Many of us walk around every day full of anxiety, not realizing that it stems from beliefs so engrained they’ve become our own personal myths. These myths develop early as teachings from our elders – lessons they believe will help us survive. Unfortunately, it turns out that while they might appear helpful, at least at [...]

It doesn’t seem to make sense, but when we desperately want relief from stress and anxiety, the thing to do is dive straight into our emotional pain. It’s so counterintuitive – we’re trying to get rid of pain, why would we jump right into it? Because: Avoiding pain means we get to keep it – [...]

Peace of mind is a constant goal…but there always seems to be something that gets in the way. I call it a bugaboo. That niggling thing – a thought, a feeling, a behavior – that just keeps getting diverting us from peace. It could be a big thing – say, an addiction, or something less [...]

Turkey isn’t the only thing to gobble today, and it’s not even the tastiest. As we celebrate the end of the fall and a bountiful harvest, the best thing on the menu is gratitude. It’s better than food for so many reasons: It’s an attitude anyone can choose at any time – no matter what’s [...]

This week I’ve come across several inspiring ideas that have fueled the inner fire. It’s the last week of unofficial summer with Labor Day just ahead, and time for the school year and the season to pick up speed. In honor of the day we celebrate work by resting, I thought I’d pause…and share some [...]

This came out of a writing exercise with one of my groups – and since it turned into an inspiring idea for changing negative thinking, I’m sharing it with you. They say bad things come in three. The oven lighter stops working, the dishwasher floods…then we’re waiting for the third thing. What’s it going to [...]

In the same way a child may repeat a grade for lack of passing the courses, each of us is given the chance to learn our life lessons over and over again, until we have mastered the proffered knowledge. Until we learn our lessons, we are not maximizing our enjoyment of life. So listen up [...]

This one is tough. How do you know if you have humility? Why is it important? Last question first: humility is crucial for self-growth because it puts the ego aside. Ego gets in our way by believing it’s perfect already (perfectly wonderful or perfectly awful, take your pick) and by resisting change. Humility is the [...]

Robin Easton is a wonderful writer and blogger (Naked in Eden), with a deep passion for nature. It turns out to be her saving grace, as she recounts in her moment of clarity below and in her new book, Naked in Eden: My Adventure and Awakening in the Australian Rainforest. After reading the book, I [...]

Kristin is a marketing and communications specialist from Canada with an interest in the environment and in personal development. I asked her about her moment of clarity, and she describes a traumatic event that initially led to despair but then became the gateway to finding joy and gratitude. How did she accomplish this? By listening [...]