People Will Try to Define You One of the realities of life is that people become comfortable with the version of us they already know. Once they have placed me in a particular category, they may expect me to remain there. If I have spent years doing one kind of work, they assume that is
You Are More Than What You Have Always Done: Knowing When to Reinvent Yourself Read More »
The Difference Between Loneliness and Solitude There is a difference between being alone and feeling lonely, and I think understanding that difference becomes increasingly important as we move through life. Two people can spend an evening alone in nearly identical circumstances and experience that time completely differently. One person may feel peaceful, free, and comfortable.
Loneliness and Solitude: Being Alone Is Not the Same as Feeling Alone Read More »
Reality Does Not Explain Itself The older I become, the more I recognize that an event and my interpretation of that event are not always the same thing. Something happens, and almost immediately my mind begins explaining it. Someone does not return my telephone call, and I wonder whether they are upset with me. A
The Space Between What Happens and What I Decide It Means Read More »
Another Nervous System Inside Us For most of my life, when I heard somebody talk about having a “gut feeling,” I understood it as a figure of speech. We say something does not sit right with us, that we have butterflies in our stomach, or that our gut is telling us not to trust a
The Second Brain: When My Gut Has Something to Say Read More »
What “Feel It to Heal It” Means I have heard the expression “You have to feel it to heal it,” and there is wisdom in those few words when they are understood carefully. Pain that is constantly avoided does not necessarily disappear simply because we refuse to look at it. Grief, disappointment, fear, anger, and
Learning to Feel Without Being Overwhelmed Read More »
When the Body Asks for Something Different There comes a time when the body begins asking us to pay attention in ways we may have ignored when we were younger. For much of life, we are encouraged to keep moving, push harder, accomplish more, and somehow find the energy to do it all again tomorrow.
Learning to Slow Down: The Wisdom of Moving at My Own Pace Read More »
What It Means to Be Mentally Free “No one is free whose mind is not like a door with a double-hinge swinging outward to release their own ideas, and inward to receive the worthy thoughts of others.” — Ralph M. Lewis gives us a powerful definition of freedom that goes far beyond politics, laws, or
The Freedom of an Open Mind Read More »
We Were Never Designed to Feel Nothing There is a difference between having emotions and allowing emotions to hijack the whole operation. I hear people say they want to become less emotional because they believe emotion makes them weak or irrational. I understand what they mean, especially when they are thinking about decisions they made
Having Emotions Is Not the Same as Letting Emotions Have You Read More »
What Is the Purpose of a Relationship? Somebody once asked a question that sounds simple but gets deeper the longer I sit with it: what am I supposed to get out of being in a relationship? I understand why somebody would ask that, especially if relationships have brought more confusion than comfort. A healthy relationship
Love Is Not Supposed to Cost Me Myself Read More »
The Fish Does Not Need Swimming Lessons I heard somebody say that God created fish to swim, and a fish does not need swimming lessons because the ability is already inside it. That simple thought stayed with me because there is something beautiful about creation functioning according to its nature. A fish enters the water
The Gift Is Already in You Read More »