This was last year’s list of survival tips. I will publish this year’s shortly! I feel guilty writing that: “getting through the holidays.” I’ve done an excellent job this year of scheduling events that will force my brain to appreciate the magic of the holiday season: I actually participated in a cookie swap even though...
Difficult people are like the termites of the human spirit. They can be eating away at the tender parts of you for months on end before you notice, and then, suddenly, at a work meeting or a family dinner, you lose it. You might scream something unkind or have a temper tantrum much like the...
We all have them–fears, phobias, anxieties—that shorten our breath, quicken our heartbeats, and sometimes can outright disable us. Some of us shut our eyes and hold our breath as we ride the elevator to the tenth floor of an office building, while others pray the Rosary inside that coffin-like enclosure when getting an MRI. I am afraid...
For anyone with an inclination to use food as comfort—which basically includes all of us—the two months between Halloween and New Years provide one temptation after another. For me it starts the hour the trick-or-treaters have left and I assess the supply of tootsie rolls, Kit Kats, and Reese’s Cups that did not make it...
In preparation for the Thanksgiving Holiday! Gratitude is good for us every way you look at it. According to Sonja Lyubomirsky at the University of California, Riverside, it boosts our happiness levels in a number of ways: by promoting the savoring of positive life experiences; by bolstering self-worth and self-esteem and helping to cope with...