If Your Nervous System Could Speak
Be Like a Paddle Ball: How to Bounce Back to Yourself
“Come back to yourself. Return to the voice of your body. Trust that much.” ~Geneen Roth
I may be showing my age, but here goes… It has come to my attention that I’m like a paddle ball.
To anyone born in the 21st century: for context, before handheld devices ruled the world, kids entertained themselves with simple analog toys—such as the paddle ball.
Picture a small flat paddle (like a small ping-pong paddle) with a rubber ball attached to the center by an elastic string. The goal was to hit the ball with the paddle, watch it fly out and …
When You’re Tired of Fixing Yourself: How to Stop Treating Healing Like a Full-Time Job
“True self-love is not about becoming someone better; it’s about softening into the truth of who you already are.” ~Yung Pueblo
One morning, I sat at my kitchen table with my journal open, a cup of green tea steaming beside me, and a stack of self-help books spread out like an emergency toolkit.
The sunlight was spilling across the counter, but I didn’t notice. My eyes kept darting between the dog-eared pages of a book called Becoming Your Best Self and the neatly written to-do list in my journal.
Meditation.
Gratitude journaling.
Affirmations.
Ten thousand steps.
Hydration tracker.
“Inner child …
How to Calm Anxiety That’s Rooted in Childhood Wounds
“Anxiety is a response to a nervous system that learned early on it had to protect itself.” ~Dr. Hilary Jacobs Hendel
Anxiety shaped much of my life—how I showed up, how I held myself back, and how I connected with others. For years, I didn’t even know what it was. I just knew the pounding heart, the tight chest, the trembling hands. I knew the shame that followed every “failure,” big or small, and the fear I would never be enough.
For a long time, I thought I was the problem. But anxiety isn’t a moral failing. It’s a part …
What I See Clearly Now That I Can’t See Clearly
“The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen… they must be felt with the heart.” ~Helen Keller
I didn’t want to admit it—not to myself, not to anyone. But I am slowly going blind.
That truth is difficult to write, harder still to live. I’m seventy years old. I’ve survived war zones, illness, caregiving, and creative risks. I’ve worked as a documentary filmmaker, teacher, and mentor. But this—this quiet, gradual vanishing of sight—feels like the loneliest struggle of all.
I have moderate to advanced macular degeneration in both eyes. My right eye is nearly gone, and my …
The 2026 Tiny Buddha Calendar Is Ready for Holiday Gifting!
Hi friend! As we head into the holiday season, I know many of us are starting to think about gifts for the people we love (and maybe a few things for ourselves as well). With that in mind, I wanted to remind you that the 2026 Tiny Buddha Day-to-Day Calendar is now available.
It’s one of my favorite projects every year because I include the kind of daily reminders that I personally find validating, comforting, and encouraging—some from me, some from site contributors, and some from authors I enjoy. And as the number-one bestselling calendar in Mind-Body-Spirit for the past
What Happened When I Stopped Expecting Perfection from Myself
“There is no amount of self-improvement that can make up for a lack of self-acceptance.” ~Robert Holden
Six years ago, I forgot it was picture day at my daughter’s school. She left the house in a sweatshirt with a faint, unidentifiable stain and hair still bent from yesterday’s ponytail.
The photographer probably spent less than ten seconds on her photo, but I spent hours replaying the morning in my head, imagining her years later looking at that picture and believing her mother had not tried hard enough.
It’s strange how small moments can lodge themselves in memory. Even now, when …
How to Return to Emotional Safety, One Sensory Anchor at a Time
“In a sense, we are all time travelers drifting through our memories, returning to the places where we once lived.” ~Vladimir Nabokov
I found it by accident, a grainy image of my childhood bedroom wallpaper.
It was tucked in the blurry background of a photo in an old family album, a detail I’d never noticed until that day.
White background. Tiny pastel hearts and flowers. A border of ragdoll girls in dresses the color of mint candies and pink lemonade.
My body tingled with recognition.
It was like finding a piece of myself I didn’t remember existed. Not the grown-up …
Healing Without Reconciling with My Mother and Learning to Love Myself
“Owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing that we’ll ever do.” ~Brené Brown
Several years ago, I wrote a heartfelt letter to my estranged mother, articulating my deep feelings about her perceived lack of empathy and care. My intention in writing the letter wasn’t to ignite conflict; it was to sincerely share my perspective.
Rather than lashing out with blame, I expressed my profound sadness about feeling parentless and the struggle of raising myself without parental love and guidance, something I desperately needed at times.
I bared my soul, detailing the emotional turmoil …
When the Person You Love Is Disappearing into Addiction
“Boundaries are the distance at which I can love you and myself at the same time.” ~Prentis Hemphill
I thought I had seen the worst of it. I thought I knew what it meant to watch someone you love disappear into addiction. My mother taught me that lesson long before I was old enough to truly understand it.
Growing up, I saw her sink deep into heroin. I learned to read the signs before she even spoke. I knew when she was high. I knew when she was lying. I knew when she was gone, even when she was …
The Invisible Prison Shyness Builds and What Helped Me Walk Free
“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” ~Anaïs Nin
When I think back on my life, shyness feels like an inner prison I carried with me for years. Not a prison with bars and guards, but a quieter kind—made of hesitation, fear, and silence. It kept me standing still while life moved forward around me.
One memory stays with me: my eighth-grade dance. The gym was alive with music, kids moving awkwardly but freely on the floor, laughing, bumping into one another, having fun. And there I was in the corner, figuratively stomping paper cups.
That’s how I …
How a Simple Object Helped Me Slow Down and Breathe
“Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart.” ~A.A. Milne
It was a Wednesday afternoon, and I was sitting in my car, too overwhelmed to turn the key in the ignition. My phone had been buzzing all day with work notifications, and the mental list of things I needed to do was growing faster than I could breathe.
Somewhere in the middle of my swirling thoughts, I reached into my coat pocket and felt something smooth and cool. It was a tiny amethyst I’d tucked there weeks ago, almost as an afterthought.
I held it in
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