Posts tagged with “wisdom”
How to Overcome Envy So It Doesn’t Poison Your Relationships
“Enjoy your own life without comparing it with that of another.” ~Marquis de Condorc
I struggled to offer a tight smile to a friend who had achieved a life-changing career break.
Although I was thrilled and excited for my friend, I was sad and disappointed in myself. I, too, had worked hard and waited patiently, but unlike my friend, my work and my wait continued, unacknowledged and unrewarded.
At first I didn’t notice I had been bitten by envy. But its invisible poison infected my bloodstream, polluting my future interactions with my friend. I was guarded, afraid of being hurt …
3 Questions To Ask Yourself Before You Enter A Relationship
“Love does not obey our expectations; it obeys our intentions.” ~Lloyd Strom
Recently, I did something radical; I entered into a relationship with the intention of extending love. I consciously set the goal of peace.
It’s with the intention to experience more peace than ever before that the relationship began, and it’s with that same intention that we decided to end the relationship. In between it all, I felt deeply connected, heard, and loved.
What did I do differently this time that allowed me to experience a new level of peace and love? What about this relationship created the …
Getting Unstuck: Work Through Fear and Change Your Life
“When you become comfortable with uncertainty, infinite possibilities open up in your life.” ~Eckhart Tolle
We’ve all been there. Feeling stuck is very distressing, and it can often make a situation feel even more difficult than it already appears to be.
Many of us may have felt trapped in a job, a relationship, a place; any unfavourable situation, really, that we see little way out of can leave us feeling deeply discouraged.
The uncertainty of it all becomes overwhelming and, over time, paralyzing.
I have felt the frustration, the sadness, and the hopelessness that accompany this predicament many times.
In …
Forming Healthy Habits: 3 Tiny Choices That Create Huge Change
“It is better to make many small steps in the right direction than to make a great leap forward only to stumble backward.” ~Proverb
Seven years ago I was a sedentary, over-caffeinated, unmindful, somewhat neurotic meat-eater with a bit of a drinking problem. My meals came out of boxes with chemical compounds for ingredients and had little in the way of anything that grew outside or came from a field.
I made excuses for not exercising, but in reality I was so insecure that I didn’t think I was strong enough to be athletic. I was afraid of making an …
How to Move On When You’re Hurt and Waiting for Closure
“Letting go gives us freedom and freedom is the only condition for happiness.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh
Ah, closure. That feeling of vindication, or a sense of completion—it can be very enticing!
There are times when seeking resolution is really important. If we are having an argument with our partner, settling it can help strengthen our relationship. If we are having a disagreement over a contract, determining the outcome may be required to continue with the project at hand.
In these types of situations, seeking resolution is very relevant.
That said, there are loads of situations that occur in life …
Why Bad Things Happen to Good People: How Is This Supporting You?
“This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival… Be grateful for whatever comes. Because each has been sent
 as a guide from beyond.” ~Rumi
Yesterday my boyfriend’s father told me that he doesn’t believe that everything happens for a reason. He explained, “Where I can’t get on board is, if that’s true, then why do bad things happen to good people?”
It touches close to home for their entire family because not only does one of their sons’ girlfriends have a rare and terminal form of cancer, she met their son because he successfully removed a …
3 Ways to Be Kind and Make Someone’s Day
“The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.” ~Oscar Wilde
It’s the small, everyday things that can make or break a day for us.
While we celebrate the role models who inspire thousands (in person or on Facebook!), for most of us everyday moments—a stranger jostling us in the shops, a driver cutting us up at a light, someone pushing in front of us in line at the post office—can upset us out of all proportion.
But the flip side is that we can also be disproportionately pleased by the small actions of a stranger.
On …
4 Questions to Ask Yourself When You’re Unhappy with Your Work
“What you do today is important, because you are exchanging a day of your life for it.” ~Unknown
In my working lifetime, I have been the poster child for seeking work-life balance. I have spent hundreds of hours curled into complex yoga asanas, breathing into the resistance and unexpected openness.
I have meditated sincerely, flowering into a quieter mind. Add to that a happy, growing relationship, stable social connections, and purposefully cultivated hobbies, and you would think that I go humming and beaming to work each morning.
The startling truth is that for every minute that I have spent …
Life Happens When You Listen: Let Yourself Learn from the Moment
“Tell me to what you pay attention and I will tell you who you are.” ~Jose Ortega y Gasset
Something magical and wonderful happened to me over Christmas. For the first time in my life I was able to make sense out of a string of seemingly random events that made no sense at all, that is, until I bothered to stop, listen, and check in with my heart.
My family and I were staying in a hotel in Brisbane, Australia, for three nights over the Christmas period. It was a special Christmas this year because it was my big …
How to Find Clarity When You’re Confused About What to Do
“Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself.” ~CiceroÂ
You know that state of confusion where you feel really unsure about what to do—you’re talking about it with all of your friends, making lists, weighing options, lying awake all night?
As confused and unsure as you may feel in those moments, you’re not. You have much more clarity than you think.
Re-read that last line again. You have a lot more clarity than you think. You see, clarity is what you are. It’s what you’re born with, it’s your true nature, and it’s what is always there underneath the …
How Stepping Outside Your Comfort Zone Can Help Reduce Anxiety
“What you do today can improve all your tomorrows.” ~Ralph Marston
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been an anxious person. My grandfather died when I was four years old and some of my earliest memories consist of panic attacks whenever I was left alone. In my mind, I had to keep my loved ones in sight at all times, so there would be no chance of them disappearing, just as my grandpa did. Â
From that point on, I slowly began to overcome my fears of separation from family. However, new anxieties began to take its place. Whether …
6 Ways Your Mind Tries to Control Your Life
“I know but one freedom and that is the freedom of the mind.” ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Our mind is a funny thing. On the one hand, it’s awesome. But on the other, it can pulverize us more quickly and ruthlessly than anything else.
Our mind is inherently scared. That’s its job, to be cautious—to keep us alive, to have us cross roads safely and not get eaten by a lion. But left unchecked, it can become paralyzed with fear and meaner than a cornered crocodile.
And it’s incredibly bossy.
The mind’s tendency to want to control is so strong …
Identity Crisis: When You Aren’t Sure Who You Are or How You Fit In
“Waking up to who you are requires letting go of who you imagine yourself to be.” ~Alan Watts
In another life, not too long ago, I was an actress.
I fell into acting when a catalogue showed up on my doorstep for UCLA Extension summer classes, and in my boredom I started flipping through it to see what was on offer. For whatever reason (synchronicity? my intuition?), the Acting 101 class jumped out at me, and something in me said yes.
At the time, I was living in West Los Angeles, only a few years out of college after graduating …
6 Lessons from Nature on Living a Peaceful, Fulfilling Life
“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” ~Lao Tzu
Five years ago, I was feeling really stressed (like millions of other people in the world). I was working full time in a job that was draining me of every single ounce of energy I had.
I had nothing left to give to myself or those I loved at the end of each working day; life had turned into an incessant cycle of getting up, going to work, coming home, working, and going to bed.
During this time, I read about so many people who were also unhappy with …
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