- By David Cowan
Your phone chimes, it’s a message from your partner. You reply instantly because that’s what you always do.
Imagine being confined to a small, dark room, with no social interaction whatsoever for 30 days. Not many people would jump at this opportunity.
You’re not alone if colder weather and longer nights make you feel down. This well-known phenomenon, called seasonal affective disorder (SAD), might explain why people feel low, irritable, and lethargic in the winter months.
This process takes only a few moments but it is one that literally could save you from getting totally caught up in the drama of what is happening and going to 'Victimland' for an extended stay! Our tendency is to default to victim consciousness whenever our upset...
Unlike the effervescent bubbles that stream to the top of champagne flutes on New Year’s Eve, what I call brain bubbles are far from celebratory.
- By Peter Heslin
Every year most of us make New Year’s resolutions. Eat healthier. Exercise regularly. Invest more in valued relationships. Learn a language. And so on. Often they are the same resolutions as last year.
Probably since I was an older child, I prided myself in all the things I could do, in my illusion of independence. But it didn’t stop with physical things. In my pseudo-independence, I ventured into emotional regions, and declared my lack of need for love.
Every year you set out determined to stick to your New Year’s resolutions. But year after year you fall off track and quickly abandon them. So why are resolutions so hard to keep?
If you feel you consistently fail at your New Year’s resolutions, you are not alone. Despite our good intentions, we’re pretty poor at changing our own behavior
One attitude that has served me well is recognizing that everything I do is by choice... Even if appearances may seem like I don't always have a choice, I really do.
- By U. Chicago
While the happiness we feel after an activity diminishes each time we experience it, a phenomenon known as hedonic adaptation, giving to others may be the exception to this rule.
- By El Collie
The spiritual journey is full of unexpected and wondrous inner shifts. I recently realized that a change has gradually occurred in my outlook. I am appreciating the moment-by-moment experiences in my life in a happier way than I have since childhood...
Cynicism seems to have a lot going for it in the modern world. I know that I didn’t give up cynicism until it utterly failed me as a means of self-protection. As I began to understand the psychological roots of my physical collapse, it became clear that my cynical, stressful attitudes toward life had delivered me into this catastrophic condition.
- By Denise Linn
Each fear is like a small subpersonality inside of you demanding to be heard. One 'fear-being' might chatter, 'Don't go outside. It's raining. You'll catch a cold.' Another might be constantly whimpering in your ear, 'Don't fall in love. You know you'll get hurt!' We hold our fears captive and even justify them...
“I really should be taking better care of myself.” Who hasn’t thought that at least once in the past year? And maybe you’ve made a few health resolutions for 2019 — to cut back on the junk food, up the daily exercise, start meditating or get more sleep?
- By Jeff Inglis
Sometime in the political frenzy of the past year, I realized I had to stop scanning Twitter. I had become used to taking the pulse of online society, but was no longer confident that the tweets I was reading were accurate portrayals of the authentic views of real humans.
- By J.M. Opal
When Americans study their 19th-century history, they tend to look at its great conflicts, especially the epic clash over slavery. They are less likely to recall its broad areas of agreement.
- By Tom van Laer
Every holiday season, you have new worlds at your fingertips. Reading books, listening to podcasts, and watching films and TV shows can help you break away from the frenzy of everyday life, and journey into other possible worlds.
It being the holiday season, it seems appropriate to review the emotion of love, since that is what the season is supposed to be about.
Think of a closed vessel that is continually heated. Eventually the pressure will build up and cause the vessel to explode. If the vessel is vented, however, when the pressure gets too great, steam or gas can escape a little at a time and keep an explosion from happening.
We may expect great transformations throughout human culture, as mankind becomes more responsible for its knowledge, and thus its deeds.
Detached observation is observing with unconditional love the activities of the world around you "as if you were not a part of that world". You witness and observe without judging or labeling anything good or bad...
At some point we begin to realize that violence begets violence, and that the human race is in a vicious cycle of aggression, often unable to find a way out. Yet we must, if we are to achieve what every true human being yearns for: peace.