Posts tagged with “wisdom”
How Perfectionism and Anxiety Made Me Sick and What I Wish I Knew Sooner
“Perfectionism is the exhausting state of pretending to know it all and have it all together, all the time. I’d rather be a happy mess than an anxious stress case who’s always trying to hide my flaws and mistakes.” ~Lori Deschene
“That’s not how you do it!” I slammed the door as I headed outside, making sure my husband understood what an idiot he was. He’d made the appalling mistake of roasting potatoes for Thanksgiving instead of making stuffing.
He was cooking while I studied, trying to make sure I got a semblance of a holiday. We lived away from …
5 Tips to Stop Comparing Yourself to Other People
“No matter what you do, someone won’t be pleased. Someone will think your choices are wrong. And someone will tell you what you should do instead. No matter which path you take, someone will seem to be doing better. Someone will have more than you. And someone else’s life may look more impressive on paper. If you’re being true to yourself, none of that will matter because you’ll have something more satisfying than approval and the illusion of “success”: a life that feels right for you, based on your own wants, needs, values, and priorities.” ~Lori Deschene
Have you ever …
Are You Sick of Waiting, Wanting, and Wishing for a Better Life?
“Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after another.” ~Walter Elliott
I often find myself impatient with the pace of my progress. Waiting for my life to move forward can sometimes feel like I’m watching paint dry.
There are so many moments when we feel like our life is at a standstill. This is generally where I double down with my intensity. I hit it with everything I can. The crash comes soon after from the inevitable violent collision of my mind, body, and spirit as they’re pushed beyond their limits.
The idea of having …
When Things Have to Change: How to Find the Willpower to Achieve Your Goals
“When it is obvious the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.” ~Confucius
Do you want to know my biggest fear?
I’ve just come out of the closet, my parents have rejected me, and I am terrified, really, really terrified, because I’m completely alone, and the pain is unbearable.
But it’s not just the rejection that terrifies me—it’s also what happens after that.
With no one to turn to, I find comfort at the bottom of a bag of chips.
Three months and thirty pounds later I’ve yet to leave the confines of my bedroom. …
What Your Anger Is Trying to Tell You and How to Hear It
“When we embrace anger and take good care of our anger, we obtain relief. We can look deeply into it and gain many insights.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh
It just took a few words from my husband before I felt my body move from calm to a boiling cauldron of rage. My whole being was alight, in flames. Energy felt like it was moving through me and shattering everything inside me.
I hated it. Anger is so intense, and so big, that most of us can’t bear to feel it in our bodies.
I wanted to do a lot of …
When It’s Time to Stop Helping Others and Help Ourselves
“Do your best and be okay with that.” ~Ursula Wharton
Late one evening I was doing some work at the last minute when my phone buzzed with a text from Alex, my neighbor’s boyfriend. He said he was rushing over and then I saw, “Chris is trying to kill herself. You gotta get in there and stop her.”
I felt sick to my stomach. I stood up too fast from my chair and dropped my phone onto the ugly grey carpet beneath my bare feet. I rushed to Chris’s apartment, which was right next to mine.
Thankfully, the door was …
The Simplest Ways to Find Calm in the Middle of Life’s Constant Chaos
“When you are resting because you are worn out, you need to remember that you are not wasting time. You are doing exactly what you need to do. You are recovering.” ~Unknown
I woke up at 3am when I heard my alarm ring. I slowly pulled my arm away from my son, who was half holding my arm and half lying on it, so that he didn’t wake up. I tip-toed out of bed while my husband and my son were sleeping.
My eyes ached and were blurry from sleep deprivation. My head felt like I was floating in …
How I Broke My Stress Eating Habit When Nothing Else Worked
“The pain seems so much more difficult than the cookies. But it’s not. The pain covered in cookies becomes pain covered in fat covered in more pain.” ~Brooke Castillo
Do you ever eat when you’re stressed, sad, tired, alone?
Bag of chips after a hard day?
Ordering the take-out when your partner’s away?
I did.
Seven years ago, my newborn baby cried every evening.
I’d feed her, change her, and blow raspberries on her neck. Still, she screamed—like a smoke alarm you couldn’t stop.
I tried singing to her, burping her, begging her…
I felt useless, desperate.
In my journalism …
Lessons and Gifts from Grief: What I Learned After Losing My Baby
Today marks the twenty-year anniversary of when I lost my first baby.
I was, at the time, happily married and we were excited to start our family. My pregnancy was planned, wanted, and blissful. I was six months along. I was showing, and the baby was kicking vigorously. We had just moved into a wonderful house only a few blocks from my parents. Everything was absolutely golden.
It took me a little while to find an OB-GYN in the area, so I was about a month late for my baseline ultrasound. We were very excited to get a clear view …
How I Find the Courage to Keep Jumping (Even Though the Net Never Catches Me)
“The future never comes. Life is always now.” ~Eckhart Tolle
“Jump, and the net will catch you.” “Leap, and the net will appear.”
This piece of writing is to make a case for the following argument: there is NO net.
Before I put forward my reasoning, please bear with me for a moment while my ego rattles off the times I have jumped (but the net never appeared).
- I quit my well-paid marketing role and traveled across the world to pursue a humanitarian dream job. I failed at the job interview and was jobless and in despair in a foreign
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. 