Being assigned a day of honor on a calendar, like so many well-intentioned things a Mother endures, can become a gauntlet of emotions for women who didn’t carry to term, who relinquished their child at birth, who were judged as unfit, who lost a child, who are no longer the guardian, or who are...
Though these two emotions get a bad rap in our modern world, the healthful upside of Desire and Pride is essential to building our Well Being. Hardly anyone grows up in modern society with a clear, clean understanding of the role Desire and Pride play in building an excellent life. Let’s begin to change...
Want to be a grownup? Learning the difference between Shame and Guilt is a first step. Being able to name your emotion as you experience it and managing your emotions as they flow through you are two of the six steps of being an emotionally mature person. In other words, doing this work is...
Our mindset is key to managing hard emotions. The old saying is absolutely true, that it is not what happens to us in life but what we do with it. For every person still suffering from something “unforgivable” that was done to them, someone else experienced a similar fate and handled it more effectively. We...
Not everyone who grew older grew up, but you can. Being “grown up” is an accumulation of skills, habits, and character traits. Some people get there faster and more easily than others, but no worries, this isn’t a race. We do, however, progress more swiftly if we look to do our personal best as...
The Saga of Domestication We came into this world without words, only senses and intense needs. From these, we formed mild to strong opinions, which were expressed with facial expressions and body language. We smiled or howled, reached out or withdrew. Our vulnerable being was entrusted to the care of grown people who had...
Have you ever thought “I could just kick myself!” in response to your behavior under stress? If that question made you wince or laugh in recognition, you were probably, at that time, in the midst of what I’m calling a “Wild Thing” reaction. In Jane Nelsen’s especially relevant book, Positive Discipline, she refers to...
Your soul is thirsty for well-being. The true goal of our lives is to gain the experience of inner peace that exists despite external circumstances from the past, present, or future. Once it’s yours, it promotes right relationships with all things and fellow beings. The pure experience of this way of being transforms the...
Let’s jettison three toxic things in this fresh decade: Shame, Blame, and Cynicism. These are lead weights in our soul’s backpack that will fatigue us and may prevent us from reaching our dreams. Shame is the only emotional state that has no redeeming value. Please note, it is inferior to guilt, which leads to taking responsibility and...
As our nation’s children head out the door to experience the wonders of another year of educational value added to their lives, let’s join them and refine our skills and outlook to provide 5 potent resources to them throughout this new year. Individuation is the Workout Our main job in life is to become...