Kindness Makes You the Most Beautiful Person in the World
You Never Know How Much Time You Have, So Forgive While You Can
“Forgiveness is to set a prisoner free and discover the prisoner was you.” ~Corrie ten Boom
I sat next to my stepmother Elaine in her hospital room. I was thirteen. We’d met six years prior as she took a stepmother’s role and had a strained relationship and didn’t speak to each other for parts of it.
Elaine was facing terminal brain cancer. So far she had kept herself together and composed, remaining strong on the outside. I was trying my hardest to do the same for her.
It had all started back when I was seven and my dad took …
What to Do When Someone You Love Is Sick and Struggling
“Love is not what you say. Love is what you do.” ~Unknown
As a graduate student in public health, I spent my days talking about illness and death. Normal lunchtime conversations among students covered topics like: how to define a case of multiple sclerosis, the most effective strategy to stop HIV transmission among injection drug users, and the probability you’d be alive in five years after a breast cancer diagnosis.
None of this talk about illness remotely prepared me for the experience of illness. I was blissfully naive when I started dating a man named Evan with a cough …
How to Tame Your Inner Critic: A Simple Habit to Rewire Your Brain
“I acknowledge my own worth. My confidence is growing.” ~Unknown
Sometimes I feel like a spider whose web is repeatedly torn down. I plan something and start taking action. Then life happens, and setbacks threaten to sap my energy and enthusiasm.
Whenever I take on too much, I can feel as if I’m juggling a million balls. And doing it badly.
You’ve probably seen T-shirts saying, “Things are a bit crazy around here.” That could easily describe me when I allow myself to become overloaded.
It’s easy to feel stressed and to slip into harsh self-criticism. Especially when I hold …
5 Things I Wish I Did When Dating an Addict
“Don’t let people pull you into their storm. Pull them into your peace.” ~Kimberly Jones
I was finally in a solid place when I met my now-ex-boyfriend earlier this year. I had created some healthy habits for myself and was fully recovered from the eating disorder that had ruled my life for eight years prior.
Things had turned around completely for me, as now I was getting my first novel published and had a flourishing greeting card line.
When I first met my ex, who I’ll call Alex, it was love at first sight. I was completely infatuated with this …
5 Life-Changing Realizations About Fear and Anxiety
“Fear is inevitable, I have to accept that, but I cannot allow it to paralyze me.” – Isabel Allende
I was lying on the sofa in my tiny flat in Vienna.
My feet were elevated on a cushion and the room was spinning in a brisk waltz around me. My stomach was cramping and cold sweat was trickling down my spine. I gasped for air whenever choking fear forced my racing heart to skip a couple of beats.
The situation was all too familiar.
Back then I suffered from generalized anxiety disorder and social anxiety. I was also plagued …
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