Until today, I’ve never loved the word compassion. Is that harsh? Let me ask you this: what does compassion mean to you? For me, it’s always had an undercurrent of sympathy, pity, of understanding and relating to someone else’s (or one’s own) pain. It’s also meant to convey love, yet so often it seems to […]
Yesterday, we talked about the fact that most people strive to get others to love them. Happier people know it feels even better to give love than to receive — for them, every day can be a Valentine’s Day. Love Week is all about finding reasons to flow love to others — even if you […]
“‘I was an aspiring astrophysicist and that’s how I defined myself, not by my skin color…’” — Neil deGrasse Tyson in Parade Magazine today. It’s so freeing to stop viewing yourself through other-people’s-eyes. Too often, we allow ourselves to be defined by other people’s opinions — by what they think about our behavior, our performance, […]
There are times when it doesn’t feel as if I have control of my thoughts– it’s more like my thoughts are the inmates running the asylum. That’s when I remind myself that the only thing that imprisons us is our own thinking. And when I remember that I control what matters most — my own […]
Even though I know better, it’s easy to forget that where I put my attention is a choice. My choice. Sometimes I get caught in the trap of feeling stressed and I keep thinking about the stressful thing… I may even talk about it, which keeps it front and center…. and it’s like a whirlpool, […]
You may have heard people say, “you’re only as happy as your unhappiest child…” I try to remind myself: that’s only true when I choose to let it be. I try to remember this when my child is going through a tough time. It can feel more painful to see her suffer than to […]
People — students, recent graduates, parents, adults– are always talking to me about finding their “path.” The notion being that if they can just figure out all the elements of what they’re good at, what careers they’re suited to, and where they can earn the living they want, they’ll discover the path they should walk […]