People are stressed out; it doesn’t look like things are getting better anytime soon. Money and economics are the leading cause of stress. In fact, the stress and anxiety we’re facing is growing into a national health crisis. Americans are one of the most stressed out in the world, according to Stress.org 55% of Americans…

There are days when life overwhelms you with a flood of emotions. Remorse, bitterness, frustration, helplessness, guilt, shame, and other feelings can take you to a very dark place really fast.  Insecurity and uncertainty rise within your soul, giving way to feelings of hopelessness and fear, causing you to feel a special kind of “aloneness.” …

Is your opinion of yourself high, low, or somewhere in between?  What beliefs about yourself have you accepted or convinced yourself are true? Your opinion of yourself and your place in the world is a self-determining prophecy that affects your happiness, success, and relationships.   Your beliefs about yourself affect everything you do and can even…

Do you ever feel like life is rushing past you? Or are you so distracted by a million different things competing for your attention that you miss what’s happening around you?  When was the last time you gifted yourself a few minutes just to enjoy nature? The warm, nurturing glow of the sun as it…

There are over two billion Google searches for “happiness” and over four billion for “I want to be happy.” You can decide what that means if it means anything.  According to Merriam-Webster, happiness ranges from a state of well-being and contentment to a pleasurable or satisfying experience. No wonder there’s a relentless pursuit of happiness….

Life is filled with opportunities that we overlook or miss (remember when Netflix stock traded for less than $10 a share?). Failure is one of the easiest sources of opportunity we miss.   We look so long and hard at obstacles and what we lost that we fail to see the opportunities failure creates. We achieve…

You’re alive and have breath in your lungs because of two other human beings who, either intentionally or not so intentionally, made it possible for you to have the gift of life. Now, I’m not sure how you feel about your roots and how you got here. Maybe your story is cheery and optimistic because…

Whoever said, “Old habits die hard,” wasn’t wrong. We all go through seasons of life when we want to change certain things about ourselves and live a better life. We want to eat better, exercise more, procrastinate less, work less, worry less, have more passion and excitement, be more spiritual, or simply drink more water…

What are some things you’re relying on willpower to help you do or avoid today? Willpower. It’s an interesting word and an even more interesting concept. According to Merriam Webster, willpower is “the ability to control one’s own actions, emotions, or urges.” The Cambridge dictionary says it like this: “the ability to control your own thoughts and the way in which you behave”…

Life isn’t always easy. Okay… it’s hardly ever easy.  It’s easy to avoid dealing with painful and uncomfortable thoughts and feelings. We procrastinate by overanalyzing, rethinking, over-thinking, second-guessing, or falling into passive-aggressive behaviors. These are a few common coping mechanisms we use to avoid facing problems that we know we’ll have to face sooner or…

Is it really such a bad thing to be shy? Shyness used to be seen negatively as an unpleasant emotional state related to loneliness or social anxiety, a perspective that is being questioned. If you consider yourself shy, you’re not alone because about 40 to 60 percent of all adults consider themselves shy, according to…

Don’t underestimate the power and strength of being compassionate. Just because a person is compassionate doesn’t mean they’re soft or weak. Compassionate people are confident, resilient, and even fearless.   Here are a few habits and qualities of genuinely compassionate people.  They Don’t Take Things Personally Compassionate people know that life happens, and people make mistakes;…