Active Listening
Listening is somewhat an art form, and as in music or dance, you only become proficient with practice. There are countless meanings assigned to the act of listening. You can listen with your heart, you can listen to your intuition, you can listen to mantras of religion or stories you’ve been told since childhood. What […]
Valuing Traditions in Life
With the passing of Labor Day, we are reminded of the pleasures traditions offer us. How they are a rich fabric of our lives, if we pay homage to them. Have you ever stopped for a moment and reflected on the value of your own traditions? Perhaps the grind of modern life has caused you […]
Born Again was originally published on Bridge of Life
Understanding Wellness
Emotional wellness is not emphasized in our social, professional, educational or family systems. If you think about it for a moment, wouldn’t it be great if mental health were part of the main curriculum at schools? After all this is the 21st century! And when was the last time you asked a friend or family […]
Finding Contentment
Look at each day with gratitude; it’s a new opportunity to grow into the best person that you can possibly be. Your only competition is yourself. When you allow yourself to be content with what is, and identify your personal goals to strive for, it’s a sure path to long-term success, and most importantly, happiness. […]
The Power of Loving Ourselves
With marriage equality for all now in the United States, ‘love is love’ is the new law of the land. It’s exciting to see that same-sex relationships are now recognized as legal and celebrated in our current culture— but what about self-love? Often it is believed that we can’t have successful relationships with another without […]
The Happenstance of Happiness
Happiness may be the most elusive of all ideals. We’re taught from a very young age that happy is good and sad is bad; we’re programmed to believe that without achieving ‘happiness’ we’ll be void of anything worthwhile in life. And finding it, sometimes, can feel like a tall order. First of all, how do […]
The Key of Communication
Have you ever imagined talking to someone beyond your words? Communicating through speech is our most common form of relating to each other; imagine if one day that changed. We’ve heard of being ‘telepathically connected’ to someone, usually a close friend, relative or lover, but what if everyone could take it a step beyond that? […]
The Dilemma of Overconsumption
We spend much of our lives just trying to remember what we’re ‘supposed’ to be mindful of— we’re asked to “treat people like we’d wish to be treated”; “give someone the benefit of the doubt” or even just remember to recycle. The list is long and the tasks, many times, feel arduous. Even though we […]
Can Stress Be Healthy?
When we have negative reactions to stress, it becomes unmanageable in a way that can be harmful to our bodies and minds. Stress when managed properly may actually be beneficial in your life. Stress at work, with family, and friends, even commuting can be chunked down into a series of small manageable bites. We grow […]