Something is fractured in our social system. Stay with me, here: I’m not a pessimist, I’m an optimist, but I feel we’ve lost our way as a society. Despite the positive progress happening in the world, if we’re not able to look at where we’re broken, we can’t possibly...
Head in my hands, I was raw and broken. This wasn’t what I had imagined my life to be. I was alone, packing up my house, quivering with anxiety and overwhelm. Staring at a bookshelf filled with books that had supported me for years, I didn’t know which one to pick up...
In 2005 I travelled to Nepal with a friend who was a Doctor of Acupuncture. She had had her own practice for almost two decades and had a rich body of knowledge. She wanted to travel to Katmandu to stay with a friend there, a Buddhist monk. She was going to practice...
One of my biggest weaknesses has been my inability to say I am sorry. Even today, I am not professing to have mastered the art of apology, or of knowing when an apology is needed. The art of saying sorry shifts from situation to situation. Saying sorry isn’t an answer...
Does it seem a bit arrogant for me to claim I know the one thing that will bring more calm to your life? I think back to my days of waking up and going from zero to sixty in a matter of moments: getting breakfast made, making lunches, scrambling to get out the door on...
At a crosswalk, waiting for my daughter to catch up to me, a car stopped and the man inside frantically waved me across. I said, “No, thank you” and waved him along. He waited for me to follow his direction, and after what felt like one full minute (but was actually...
What makes someone tough? Is it because they bury all emotions? Or because they are unexpressive and unemotional in response to challenging events around them? Or is it rather that they have grit and the ability to power through unimaginable life situations that would...
“You use up everything you’ve got trying to give everyone what they want” Nina Simone When it comes to compliments, I find them easier to accept if I don’t make too much of them. I don’t need people to tell me that I’m amazing for me to continue doing something I...
Looking at myself in the mirror, wiping the sleep out of my eyes, I’m disgusted with my reflection. I’m thinking about how horrible I must be to have had people I loved and trusted treat me so poorly. I pick apart my character piece by piece, dismantling my freedom to...
It’s kind of poetic, the idea of being broken. Being broken allows us to behave in certain ways – generally ways that keep us small. Being broken becomes a badge of honor that we proudly carry along with us. It feels almost righteous, like we have earned something....