challenge Archives - Tiny Buddha

Free New Year Meditation & Writing Challenge

Hi friend! As you might recall, last fall I shared an empowering five-day meditation and writing challenge from Tiny Buddha contributor Nadia Colburn. This month, she’s back with another free meditation and writing challenge, designed for the new year, focused on transformation, and I can’t recommend it enough!

Founder of the online creative writing school Align Your Story, Nadia is a poet, memoirist, and yogi who has a talent for helping people create inner calm and access their most authentic voice.

That’s what I love about her challenges—they allow us to turn down the mental noise that creates stress …

A Little Hope and Encouragement for Hard Times

By Star Davis

“If your path demands you to walk through hell, walk as though you own the place.” ~Unknown

Trigger warning: This content contains references to self-harm and suicide.

It was in the spring semester during graduate school. I was living alone in a one-bedroom apartment and working nearly full-time hours at night.

The anti-depressants weren’t working so well. I was keeping up with my therapist, but I suppose it was too much.

I felt too much. It hurt so much and couldn’t handle it. You could list out the symptoms of depression, and I had them all.

Unable to deal with …

Be Honest About Your Feelings

By Lori Deschene

Get the full 30-Day Take Your Power Back Challenge here! And get Tiny Buddha’s Inner Strength Journal here.

Change “I Have To” to “I Get To”

By Lori Deschene

Get the full 30-Day Take Your Power Back Challenge here! And get Tiny Buddha’s Inner Strength Journal here.

Throw Away a Rule

By Lori Deschene

Get the full 30-Day Take Your Power Back Challenge here! And get Tiny Buddha’s Inner Strength Journal here.

The Words You Keep Convincing Yourself Not to Say

By Lori Deschene

Get the full 30-Day Take Your Power Back Challenge here! And get Tiny Buddha’s Inner Strength Journal here.

Make “None of My Business” Your Mantra

By Lori Deschene

Get the full 30-Day Take Your Power Back Challenge here! And get Tiny Buddha’s Inner Strength Journal here.

FREE 30-Day Take Your Power Back Challenge

By Lori Deschene

Do you ever feel like you’re stuck in a pattern of waiting?

Waiting on things to change or people to change.

Waiting for closure or clarity or certainty.

Waiting for life to get easier. Waiting for your heart to feel better.

Waiting for an opportunity or a relationship or something you think you need to finally feel happy and at peace.

I suspect most of us spend years and even decades waiting, feeling powerless over some, if not all, aspects of our lives.

I know I’ve been there before. This is when I was the most depressed. When I felt …

4 Ways to Save Your Sanity When Life Gets Hard and Overwhelming

By Stephanie Greenoak

“You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.” ~Jon Kabat Zinn

In December of 2020, we noticed Mom’s speech seemed difficult. Like she had stuffed cotton balls in her mouth, and someone was restraining her jaw from moving. We asked her about it, she said it was nothing.

We hadn’t seen each other since we got together over the holidays. On New Year’s Day 2020, we clinked glasses filled with sparkling wine and shared bold predictions about how this was going to be our best year yet (spoiler alert, it wasn’t).

With every passing week and conversation, …

How I Get Through Hard Times Using Curiosity, Compassion, and Challenge

By Catherine Nabbs

“Sometimes the worst things that happen in our lives put us on the path to the best things that will ever happen to us.” ~Unknown

Until I was thirty-seven, I thought I’d led a pretty charmed life: I had a supportive family and good friends, I’d done well academically, always got the jobs I’d applied for, and met and married the perfect man for me.

In 2013, when I was thirty-five weeks pregnant with my second child, I was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. My baby was induced at thirty-seven weeks, and my chemo started ten days later. In …

Free 7-Day Sleep Challenge: Meditations, Tips, and Tools for a Restful Night

By Lori Deschene

Does stress cause sleepless nights, or does a lack of sleep cause stress?

Both have been true for me, especially since becoming a parent, and I’m guessing for you too.

When life gets challenging, it’s hard to shut your brain off at night.

You know it’s important to get a good night’s sleep. You know you feel better in the day when you’re well-rested. But it’s hard to relax, physically and mentally, when you have a lot on your mind. It’s like there’s a tornado inside your head, and all the sheep-counting in the world couldn’t pull you out.

And …

The People Who Hurt Us Are Vehicles for Our Growth

By Shona Keachie

“You only see in others what you have in yourself.” ~Annette Noontil

I now recognize, after observing painful patterns repeat many times, how things that trigger me are just lessons I need to learn that are often delivered through other people. The more painful the experience, the more I can see (in retrospect) I learned from it.

Every now and then, when I find myself getting sucked into thoughts about the rightness or wrongness of a situation and how much pain it’s causing me, I take a step backward. I can see that people are just the mechanism to my …

6 Things My Heroes Taught Me About Overcoming Hard Times

By Kristin Rupert

“A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.” ~Christopher Reeve

It all happened so suddenly that it felt just like a flash flood. One minute the road was clear and drivable, and the next it was a raging river. Before I knew what happened, my life went from being only slightly a mess to being a complete mess, my car teetering on the edge of the water, ready to go for a swim at any minute.

I had left a job I liked and found a job I thought …

When Things Go Wrong: 5 Tips for Navigating Your “Why Me” Moments

By Afi Harrington

“Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars. You have to let go at some point in order to move forward.” ~C.S. Lewis

Have you ever been cruising down the highway of life only to unexpectedly hit a major pothole that completely threw you off? Maybe you lost a job, ended a relationship, or were betrayed by a friend.

It’s easy to wonder “why did this happen to me?” and stay buried in the pothole. It’s up to us to break free and regain our cruising speed on our life journey. Easier said than done, right?…

When Life Takes a Detour: Turning Uncertainty Into Joy

By Michelle Schroer

“I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness because it shows me the stars.” ~Og Mandino

You know when you get a major wake up call that shakes you to the core and gets you to focus on what’s truly important? That’s what 2014 was for me.

My boyfriend and I had gotten married in May 2014 after moving from Toronto to a small town to be closer to his aging mother.

I was working thirteen-hour days to re-establish my wellness business, and things were slowly picking up. I was finally …

How to Be Your Own Hero When Faced With a Hopeless Challenge

By Dawn Riccardi Morris

“You are very powerful, provided you know how powerful you are.” ~Yogi Bhajan

Can you remember a time when you felt completely helpless?

I do. It was the day my daughter was diagnosed with a serious digestive illness. The doctor told us in the hospital chapel, and he acted like it was a death sentence. His one and only solution was to hand us sets of harsh prescriptions.

I was in shock, and I knew deep down that something just didn’t add up. Her symptoms hadn’t even been that severe, although she had lost a significant amount of weight. What …