“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” -Rumi Yes, it is “good” to process grief, but often in our society we are given messages such as “get over it,” “it’s time to move on,” or “don’t dwell on the past.” These messages minimize the importance of the bereavement process and when grief [...]
What is forgiveness? Forgiveness is a conscious decision to let go of feelings of anger or resentment harbored toward a person who has committed a wrong. • When forgiving, it is not necessary that one also reconciles with the offender who caused hurt or harm. It is possible to forgive someone without minimizing or denying the offense [...]
Being Different is often viewed as a bad thing. Everyone wants to fit in, right? No one wants to be identified as the one different from all the rest. This is especially the case with adolescents. As adolescents try to claim their own independence away from their families they are looking for a place to [...]
Life is all about doing. Our brains evolved to reflect this and our minds appear to have a special aptitude and liking for the construction and interpretation of stories about active agents, someone doing something meaningful. Thus Daniel Kahneman, a winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, in his bestselling book Thinking, Fast and Slow, [...]
The book Mindset The New Psychology of Success, by Carol Dweck, differentiates between two mindsets. It shows us how this matters in our own individual lives as well as in sports, business, and relationships. She explains that the view that you maintain profoundly affects the way that you lead your life. People with a fixed [...]
Most of us are often thinking about making changes in our lives. Whether big or small, change if often an inevitable part of life itself. When we desire a change, we often want to make that change RIGHT NOW and we want it to be quick and painless. The problem is that with any life [...]
Throughout our lives, we naturally develop defenses to protect ourselves from thoughts, feelings, or experiences that seem uncomfortable. For example, we might deny that an uncomfortable situation is happening because we don't want to face that discomfort. You might think of defenses as rose-colored glasses that we put on so we can try to change [...]
Do you struggle with showing up for yourself when things get hard? Do you often say yes when you mean no to avoid confrontations? Do you need others to like you in order to feel whole? Sounds like you could use some work on being your own best friend! Being our own best friend means that [...]
Strategies for managing anger are not “quick fixes” but a deep and meaningful process to use overtime to address the pain and hurt underneath anger. Often individuals feel relief from anger through rage or violence behavior, but this is just a temporary release of adrenaline which pumps us up. The irrational nature of rage and [...]
More and more in the media, we see articles focused on aging in the American public. What are the risks inherent in aging? How do we find strategies to protect our parents or ourselves as we age? What services are available for aging family members? While there are all important questions, I don't see much in the media [...]
