Open-Minded People
Source: The Mind Unleashed
Finding Happiness: 11 Simple Ways to Get Your Smile Back
“Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.” ~The Dalai Lama
A while back my sister arrived for a family get-together and remarked, “Your mad laughter is missing. What’s happening?”
My mind trailed back to my childhood and teenage years and showed me images of a girl who could laugh easily, loudly, and madly.
Somewhere along the line I had lost my ability to laugh—truly laugh, with wonder and without worry.
At first I brushed it off because I didn’t even notice myself changing. The change was gradual, imperceptible.
I had come to take life too …
Why It’s Okay to “Fail” at Meditation 90% of the Time
“Giving up is the only sure way to fail.” ~Gena Showalter
So you want to meditate.
You can’t help but notice the benefits touted everywhere: a clearer mind, more focus, better sleep, and better health and happiness. What’s not to want?
But then you try it out. And dang, it’s not easy.
When you sit down on that cushion or chair, your previously normal human brain has turned into a crazy swirl of thoughts.
Did you have this many thoughts before? Isn’t this meditation thing supposed to be about clearing your mind and getting focused?
The next thought that …
5 Ways a Creative Practice Can Help You Through Grief
“The discipline of creation, be it to paint, compose, write, is an effort toward wholeness.” ~Madeleine L’engle.
Heartbreak, sadness, and loss are uniting experiences across humanity—all of us are likely to experience grief in some form.
In grief, it can be common to feel lost, demotivated, depressed, and also, to experience a loss of self-esteem; it’s difficult to feel good about yourself when you’re processing all of the emotions that go along with grieving.
Developing a regular creative practice can be a helpful, healing way through loss. I used a creative practice to help find my way through a …
10 Steps to Find Yourself Again After Loss
“I don’t think of all the misery, but of all the beauty that remains.” ~Anne Frank
Despite pink and orange being my two favorite colors, there was a period in my life when I only wanted to wear black, from head to toe.
On Super Bowl Sunday 2002, my life changed forever. My husband of fourteen years died in his sleep of a massive heart attack, and I became a suddenly single mom of a six-year old and an eleven-year old.
Although we all acknowledge that death is a part of life, few of us spend any amount of time …
Why Stress Is Good for You and How to Respond to It
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” ~Viktor Frankl
These days we can’t seem to get away from stress. We all feel it, and we all hate it. Even my sister’s two dogs are on a special diet for their stress-induced digestive issues, and I’m pretty sure they hate stress too.
Recently it hit me: Our relationship with stress is dysfunctional. No wonder we’re stuck in an anxiety-ridden existence!
Stress is Love
Stress has gotten a bad rep, but it …
Help Bring Tiny Buddha Productions to Life
When I was a little girl, I could watch movies for hours on end.
I would lie underneath my blanket fort and get lost in The Neverending Story, The Princess Bride, and The Goonies—movies that bring the hero on a fantastic adventure far beyond the restrictive world they know.
My life felt small and limited, and not always bright or easy. Movies gave me an escape from that, and a sense of freedom within the expansiveness of my imagination.
As I got older, I gravitated toward mysteries and psychological thrillers—such as Identity, Memento, and Black …
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