Posts tagged with “wisdom”

How to Stop Neglecting and Abusing Your Inner Child
“Hold the hand of the child that lives in your soul. For this child, nothing is impossible.” ~Paulo Coelho
You’re probably an abusive parent. Even if you don’t have children.
In each of us lives an inner child. This child isn’t just a sub-layer of our personality; it’s arguably the real us, the deepest aspect of ourselves.
Like many people, I’ve been aware of the inner child idea for some time. I thought of the concept mostly as another way of explaining our personal sensitivities or the childish behavior we all are capable of at times. But it’s not …

One Simple Way to Be a Good Friend (A Lesson from My Childhood Dog)
“To be rich in friends is to be poor in nothing.” ~Lilian Whiting
For eleven years of my life, I was graced by the presence of an extraordinary dog. Her name was Jenny, and she was a black lab and springer mix with a hyper personality and an almost absurd passion for the joy of being alive.
She was a gift to our family from a close family friend, and she was by far the most life-changing gift we ever received.
While there are many stories I could share about her, there is one story in particular that stands …

The One Purpose We All Share in Life
“We are each gifted in a unique and important way. It is our privilege and our adventure to discover our own special light.” ~ Mary Dunbar
I sat staring at myself in the mirror.
And for the first time in a long while, I cried.
All I could think about was having to get up the next morning and force myself through another day. Force myself to put on a smile and pretend to be happy. Force myself to act like everything was moving in the right direction.
I’d been putting on this façade …

It’s Okay to Cry
“We need never be ashamed of our tears.” ~Charles Dickens
We have all cried, all of us, some more than others.
But today I am not here to divide us by the liters of tears we have shed.
Today I want to unite us because we are all the same.
We all feel sad, stressed, overwhelmed, scared, and frustrated at times.
Any stay-at-home parent would understand my frustration, my misery, and my overwhelmed days.
It has eaten me up on the inside. I have been staying at home for the past seven years, looking after my kids, with no face-to-face …

Why We Shouldn’t Rush or Feel Guilty About Emotional Pain
“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” ~Friedrich Nietzsche
In July 2012, a conversation changed my life.
Prior to this, I had been struggling to right myself after a difficult loss. Several months had passed, yet I continued to revisit the same sad, angry place again and again. I believed the presence of these difficult emotions meant I was “doing it all wrong.”
I thought, if I could figure out why these feelings were so persistent, I could make them vanish altogether. To assist in the quest, I enlisted the help of …