Depression, Desire, Addiction: Is Meditation the Answer to Changing Your Brain?

There is no freedom in a life that is out of control. Peace may be discovered by mindful awareness practices and self-awareness that increase self-control. Brain research suggests that people can change the way they think and respond to life. According to neuropsychiatrist Daniel Amen, M.D., “You’re not stuck with the brain you’re born with….

What to Do When You Don’t Like Your Job

If financial commitments weigh on you, then job satisfaction may give way to the need for a satisfactory paycheck. Still, there are things you can do to make work life more fulfilling. This article suggests helpful techniques for managing your attitude and the potential for making career changes. Focus on being successful at whatever you…

Writing a Forgiveness Letter Can Change Your Life

Writing a forgiveness letter to someone who has hurt you can be a valuable step in resolving lingering emotional pain. When a past incident constantly replays in your head, it weighs heavily on you and your relationship with the offending person. Moreover, if you are dismissed in a face-to-face encounter, like the author of this…

Why “Having it All” Isn’t the Best Goal

Working parents wrestle with the pressure to "have it all". The constraints of a career and the needs of a family send us scrambling in so many directions that having it all often leads to having it all fall apart. Priorities should be set to reflect the seasons of our lives. Someone else will always…

Blaming Your Parents Hurts You Most

In therapy, to explain why they aren’t successful or happy, some people blame their parents. They believe their parents are responsible for the way they feel and live their lives. Perhaps their parents were emotionally cold or critical, which explains their difficulties in relationships. They may blame their lack of success academically or professionally on…

The One Question that Kills Inaction

On a journey fraught with unexpected obstacles, we can become overwhelmed, frozen in place, and feel like we can’t take another step. Life’s circumstances can do the same thing, leaving us powerless, not knowing what to do next. Robert D. Smith, author of 20,000 Days and Counting, points out that even if we feel as…

Mindfulness Meditation Benefits: 20 Reasons Why It’s Good for Your Mental and Physical Health

Mindfulness meditation has been around for thousands of years, but academic research has only recently started to give us a better understanding of why it provides so many benefits. In so many aspects of our lives, from pain and disease management, to sleep, to control of our emotions, and many others, mindfulness mediation improves our…

7 Steps to Right-Sizing the Fear of What Others Think

The author of this article claims to suffer from a condition called “Fearwot.” This is a potentially crippling condition that can interfere with decisions as small as buying shoes to ones as major as promoting her own business in front of a crowd. Fearwot is, more clearly explained, a fear of what others think. It’s…

Writing a Forgiveness Letter Can Change Your Life

Time will make emotional wounds hurt less, but, unfortunately, they take a little longer than physical pain. It isn’t uncommon for a person to mentally revisit emotionally painful events, perhaps just wondering if it still hurts, and finding that it is still a close and familiar pain. The pain brings with it, along with hurt…