
I’m heading home with a latte in hand, listening to This American Life through my headphones when a woman sitting on a bench outside the café waves me down. She looks like she’s in her sixties with grayish brown bangs and a worn pink winter jacket. I pull my headphones out of my ears.
“Excuse me, can you tell me how far it is from here to 77 Westwood?” she asks. I take my phone out, Google map the …
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