Every Time You Judge Yourself
Are You Too Busy to Enjoy Your Life?
“It’s not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: what are we busy about?” ~Henry David Thoreau
I was slipping deeper into a dark spiral after my fortieth birthday, looking for anything to grab onto and pull myself out of the darkness. Some said I was having a midlife crisis, but I believe it was actually the beginning of an awakening for me. For the sake of argument, I’ll call it a midlife awakening.
This by no means meant that I understood the meaning of life and was all of a sudden enlightened and happy—quite the …
3 Powerful Ways to Get Moving When You Feel Stuck in Life
“One day your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it’s worth watching.” ~Unknown
I realized I’m going to die soon.
Not, you know, imminently. But soon. Even sixty is soon. Seventy, eighty, ninety, still soon. And I’ll be lucky if I get that old.
I’m going to die.
What’s gotten into me? Maybe it’s the Robin Williams story. That would make sense. A loss that’s shocking really resets your perspective.
Life is fleeting, it’s brief. Even if it’s what we’d consider a long life, it’s short.
This was a thought of mine in the shower today.
I think …
Stop Waiting for Life to Change: How to Feel at Peace Now
“Every day brings a choice: to practice stress or to practice peace.” ~Joan Borysenko
Humans are amazing creatures. We have so much potential to create, effect change, and love. We can generate and organize. We can grow and learn.
The unharnessed creative potential within us also means that we have the capacity for destruction. We can start wars over words, or follow our monkey minds into a frenzy of worry and distraction. We can keep on telling ourselves that when that one thing we want so badly happens, then everything will be better.
We are so creative that we believe …
Healing from Heartbreak: How to Lessen the Pain
“To get over the past, you first have to accept that the past is over. No matter how many times you revisit it, analyze it, regret it, or sweat it…it’s over.” ~Mandy Hale
Heartbreak. It’s a hard thing to go through. And the pain—it’s real, isn’t it? Like tangible pain. Almost as if that person, throughout the time we were with them, emblazoned our hearts with tiny little hooks and, one by one, they’re being wrenched out. Sounds dramatic, but that’s how it felt to me!
This recent breakup has been the most significant in my life so far. …
Middle School Football Players’ Touching Act of Kindness
Last fall, the Olivet Eagles, a middle school football team, decided to give an unlikely teammate a little bit of glory.
In a world where bullying sometimes dominates our schools and the headlines, it’s life-affirming to see such young people doing something so kind and selfless.
How to Use Your Anger to Help Yourself
“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to a better understanding of ourselves.” ~Carl Jung
I’ve experienced many degrees of anger throughout my life.
There’s the fleeting and mild kind of anger that hit me when I realized I forgot to pack my toothbrush, or when a friend was tardy again for our morning hike.
Then, there’s the corroding and strong kind of anger that I felt when I discovered that my husband had been lying to me for months.
Half-truths about his after-work activities and the people he met during those activities led to an affair, and …
How Understanding Can Lead to Forgiveness and Fulfillment
“The only way out of the labyrinth of suffering is to forgive.” ~John Green
I remember growing up in a lonely home. My parents were distant, and it seemed they didn’t care much about me. Their lives were all about them, so I didn’t care much about them.
My sister and I hated Christmas and New Year’s Eve because we never got any gifts or toys during that period.
We used to be so lonely at home, and we couldn’t play with the neighbors’ kids because our parents didn’t allow it. I grew up having no friends, up until …
Working on Impatience and Appreciating Its Gifts
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” ~Marcel Proust
It’s taken me a while, but I have finally learned to appreciate aspects of my own impatience.
For a long time I did not like this quality about myself. I am still working on becoming more patient, because impatience and I go way back.
I was impatient to get out of high school, so I fast tracked that whole experience.
I was impatient to get working, so I started working when I was fourteen.
I was impatient to finish university, so …
6 Mindful Habits to Help You Stop Worrying and Start Loving Yourself
“Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow. It only saps today of its joy.” ~Leo Buscaglia
We all want to be happy, but sometimes we hold ourselves back from that possibility. It can be a sad but liberating truth. We all have that voice inside our head. You know the one I’m talking about. Sometimes we listen even when we know we shouldn’t.
That voice is most often the source of our own self-sabotage. That voice can be the cause of our own misery.
I know because I used to listen to this voice—every single day, all the time. …
Be Part of the Next Tiny Buddha Book: 365 Tiny Love Challenges
*The deadline to submit a story has now passed. Thank you to everyone who submitted one! You will receive an email by the end of November if I’d like to include your story in the book.
When I started this site in 2009, after struggling for over a decade with depression, bulimia, and shame-induced isolation, I hoped it would be a place where we could all feel less alone with our struggles and more empowered to overcome them. I’m beyond thrilled to see that’s just what Tiny Buddha has become.
Over the past five years, I’ve been honored to help …
Knowing What Matters to You Instead of Living by Default
“It’s not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: what are we busy about?” ~Henry David Thoreau
If you are like most people reading this, I bet that you are very busy. We are all very busy. In fact, some of us even like to brag about just how busy we are. But are you busy doing the things that really matter to you?
There was a time when my life when I was busy. I was focused on my career, spending a lot of time at work, and enjoying the fruits of my labor.…
3 Ways to Find Fulfillment Wherever You Are in Life
“Don’t wait for the perfect moment. Take the moment and make it perfect.” ~Unknown
For almost all my life, I have lived in my head.
In my head, there was a utopia. And that utopia was named “someday.”
“Someday” I would have my degree, have the perfect relationship, become successful in business, own a beautiful home near the beach, be more athletic, and of course, be completely fulfilled with every aspect of my life.
For me, “Someday” was both a place of refuge and a place of torment. Because although in my mind, it gave me something to hope for, …
Words of Wisdom from Jim Carrey’s Commencement Speech
“You are ready and able to do beautiful things in this world… Choose love and don’t ever let fear turn you against your playful heart.”
In his 2014 commencement speech for Maharishi University of Management’s, Jim Carrey shared some inspiring words of wisdom about purpose, happiness, overcoming fear, and going after your dreams. This short video includes just a few of the highlights. You can find the full speech here.
Releasing Comparisons: No One Is Perfect and We All Deserve Love
“Comparison is the thief of joy.” ~Theodore Roosevelt
I spent my teenage years and early twenties believing that my weight was my worth; that I had to look and be a particular way to be accepted or loved.
I lived in a negative cycle of comparing myself to everyone. I remember sitting in on one of my lectures in university, trying to work out if my lecturer was fatter or thinner than me.
I look back now and wonder how many times I missed the fun and parties I was too scared to go to because I felt too …
How to Stop Saying Yes When You Want to Say No
“Live your life for you not for anyone else. Don’t let the fear of being judged, rejected or disliked stop you from being yourself” ~Sonya Parker
I am a sucker for saying yes.
Sometimes I even find myself thinking, “No, no, no, no” and then I blurt out, “Yes.”
Why is it so difficult to say the word “no”? It’s just a word, right?
After feeling trapped for some time by my excessive urge to be agreeable, it got me thinking.
I asked myself why it was so important for me to please everyone, to the point that I …
Though I run this site, it is not mine. It's ours. It's not about me. It's about us. Your stories and your wisdom are just as meaningful as mine. 