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How to Maintain Peace and Joy Despite Your Everyday Struggles

By in Blog, change & challenges

Floating Man

“In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you.” ~Deepak Chopra

For years I allowed everyday struggles, like slight disturbances from schedule, to steal my happiness, peace, and energy. Whenever something disrupted my plan, I got negative and started complaining.

When I realized this, I began taking steps to accept the daily chaos. I shifted my focus to how I percieve my daily life and how I spend the twenty-four hours I get.

I started asking questions, like: Am I being positive? Am I spending my hours in a way that’s productive yet joyful?

And I began …

How to Heal from Buried Pain: You Must Go Through It

By in Blog, change & challenges

“Two roads diverged in a wood and I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” ~Robert Frost

When I was a child my friends and I often played a game called “Going on a Bear Hunt.” Each of the verses told of a different challenge, but offered the same advice—that you must go through it. One of the verses went like this:

“We’re goin’ on a bear hunt. We’re going to catch a big one. I’m not scared. What a beautiful day! Uh-uh! A cave! A narrow gloomy cave. We can’t go over it. …

When Your Mind Feels Like a Prison and You Zone Out to Escape

By in Blog, mindfulness & peace

Mental Prison

“All the suffering, stress, and addiction comes from not realizing you already are what you are looking for.” ~Jon Kabat-Zinn

I’m currently obsessed with Orange is the New Black. As a binge TV watcher, I find dramas at least three seasons long and watch them like a prisoner eating a box of contraband donuts. I’m glued to the iPad in every spare moment, while I cook, exercise, or eat.

Then it’s over. And all I have left are wasted hours and a tidal wave of guilt. I always make the same promise to myself—no more binge watching.

I punish …

What to Do When Things Go Wrong and You Feel Sorry for Yourself

By in Blog, change & challenges

Sad Woman

“We can always choose to perceive things differently. We can focus on what’s wrong in our life, or we can focus on what’s right.” ~Marianne Williamson

I was down in the dumps the other day and was feeling sorry for myself.

For some reason everything was just off. You know when you have one of those days when nothing seems to go right? And you get easily irritated and extra sensitive with everything?

It all began the night before. I was expecting a call from a guy who I’ve been getting to know. He said he was going to call …

4 Personality Types: Discover and Balance Your Elemental Nature

By in Blog, mindfulness & peace

Brain with gears

“Be gentle first with yourself if you wish to be gentle with others.” ~Lama Yeshe

Everyone has a personality. Unfortunately, though, most of us don’t understand the impulses that repetitively show up as our idiosyncrasies, better known as our ego.

If you are a sensitive type, you feel guilty for wanting to be alone; you’re sentimental and often quiet.

If you’re a thinker, you are indecisive, fickle, and starved for contact, needing someone to be around most of the time.

If you have a practical personality, money, work, and goals motivate you and give you identity.

And lastly, if …

How to Keep Your Spirits Up When You’re Bombarded With Negativity All Day

By in Blog, love & relationships

Negative and Positive

“In essence, if we want to direct our lives, we must take control of our consistent actions. It’s not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives, but what we do consistently.” ~Tony Robbins

Do you ever have to deal with negative people?

Do you ever have days where everybody seems to want to bark at you all day long?

Under those circumstances, you struggle to keep your spirits up, don’t you?

Well, I know the feeling—all too well, unfortunately.

Years ago, I worked in a collection department for an insurance company collecting the unpaid debts …

Lashing Out is Losing Control; Calmness Is Strength and Power

By in Blog, love & relationships, mindfulness & peace

Calm Man

“Self-control is strength. Right thought is mastery. Calmness is power.” ~James Allen

I would like to share something personal with you. It’s the story of how I first glimpsed what true strength and power is and where they come from. I hope this story helps to further illuminate your journey through life.

I remember one day when I was in the back seat of my parents’ car. I was probably about thirteen years old. We were parked in a hotel driveway, waiting, though I can’t recall why.

After a few minutes, another car pulled up behind ours and the driver …

If It’s Hard to Say Goodbye, Your Life’s Been Truly Blessed

By in Blog, change & challenges, letting go

“You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading the last one.” ~Unknown

On the evening of my high school graduation it hit me—the familiar faces and places I’d grown so accustomed to over the last twelve years would soon be changing.

The anxiety of that reality had started to creep into my psyche weeks ago, when I was being fitted for my cap and gown. Standing there looking in the mirror, I remember thinking to myself, “How did I get here?”

Somehow I had gone from a seven-year-old schoolboy to an eighteen-year-old teenager, and I …

Help Instead of Judging; They May Be Blinded by Pain

By in Blog, love & relationships

Compassion

“We can judge others or we can love others, but we can’t do both at the same time.” ~Unknown

When I was eighteen, my father took his own life. I was just a baby, really, a mere freshman working on my Bachelors Degree at UMF.

There are times when I feel lost in the pain of missing him, stuck with this empty hole inside. Hovering in between confusion and anger, where the feelings consume me.

Losing my father in such a traumatic way has shown me just how deeply I can feel, how hard I can fall, how grief …

Family Is…

By in Fun & Inspiring

Family Is

Kid President Pep Talk

By in Fun & Inspiring

Kid President thinks we were made to be awesome, and he has a few words of encouragement for anyone who needs  a kick in the right direction.

Stop Trying to Fit In and Start Embracing Your True Self

By in Blog, love & relationships

Stand Out from the Crowd

“Don’t change so people will like you; be yourself and the right people will love you.” ~Unknown

I’ve always felt the pressure to fit in. There’s always been a gap between what I want to be and what I think the world thinks I should be.

I was a tomboy growing up. I climbed trees when other girls played with dolls, I played soccer in my teenage years when other girls wore dresses and went to parties, and even as an adult I preferred to watch the Saturday afternoon game rather than go shopping.

But the pressure to fit in…

How Obsessing About Your Body Gets in the Way of What Matters

By in Blog, healthy habits

Woman Exercising

“Focus on what you want your life to look like—not just your body.” ~Sarah Failla

Growing up I never had much concern for the shape or size of my body. Perhaps once in a while the idea of losing weight or beginning an exercise routine crossed my mind, but it was always fleeting and I was quickly back to gossiping with my best friend or writing a note to my boyfriend.

Once I entered college I gained some weight, what with the unlimited access to Peanut Butter Cap’n Crunch (something that never, ever crossed the threshold of my childhood home) …

Money Can Buy…

By in Fun & Inspiring

Money Can Buy

Are You the Best Version of Yourself Today?

By in Blog, healthy habits

Be the Best Version of You

“I always wanted to be someone better the next day than I was the day before.” ~Sidney Poitier

I felt I was living a dream life. I had a great husband, a lovely child, a nice house and cars.

I studied in one of the best colleges in my country and went on to do my MBA from another best in the country. While attending b-school I met my husband, and we both went on to get mind-boggling jobs.

Going on lots of vacations, eating at posh places, and focusing on next big house were my ideas of a good …

6 Reasons Why We Can’t Give Up

By in Blog, change & challenges

Dont Give Up

“The minute you think of giving up, think of the reason why you held on so long.” ~Unknown

I was a serial “giver upper” for so much of my youth.

I tried gymnastics when I was about six until I discovered the teacher smoked. I’m not sure why I had an aversion to smoking at the time, but I can remember frowning and stamping my foot a lot about it.

I tried tap and ballet until I realized that the teacher was some kind of Roald Dahl headmistress. She would thump around the classroom scaring the crap out of us, …

Smile, Breathe, and Go Slowly

By in Fun & Inspiring

Smile, Breathe, and Go Slowly

How to Let Go of the Pain of Anger and Blame

By in Blog, love & relationships

Sad Woman Crying

“Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.” ~Nelson Mandela

Has anger ever filled you up so completely that you felt you’d explode?

Two months after I had a baby I suddenly found myself inextricably angry. Yes, I felt the joy and happy stuff that everyone tells you about.

But having a daughter also triggered a flash flood of buried anger, blame, and resentment. And it was all directed to one person—my mother.

A therapist told me once that my mother had “verbally abused” me. That launched a fifteen-year process of rehashing and blaming my …

Why You Might Feel Like You’re Always the Victim in Relationships

By in Blog, love & relationships

Angry Couple

“Your relationship to yourself is and always will be directly reflected in all your relationships with others.” ~Vironika Tugaleva

Have you ever heard someone say, “I don’t know why this is happening to me?” or, “My ex is really crazy”? I have said myself, “It’s not my fault he’s a jerk.”

It can be so easy to play the victim. Surely some of us are indeed victimized, but being a victim is a whole new ball game. Pointing the finger was an art for me. Thing is, one finger was pointing at you and three were pointing back at …

Fear Can Only Hurt Us If We Let It

By in Blog, change & challenges

Scared Boy

“Fear keeps us focused on the past or worried about the future. If we can acknowledge our fear, we can realize that right now we are okay. Right now, today, we are still alive, and our bodies are working marvelously. Our eyes can still see the beautiful sky. Our ears can still hear the voices of our loved ones.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh

I lay in bed staring into the darkness feeling physically ill with an acute sense of anxiety the like of which I hadn’t experienced in quite some time.

It felt like I had a soccer ball sized, black, …

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