Mastering ChangeYou may not have asked for it, but it happens anyway. Being a human being is to be in constant conversation with change. As the Greek philosopher Heraclitus kind of said, our lives are like rivers. You never step in the same river twice. […]
Being human guarantees there will be self-improvement-worthy behaviors and characteristics surfacing in us almost from the moment we are born. As we come of age, with all the cultural encouragement to be our best selves, it’s easy to get caught up in the quest for […]
“I have lived a long life and had many troubles, most of which never happened.” Mark Twain I know what you mean, Mr. Clemens (Mark Twain being his pen name). Just like the way I am sometimes seized with certainty that I am going to […]
It used to be that people in wealthier nations were happier than those in poorer countries and that those folks from the wealthier nations got even happier over time. But starting about 20 years ago that began to change. Why this is the case isn’t […]
Is there a more complicated and conflicted relationship than the one we have with our bodies? And that’s just on the conscious level! Who knows what is going on in our subconscious. But I got a little window into that deeper realm when a friend […]
I was once involved with a person who would receive bad news with a sort of half-smile. It’s hard to put into words what that expression seemed to mean. There was a knowing, wistful quality to it, as if he understood that life cannot always […]
There’s a line from The Dubliners, a collection of 15 short stories by James Joyce, that gets batted around frequently, leading me to believe it touches a nerve: “Mr. Duffy lived a short distance from his body.” Never having read The Dubliners myself, I don’t […]
A psychiatrist once told me that when people reach a breaking point with a mental health issue, they tend to deal with it in one of three ways: The religion part was the surprise punchline but after a few beats it made sense. If a […]
This is a story about a panic attack that threw a top-level, high-performing, rock-solid leader for a loop. For decades she’d been the person — at work and home alike – everyone turned to for steadiness, for staying power, for perspective, for answers. I will […]
In the 15 years we’ve been together, my partner Gary has done maybe seven things that have irritated me.* On average, that’s about one irritation every other year: in other words, kind of amazing. And so, when “Irritation #8” came along last week it took […]
When I was younger, I was overtaken by premenstrual syndrome (PMS) in a way that sometimes made me nervous to get in the car for fear I might do something impulsive when PMS was behind the wheel. I made an appointment with my OB/GYN but […]
A natural response to an urgent call to action – be it in our minds or real — is to bring the energy of that frenzy into our body and go turbo fast. And if you are already high-twitch, well, we can go from zero […]
Be cool. 