InnerSelf

by Susan Shumsky, DD. Does happiness arise by attaining a certain status, or by finding the love of your life? If you chase happiness in the things of this world, you will become disillusioned. No matter how much stuff you acquire, how much you are admired...

by Ashley Davis Bush, LCSW. Whenever you find yourself in a difficult or uncomfortable situation, think of three things that you’re glad about even in this unpleasant moment. They can be things that you’re glad are not happening or things that you’re glad are hap­pening. Feel...

by Brooks Palmer. Giving yourself permission to let go of what doesn’t serve you is very powerful. You will become highly energized. People who have done clutter busting on their own have told me about how they were enjoying the feeling of openness and freedom. Then suddenly, it became too much, and they stopped the clutter bust.

by Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo. What does Buddhism mean by non-attachment? Many people think the idea of detachment, non-attachment, or non-clinging is very cold. This is because they confuse attachment with love. But attachment isn’t genuine love — it’s just self-love.

by Barbara Berger. Ask yourself what is actually preventing you from being happy right now, right this very moment? If you are honest with yourself, you will probably say it's because you don't have what you want. This could be ...

by Alan Cohen. It is becoming clear to me that the way most of us have lived our lives has not been in harmony with the way the universe intended. It seems that we have somehow lost touch with the loving flow of life, our rhythm of being, our sense of peacefulness about ourselves and satisfaction with what we are and what we are here to do.

by Nicola Phoenix. Feeling accepted seems to feature so highly in our lives. We set such great store by how others perceive us. Even amongst people you would count as close acquaintances, do you let them see the real you?

by Nicola Phoenix. At first you may notice small, subtle alterations in your life and everything appearing to flow with ease. You may find that other people start to notice a difference in you. You may even find that situations that you have always hoped for turn up. Most importantly, you will notice...

by Sanaya Roman.

There are many life-paths you can choose, just as there are many ways you can serve on a planetary level. There is a path of will, a path of struggle, and a path of joy and compassion.

by B. Alan Wallace. It’s easy to like some people and it’s not very easy to like others. They don’t smile back! So it has to go deeper. If we continue to judge people on the basis of appearances and behavior, the endeavor is hopeless. Instead we have to return to a very simple truth...

by BJ Gallagher. A young woman had a suitor who loved her very much. The suitor came to her door clutching a bouquet of daisies to give her. "Where are my roses?" she demanded. Her suitor turned and went away. The next week he was back on her doorstep with another bunch of daisies...

by Adele Ryan McDowell, Ph.D.

Can you feel the energies bumping up against you? One minute, you feel pushed; the next minute, pulled. One minute, you’re OK, and the next minute, you’re not. It’s chaotic out there. Our world is in flux; nothing feels normal anymore.

by Jonathan Parker.

The idea that we create our own reality — that is, the concept of the mirror universe — often seems to ring true, but it also raises some troubling questions. Sometimes it’s easy to see this principle at work in our lives, but other times, especially when things aren’t going very well, it can be hard to understand how...

by Joan Borysenko.

The idealized self — the mask you put on for appearance’s sake — reaches the breaking point during burnout. All that work to maintain the facade, and it couldn’t even deliver the goods. You still don’t feel happy and fulfilled. As a result, the false self finally...

by Michael J. Chase.

As someone who was once unhappy in every sense of the word, I can personally verify that misery leads to heartless behavior, and vice versa. For years I experienced failed relationships, financial struggles, poor health, depression, and an endless stream of...

by James D. Baird, Ph.D. It goes without saying — but I’m going to mention it anyway — that your happiness, or lack thereof, depends largely on your expectations. If you believe that only one person, job, home, or car can bring you happiness, you are setting yourself up for disappointment. Even if you...

by Colette Baron-Reid.

How many times have you found yourself in a repetitive cycle you just can’t seem to break? Are you back to that same old situation again, the one that makes you feel powerless and miserable? It’s easy to judge yourself harshly as you think, What happened? I did all that...

by Alan Cohen.

I recently made a pilgrimage to the ancient Mayan temples at Chichen Itza and Tulum in Mexico. At one pyramid our tour guide informed us that the Mayans regularly offered human sacrifices to appease their gods. While we would regard such offerings as primitive and even abhorrent, the mindset of sacrifice is still very much alive in the modern...

by David Kundtz.

Just What Is a Feeling, Exactly? That was a question a client asked me, with an emphasis on the "exactly." It's a great question because it is so direct, to the point, and so difficult to answer exactly and correctly. But because it is so important, and because...

How can I tell you about the importance of feelings? It's like trying to tell you of the importance of the floorboards in your home. Most of the time we never really think about floorboards, but what if your home had none? There would be nothing to stand on. The same with feelings...

by Patricia Broersma. When you open your life to the rest of our world, it can be daunting. It is easy to become hypersensitive to the violence and suffering around us. Maybe you cannot tolerate the extreme violence of many movies and TV shows, or even the news reports on the radio. Emotions may run high on all accounts.

Every now and then I come across an affirmation that really 'hits home'. One of these is "I think and speak only words of love". I found this one in Louise Hay's book "Heal Your Body." When I started using this affirmation, I immediately saw and felt the effects.

by Marie T. Russell.

The inner child waits patiently for the adult to notice it, to talk to it. It asks itself: "How can I get her attention? How can I get her to talk to me, to listen to me?" It thinks back of its past experience with parents and teachers and remembers that...

by Caroline Sutherland. Uncertainty in these times is the only certainty. That which has a beginning will end. In my own life, many years ago, a business decision to take on a partner nearly ended in disaster. Though fear and panic gripped my heart I knew that the only way to...

How many times have you been hurt by what someone said about you? How many times have you doubted your self-worth because someone criticized you, either to your face or 'behind your back'? Why do we react with such self-doubt or indignation when someone...

by Bill Plotkin, Ph.D. Why do we project our repressed parts? Why can't or don't those parts just remain peacefully buried -- or asleep in the basement -- and let us go on undisturbed with our "normal" lives? Apparently there is no way to avoid it even while there are limitless ways to ignore or deny it...

by Marie T. Russell. We repress a lot of our emotions, whether they are considered 'good' or 'bad' ones. Sometimes we hold back on expressing our love for fear of being misunderstood, or perhaps thinking the timing is not 'right'. Most commonly, we have been taught to hold back on our 'negative' emotions — fear, anger, sorrow, pain, etc.

by Marie T. Russell. How many times have you made a decision to change something in your life and then found yourself slipping off the path you had chosen? Have you found yourself repeating past behavior even though the higher side of your consciousness knew better than to be caught in that same old trap? Is it that you were insincere in your choice or rather that you stumbled on old programming?

by Dean Van Leuven.  A commitment to an anger-free life involves signing up for a new journey. Deciding to actually enjoy this journey will make it much more pleasant. Learn to think of life as a process. If you focus only on goals, you are not going to be happy until you have achieved them.

by Sylvia Browne. If you give energy to something that is negative -- such as worry, anxiety, or fear -- then you build it to such a state that it becomes worse than any action directed toward you. Make yourself like a funnel or a sieve...

by Dr. Paula Sunray. We can't be feeling what we are feeling unless we are "thinking" it. First we have to think and then we feel, so whatever we are feeling is a result of our thinking. If we are feeling fear, then we are having a fearful thought...

by Kent Nerburn. Most of us have some corner where we cannot forgive ourselves. Our hearts ache for the choices made or denied, and we bury that ache beneath a blanket of guilt or high-minded justifications.

by Robin Robertson. Jung developed a technique he called active imagination a process of consciously dialoguing with our unconscious, that allows anyone to consult an oracle within themselves. Someone who has learned active imagination is thus able to take some degree of control over his or her own growth process.

by Jamie S. Walters. What follows are some activities from which I draw for my personal faith and mindset practice. I don't do all of these things every day but, across the span of any given month, I endeavor to do some combination of these activities or disciplines regularly. The result? For me, greater clarity, less time feeling scattered

by Richard Carlson. Worrying about things we have no control over is counterproductive. It makes you tense -- which, in turn, ruins your judgment. When you are worried, you live in a state of fear. This makes it difficult, if not impossible, to be loving, helpful, and kind on a day-to-day, moment-to-moment basis.

Everyday is April Fools Day...it doesn't only occur on April 1st. Many of us are living daily the greatest April fools of all... and we are it! We have been living our lives as a lie, pretending to be someone we're not. That is a powerful statement, yet, in many cases it is the truth. We are living OUR lives as if they belonged to someone or something else.

by Marie T. Russell. You know someone is hiding something when they avoid meeting your eyes. Yet, there are times when I seem to shift my eyes away from my own Self or from others. In those cases, the truth of the matter is that I have set aside my own inner wisdom, I have betrayed...

by Madeline Ko-i Bastis. When we quiet the mind, our transgressions emerge from the shadows and we become sensitive to our interaction with others. A turning point presents itself. Though we feel regret at having caused harm, there may still be a niggling voice whispering that our actions were necessary. Tit for tat; he deserved that...

by Carolyn Godschild Miller, Ph.D. It may surprise you to learn that your ego doesn't believe that love really exists, but it's true. Just think! When you allow your ego to direct your search for love, you are actually asking the only thing in the universe that doesn't know what love is, to find it for you.

by Susan Ann Darley.

What have you done lately to nurture yourself, enhance your creativity and honor your soul? Feeling sad lately? When we neglect ourselves in the mad rush to make a living, take care of business and raise our families, we die a little with each passing day. And yet we don't understand. So we continue our frantic pace and...