Posts tagged with “Happiness”
4 Things I’d Say to My Anxiety-Filled Younger Self
“I vow to let go of all worries and anxiety in order to be light and free.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh
As I sit here writing this, I’m just a couple of days away from my twenty-eighth birthday.
It’s been a whole decade since an introverted, shy version of me turned eighteen years old and entered into the realms of what many people consider to be “adult age.”
Back then, anxiety, specifically social anxiety, plagued me.
At the time, however, I’d never even heard of anxiety, let alone considered that I may be suffering with this thing that could be …
How to Improve Your Work/Life Balance and Reclaim Your Time
“You will never feel truly satisfied by work until you are satisfied by life.” ~Heather Schuck
When I was two years old, my parents got divorced.
In other words, I’ve never seen my biological parents spending loving time with each other. I never had the chance to experience the small things most children take for granted.
For example…
- I don’t remember my mom and dad ever sharing a loving kiss after a long day at work
- I don’t remember ever having both parents around to tuck me in at night
- And I never overheard simple “how was your day?”
What to Do When Your Partner Won’t Work on Your Relationship
“It takes two to manage the relationship, but it takes one to begin the change.” ~Sheri E. Ragland
So, your significant other doesn’t understand you. In fact you’re not even sure if they hear you. Despite trying to talk about things or take a break from each other, you end up arguing about the same thing over and over again.
You try this and you try that. You back away, you move in. You break up, you get back together. You try everything you can think of, and nothing is working, but you don’t want to end the relationship.…
You Have the Right to Feel Safe in Your Relationships (Even with Your Family)
“Anger is a signal, and one worth listening to[…]  It exists for a reason and always deserves our respect and attention.”  ~Harriet G. Lerner, The Dance of Anger
My journey to authentic safety began, at long last, with my discovery of my own anger.
Anger is my least favorite emotion. I don’t even particularly like its cousins—annoyance, irritation, frustration.
The moment that cemented my profound dislike occurred when I was a teenager.
I had tucked myself away in a corner of the house—in the dark den where my family kept the computer. (Just a word processor—this was in the dark …
How to Stop Worrying: 5 Things to Try When Nothing Else Works
“I’ve been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.” ~Mark Twain
If you’re like me—a worry prodigy from a young age—you hate when people say, “Don’t worry about it.” As if it were so easy, as if I hadn’t already tried.
I’ve used many of the tips and tricks out there. Some of them helped for a while, but few did much for long.
The trouble is, most of the advice out there only addresses the symptoms of worry. It’s like taking cherry-flavored cough syrup when you have bronchitis: tempting, and probably the most …
5 Things You Need to Tell Yourself After a Painful Breakup
Have you ever experienced a breakup or divorce but still loved the other person you were saying goodbye to?
I met my ex-girlfriend on a rooftop in Istanbul. I had just sold everything I owned to travel the world, and she was a tour leader in Asia.
She was everything I had been searching for: beautiful, confident, and funny. I followed her to India and China. She followed me to Australia. When the money and visas ran out, we moved back to Canada, found an apartment, got a cat, and shared a strong, healthy relationship for over five years.
And …
5 Easy, Natural Ways to Reduce Stress
“It’s all about finding the calm in the chaos.” ~Donna Karan
Like my grandfather, I have always been a weather geek. I check the weather news daily and, for as long as I can remember, thunderstorms, warm/cold fronts, and clouds have fascinated me.
Close friends of mine will be the first to tell you that I have the bad habit of stopping someone mid-sentence to point out cirrus clouds, or a storm on the horizon.
But it’s more than just a nerdy interest. Looking at thunderstorms and clouds has always had a calming effect on me.
A few years ago …
Life Is a Cycle of Happiness, Sadness, Clarity, and Confusion
“Life is a cycle, always in motion. If good times have moved on, so will times of trouble.” ~Indian Proverb
Two years ago I went on a volunteer trip to Vietnam, where I had hoped to find both myself and my purpose (ambitious), but instead found a rocky adventure that continues to teach me things to this day.
I was in the middle of a difficult time that was secretly a rebirth. It’s always hard to see that when it’s happening, isn’t it?
For a few amazing months, everything made crystal clear sense, and I felt like I could …
Healing After an Affair: How to Get Through the Pain of Infidelity
“I will breathe. I will think of solutions, I will not let my worry control me. I will not let my stress level break me. I will simply breathe. And it will be okay. Because I don’t quit.” ~Shayne McClendon
It was a Wednesday afternoon in late July, and I felt like my entire world was coming to an end. My husband of almost eleven years had become distant, and during a phone call on my lunch break he told me he couldn’t do this anymore. That evening he told me he no longer loved me and wanted a divorce…
Healing from Depression: It Begins With Asking for Help
“I speak of a clinical depression that is the background of your entire life, a background of anguish and anxiety, a sense that nothing goes well, that pleasure is unavailable and all your strategies collapse.” ~Leonard Cohen
Right before my eighteenth birthday, when I was about to go to university, I was hit by a car and sustained multiple fractures to my right leg. This led to a couple of operations and the best part of ten months with me unable to walk.
While all of my school friends and peers were having the time of their lives in …
One Simple Word That Can Change Your Life (And No, It’s Not “Thanks”)
“It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.” ~Epictetus
About nine years back I was at the lowest point of my life.
We had been trying to start a family for close to four years by that point.
The forty-plus consecutive months of “not pregnant” verdict were starting to take their toll on me. That second line on the pregnancy test strip seemed like it would never appear. Life felt like it was a never-ending cycle of false hope that was always crushed in the end.
I wouldn’t wish that kind of despair on …
3 Ways We Unconsciously Sabotage Our Relationships (And How to Stop)
“Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don’t know how to replenish its source.” ~Anaïs Nin
As a long-time commitment-phobe, my love life has been somewhat inconsistent, to say the least, but this year it seemed I’d finally met someone I was ready and able to think about building a future with. Still, along with this feeling of hope came some challenges that I had never experienced before in a relationship. (And yes, it did occur to me that maybe these two things went together!)
I knew I loved my partner, but we often seemed to argue …
A Small Good Thing: A Documentary on Simple Sources of Happiness
We live in a world that encourages the pursuit of happiness, which it seems we’ve collectively defined as “more.” We chase more money, more recognition, more stuff, more connections (and often, more followers and “likes”). If it’s quantifiable, and sometimes even when it isn’t, there’s no such thing as enough.
Given that you’re here, visiting a website that promotes simplicity and appreciation for the little things, it’s possible you haven’t fallen into this trap. Or perhaps, like me, you have, and that’s why you now recognize that less is often more.
Given my own experience chasing things that inevitably led …
How We Can Stop Judging Others and Ourselves
“There is no path to peace. Peace is the path.” ~Mahatma Gandhi
We live in a world of ticker headlines, 24/7 news, and constantly updating Instagram and Facebook feeds. We are constantly making snap-decision judgment calls, categorizing what we see into “good,” “bad,” or “unimportant.”
In a second, we can see an image and believe we have all we need to form a fully realized opinion.
It’s in our biological wiring to judge everything we see—it’s how we have survived for generations upon generations. We are in a constant state of scanning our environment for threats and attempting to efficiently …
A Daily Self-Care Ritual for Anyone Who Feels Lost in Life
“When you recover or discover something that nourishes your soul and brings joy, care enough about yourself to make room for it in your life.” ~Jean Shinoda Bolen
We all get lost sometimes.
So lost that we lose track of who we are, where we’re going, what we want, and how to give ourselves what we need to feel nourished and healthy.
I’ve been there many times, enough times to realize that it’s an inevitable part of life, to realize that it’s okay to get lost.
The triggers? They’re never predictable.
Some are subtle and prolonged; some are brief but …
How Letting Go of Your Goals Can Make You a Happier Person
“No valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.” ~Alan Watts
When I started kicking chairs at work, I knew things had gone too far.
I didn’t kick things when other people were around, and I thought it was the perfect way to release my anger. I could lash out with as much fury as I wanted, but I didn’t hurt anyone.
Why did I start kicking chairs? I’ll explain in a minute. But the truth was, I was hiding a bigger problem: I’ve spent much of my life …
7 Lessons to Remember When Life Seems to Suck
“I’m grateful for past betrayals, heartaches, and challenges… I thought they were breaking me; but they were sculpting me.” ~Steve Maraboli
I winced in pain as I climbed off the elliptical. This was one of the few times that I had ever set foot into a gym. And it was out of necessity rather than choice.
That necessity came from chronic lower back and leg pain, which I had been living with for the better part of six months. At the time, I didn’t know it would end up being just chronic, idiopathic pain.
All I knew was that it …
Dealing with Rejection: It Doesn’t Mean That You’re Not Good Enough
“The best way out is always through” ~Robert Frost
I was trembling as I hung up the phone. He’d dumped me.
It was as if, while I was watching a murder mystery at the edge of my seat, the electricity had gone out. Poof! I wasn’t going to get to see the end of the movie, and I had no control over when the lights would come back on.
I felt the fangs of rejection sink into my heart like a merciless tarantula. My mind, which is normally going 500 miles an hour, came to a halt. Suddenly I felt …
Does Your Partner Often Get Angry and Shut Down Emotionally?
“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” ~Carl Jung
Three years ago I was on top of the world after realizing I had fallen in love with my best friend. Relationships this rare are beautiful, until one vital piece of them breaks down: clear communication.
Although I didn’t know it at the time, when my ex and I came together as a couple, rather than being in love, we were both just mirroring each other’s deep unconscious pain; his mother had walked out on him at a young age, and …
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