Posts tagged with “Happiness”
3 Causes of Self-Doubt and How to Conquer It for Good
“Each time we face our fear, we gain strength, courage, and confidence in the doing.” ~Unknown
Self-doubt and I are old friends. We go way back, to early childhood.
Now, if you ask me, I will honestly tell you that I had quite an idyllic childhood in a loving home.
My parents raised us—my brother and me—to trust in our abilities and aim for the stars. They held me when I failed or fell flat on my face, which I did quite often, encouraging me to stand up and keep walking again. And yes, self-doubt still made its way into …
5 Common Mistakes People Make on Their Spiritual Journey
“I still have a long way to go, but I’m already so far from where I used to be, and I’m proud of that.” ~Unknown
Just like any student, I’ve made mistakes throughout my spiritual journey. Although I prefer to see mistakes as learning opportunities, below are a few things I’ve learned not to do through my years of meditation and detox weekends and constant effort to stay on the divine side of life.
1. Constantly looking for answers externally
When I started meditating regularly, I experienced heightened intuition. Triggered by this, I constantly tried to find signs to guide …
How to Break the Bad Habits That Hold You Back in Life
“You’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success if found in your daily routine.” ~John C. Maxwell
We all have bad habits. The problem is that many of our habits are so deeply ingrained that we don’t even notice them anymore. If we do, we make excuses to hang onto them.
If you’ve tried to change your habits to no avail, maybe it’s time to try something different. The steps below will help you succeed.
1. Become aware of the status quo.
Does this sound familiar? You set your mind to …
How Your Ego Thrives on Fear and Keeps You Panicked
“The ego is the false self—born out of fear and defensiveness.” ~John O’Donohue
“The soul is like a wild animal—tough, resilient, savvy, self-sufficient, and yet exceedingly shy.” ~Parker Palmer
Does it sometimes seem like the world is just a little too much for you? Do you feel that you need to protect yourself from the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune? (Thank you, Hamlet.) Are you a fragile flower being buffeted by life’s storms?
Then I think you’ve been listening to your ego too much. I understand all of those feelings very well, but I’ve recently discovered something life-changing…
The First Steps Toward Creating a Life You Love
“My goal is to build a life I don’t need a vacation from.” ~Rob Hill Sr.
The other day I had an interesting conversation with a friend, who asked me the question “Who is the happiest person you know?”
Ask yourself this question now. It’s difficult to answer, isn’t it?
There are certainly people around me who seem to be happy, but the happiest person I know? I couldn’t easily come up with an answer.
The conversation with my friend proceeded with him saying, “You seem happy, but it’s so easy for you; you live in Cornwall by the sea, …
How Gratitude Shifts Your Perspective When Things Go Wrong
“Gratitude turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity…it makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” ~Melody Beattie
Yesterday, while praying in the Ganges River, my purse got stolen.
Standing in The Holy River Ganges, praying up to my neck in her healing waters, the outside world felt as if it had stopped.
The feeling of happiness to be back in Rishikesh was so strong it bordered on invincible. Instant immersion into the healing waters of Maa Ganga was the only …
Ask Why: How to Motivate Yourself to Keep Going When Things Get Hard
“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” ~Friedrich Nietzsche
My father was an amazing man. I’m sure most sons think that about their fathers, but it’s a belief held by more than just myself. I’m not saying he was a great father, but he was a great man.
He was a Vietnam veteran, a carpenter, and a social paragon in the small town I grew up in. Our neighbors declared him the “Mayor of Bluebank” (the road he lived on.) His funeral was one of the most attended events that our small town in …
How Listening to Depression Can Help Us Overcome It
“These pains you feel are messengers. Listen to them.” ~Rumi
My first diagnosis of depression came at the age of fifteen. Depression runs in my family; it wasn’t a case of overmedicating. It was genuine, and the black dog has followed me all my life.
I’ve been on eight different antidepressants and a handful of anti-anxiety drugs. I’ve been in and out of therapist offices and hospitals for most of my life, and I expect that I’ll continue to do so.
My mindset (and that of my family and doctors) was that depression is an adversary to be defeated. If …
Love Is In the Little Things
“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” ~Robert Brault
Valentine’s Day has never been a big deal to me. It always felt commercialized, so forced. I’ve never felt I needed Hallmark to remind me to do something special for my husband, or vice versa.
This certainly isn’t a reflection of how we felt about, treated, or appreciated one another; it just wasn’t a priority to us.
In our more than seventeen years together, some years I would receive a card, flowers, or chocolates, but other years it would …
Your Anger is a Guide: Embrace It and Set Yourself Free
“Where there is anger there is always pain underneath.” ~Eckhart Tolle
In the sixth year of marriage, my husband shocked me by telling me that he had decided on an open marriage. This would give him permission to do what he was already doing, having an affair.
In one of my rare times of anger I argued and struggled with him. I can still see myself hitting him in the chest as he tried to put his arms around me to reassure me of his love.
As he defended his position, he reminded me that I wasn’t being rational. I …
East vs. West: Major Cultural Differences That Impact Our Happiness
“The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.” ~John Milton
I’ve been living in Asia for over a year now, spending six months each in Nepal and Vietnam, with a bit of traveling around India and Sri Lanka in the middle. I wanted to put pen to paper on what strikes me as a few of the major cultural differences between the East and the West. I can see things that each side could do with a bit more of. But here I’m going to concentrate on what I’ve …
Healing from Childhood Abuse: Get Help and Take Your Life Back
TRIGGER WARNING:Â This post deals with an account of sexual abuse and may be triggering to some people.
“No one loses their innocence. It is either taken or given away willingly.” ~Tiffany Madison
Childhood innocence. When I think of it I always picture a baby lying on their back, playing with their feet. They are laughing, cooing, smiling, and lost in a sense of wonder. Full of joy, love, curiosity, and awe. When you look at them you can’t help but smile, and their joy and laughter are infectious. At this moment, they are perfect.
Now have all that taken …
How Defensive Pessimism Can Help Ease Your Worries
“Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today of its strength.” ~Corrie Ten Boom
You know if you’re a worrier.
You worry about all kinds of negative things happening, without any evidence that they’re likely to happen.
I’m a recovering worrier.
It’s only been in the last few years that I’ve become conscious of the extent of my worry and the impact it has on me, and of how ineffective it is.
My worry paralyzes me, making it hard to think, plan, or act.
But, as anyone who is prone to worry knows, worry can feel …
You Never Know How Much Time You Have, So Forgive While You Can
“Forgiveness is to set a prisoner free and discover the prisoner was you.” ~Corrie ten Boom
I sat next to my stepmother Elaine in her hospital room. I was thirteen. We’d met six years prior as she took a stepmother’s role and had a strained relationship and didn’t speak to each other for parts of it.
Elaine was facing terminal brain cancer. So far she had kept herself together and composed, remaining strong on the outside. I was trying my hardest to do the same for her.
It had all started back when I was seven and my dad took …
What to Do When Someone You Love Is Sick and Struggling
“Love is not what you say. Love is what you do.” ~Unknown
As a graduate student in public health, I spent my days talking about illness and death. Normal lunchtime conversations among students covered topics like: how to define a case of multiple sclerosis, the most effective strategy to stop HIV transmission among injection drug users, and the probability you’d be alive in five years after a breast cancer diagnosis.
None of this talk about illness remotely prepared me for the experience of illness. I was blissfully naive when I started dating a man named Evan with a cough …
How to Tame Your Inner Critic: A Simple Habit to Rewire Your Brain
“I acknowledge my own worth. My confidence is growing.” ~Unknown
Sometimes I feel like a spider whose web is repeatedly torn down. I plan something and start taking action. Then life happens, and setbacks threaten to sap my energy and enthusiasm.
Whenever I take on too much, I can feel as if I’m juggling a million balls. And doing it badly.
You’ve probably seen T-shirts saying, “Things are a bit crazy around here.” That could easily describe me when I allow myself to become overloaded.
It’s easy to feel stressed and to slip into harsh self-criticism. Especially when I hold …
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