7 Reasons & 5 Ways to Get Out of Your Bubble
We humans sure like our bubbles. Not the bath or blowing varieties, but the psychological, emotional, social, and physical spaces that we create to feel safe and protected. Bubbles are actually an evolutionary thing that initially developed as a means of increasing our chance of survival. As we have evolved, there were five feelings that […]
Read More8 Steps to Making Peace with Your Past Self
At one level, I’m always amazed at how so many of us allow their past selves to have such a big impact on who they are now and how they think, feel, and engage with their world in adulthood. At another level, I’m not the least bit surprised because our childhood experiences that shape our […]
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Five Ways to Live a Balanced Life
There’s no doubt that living a balanced life is one of those highly coveted goals to which we all aspire, along with happiness, inner peace, and love. Yet, in this day and age, balance is also more difficult than ever to achieve. Between career, family, self-care, technology, and everything else in our busy lives, it […]
Read More10 “Bad Roads” We All Take (and How to Take the Good Road)
Here’s a question for you: Would you rather take the bad road or the good road? The answer is rhetorical and self-evident. Here’s another question: How frequently do you take the bad road? If you’re the least bit human, your answer is probably “With more regularity than I would like.” “Fork in the road” is […]
Read More3 Essential “Selves” That Positively Propel Your Life
There are many aspects of our lives that impact the direction we go as we progress through childhood and into adulthood including parents, peers, and of course these days, social media. As members of various concentric circles of influence (i.e., family, community, popular culture), it is normal (though not necessarily healthy) to adopt the norms, […]
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5 Steps to a Meaningful, Satisfying, and Joyful Life
To what do you aspire? Who do you want to be and what kind of life do you want to lead? To be happy, successful, impactful, rich, famous, loved? We all want to find and experience that elusive “Holy Grail” that we believe will fulfill our aspirations. However, as is commonly expressed in both ancient […]
Read More9 “Alignments” for a Healthy Relationship
I always find it amazing that love relationships ever come to fruition and sustain themselves for an extended period of time. Relationships seem so complicated, particularly those of the romantic, “I’m looking for my soulmate” variety. There are so many aspects of a relationship that determine whether it works or not. And how do we […]
Read MoreFive Steps to NOT be a Victim of Your Upbringing or Culture
Let’s begin with a basic reality of life: We are all victims of our upbringing and the culture in which we grow up. We didn’t get to choose our parents, siblings, extended families, where we lived, where we went to school, the activities we participated in, or the conditions of our early lives. Rather, our […]
Read More3 Cs to Achieve Positive Life Change
An unfortunate reality of being human is that so much of the way we think, the emotions we feel, the behaviors we engage in, and the manner in which we interact with others is governed by unconscious forces of which we have little awareness or control: Primitive instincts (e.g., fight-or-flight), Emotional baggage (e.g., low self-esteem, […]
Read MoreFour Problems When Parents’ and Children’s Emotional Styles aren’t Aligned
I have seen an interesting pattern emerge over the last few years with the young (meaning typically under 25 years old) clients with whom I work. On the plus side, all are thoughtful, deep, well-liked, and nice people. They are accomplished students, athletes, and performing artists. These young people are driven by generally healthy values […]
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