Life throws difficulties at us daily, sometimes hourly. When we face these difficulties it often seems as if a switch gets flipped, and we have a hard time coping.   Dr. Russ Harris, author of the Happiness Trap, calls this the Struggle Switch.   As soon as an uncomfortable emotion, painful feeling, or hurtful memory pops up in our mind...[ read more ]

I was reading this poem the other day, and I believe it has significant applications for helping us to live a more peaceful and happier life. The poet uses "God" throughout the poem. Feel free to substitute whatever makes sense to you: whatever faith you practice, fate, the universe, etc. I think the message remains the same. TRIPPING OVER JOY...[ read more ]

Imagine walking along a sidewalk with your arms full of groceries, and someone roughly bumps into you so that you fall and your groceries are strewn over the ground. As you rise up from the puddle of broken eggs and tomato juice, you are ready to shout out, 'You idiot! What's wrong with you? Are you blind?' But just before...[ read more ]

Melanie Curtin (a writer for inc.com) wrote a beautiful article about how meditation can help us to reshape our brains (check out the full article here). In this article she shared the findings of Sara Lazar, a neuroscientist at Mass General and Harvard Medical School. The findings of Sara's work is astonishing. She discovered that people who meditate "had more...[ read more ]

Many men and women feel scared to start couples counseling. The root of this fear is often in the assumption that “I will be blamed for all the problems in our relationships”. Or, even worse, my partner and therapist together will unite against me. Fears like this keep couples from taking actions. John Gottman's research found that in the United...[ read more ]

  What is the secret of a successful relationship? How can you maintain a long-term relationship and feel heard and fulfilled? If you are asking yourself these questions, it is probably because your relationship is that important to you. Do you feel like sometimes you are caught in some sort of a cycle, where you are struggling to be heard...[ read more ]

Happy New Year!  As we journey through the month of January, there are countless people talking about New Year's Resolutions, a word of the year, goals for 2020, etc.  And those things are all great and if they work for you, that's fantastic!  Today, however, I would like to share with you a slightly different twist on the concept of...[ read more ]

The man, who, being really on the Way, falls upon hard times in the world will not, as a consequence, turn to that friend who offers him refuge and comfort and encourages his old self to survive. Rather, he will seek out someone who will faithfully and inexorably help him to risk himself, so that he may endure the suffering...[ read more ]

Sometimes you think, “I am not enough”. Or “something is wrong with me”. You feel like you wanted to react differently in certain situations but this is not what happens. You feel a mental block that throws you into a “freak out mode”, often when it is the most inappropriate, and then you just feel stuck. Traumas are powerful. It...[ read more ]

Dear friend! It seems at times like no one really gets it, doesn't it? It seems like you are alone in this. It also seems like it will never get better. It feels so exhausting that you feel tired all the time. No energy left. Just pain that seems will never go away. You are starting to guess that you...[ read more ]