When You Can’t Solve a Problem…
Ask Why: How to Motivate Yourself to Keep Going When Things Get Hard
“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” ~Friedrich Nietzsche
My father was an amazing man. I’m sure most sons think that about their fathers, but it’s a belief held by more than just myself. I’m not saying he was a great father, but he was a great man.
He was a Vietnam veteran, a carpenter, and a social paragon in the small town I grew up in. Our neighbors declared him the “Mayor of Bluebank” (the road he lived on.) His funeral was one of the most attended events that our small town in …
How Listening to Depression Can Help Us Overcome It
“These pains you feel are messengers. Listen to them.” ~Rumi
My first diagnosis of depression came at the age of fifteen. Depression runs in my family; it wasn’t a case of overmedicating. It was genuine, and the black dog has followed me all my life.
I’ve been on eight different antidepressants and a handful of anti-anxiety drugs. I’ve been in and out of therapist offices and hospitals for most of my life, and I expect that I’ll continue to do so.
My mindset (and that of my family and doctors) was that depression is an adversary to be defeated. If …
Love Is In the Little Things
“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” ~Robert Brault
Valentine’s Day has never been a big deal to me. It always felt commercialized, so forced. I’ve never felt I needed Hallmark to remind me to do something special for my husband, or vice versa.
This certainly isn’t a reflection of how we felt about, treated, or appreciated one another; it just wasn’t a priority to us.
In our more than seventeen years together, some years I would receive a card, flowers, or chocolates, but other years it would …
Your Anger is a Guide: Embrace It and Set Yourself Free
“Where there is anger there is always pain underneath.” ~Eckhart Tolle
In the sixth year of marriage, my husband shocked me by telling me that he had decided on an open marriage. This would give him permission to do what he was already doing, having an affair.
In one of my rare times of anger I argued and struggled with him. I can still see myself hitting him in the chest as he tried to put his arms around me to reassure me of his love.
As he defended his position, he reminded me that I wasn’t being rational. I …
East vs. West: Major Cultural Differences That Impact Our Happiness
“The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.” ~John Milton
I’ve been living in Asia for over a year now, spending six months each in Nepal and Vietnam, with a bit of traveling around India and Sri Lanka in the middle. I wanted to put pen to paper on what strikes me as a few of the major cultural differences between the East and the West. I can see things that each side could do with a bit more of. But here I’m going to concentrate on what I’ve …
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