Women as well as men often receive strong indoctrination against showing love. It’s too often viewed as a sign of weakness. I have to admit, I fell into this category when I was eighteen and newly in relationship with Joyce...
We need to acknowledge our mutual human suffering. While it is, of course, natural for human beings to talk and communicate with one another, unless we have a good excuse or reason to do so we seem to maintain our typical everyday stranger status with the entire general public surrounding us.
Do you ever wonder if you’re too much for those you love? Do you ever worry that you will burden them? Do you ever feel that your loved ones already have enough on their plate to be concerned about your upsets?
When I was twenty-seven, a woman friend became frustrated with how much love and attention I was giving my husband. I was making my relationship with him my top priority, even over career and friends. She saw my devotion as old fashioned and “unliberated.”
- By Staff
Certain rights in life are taken for granted. And in most countries, that includes maternity leave. But not in the USA, apparently. There are four countries in the world that do not offer government-mandated maternity leave, and the USA is one of them. That is an honor (NOT!) that we could do without.
- By Alan Cohen
The funny thing about love is that the more you try to organize it, the less like love it becomes. As spiritual master Meher Baba noted, "Love and coercion can never go together. Love has to spring spontaneously from within...."
Older cultures did not have the kinds of adolescent problems we are now experiencing. However, they did have to deal with typical adolescent dynamics. Even in ancient times and primitive cultures, parents wrestled with their adolescents’ moods, desires, and rebelliousness....
Can men and women really understand each other? Sometimes it seems like the wall between the sexes is impenetrable. At my annual men’s retreat last month, the difficulty understanding women became a central theme. One after another of the men shared his challenges with his female partner...
- By Nicki Scully
Somehow, in that moment, I finally stopped struggling and allowed myself to relax. And then it came — the shift from my will to my heart. When I finally slipped into my heart center it was as though I had been there all along — my mind had been blinding me...
It is time to stop being your own worst enemy and begin to become your own best friend. As a psychotherapist, I see time and time again the adverse effects of my clients' lack of self-care. In general...
Our beliefs about love no longer match up with what's going on in the world, and they are contradicted when our relationships end. I call these out-of-date notions the obsolete mythologies of love.
The statement that time heals all wounds is such a cliché that even the mention of time as a healer may seem either irrelevant or insulting. Nevertheless, it is patently true that time is a miracle healer. When we are going through a difficult experience, however...
- By Tim Ray
Once upon a time many thousands of years ago, the Devil Himself was sitting in his boiling hot corporate headquarters in Hell, looking at his mission statement. It read: "To make as many people as possible as unhappy as possible for as long as possible." The Devil was actually a bit...
- By Isha Judd
Meet somebody, fall in love, get married. That’s how it goes, right? Then what? We hear of astronomical divorce rates, couple therapy, and extramarital affairs, but we also hear of the picture-perfect fifty-year happy marriages. What is this need to get married, and why do we think it will fulfill us?
Though relationships can provide a lot of pleasure and reward, they can also deliver their share of hurt, pain, and misunderstanding. Whether intentionally or not, others may let you down. Learning how to cope with...
- By Deanna Duke
What does ADHD have to do with toxins? Well, there have been a number of theories and studies done on the effects of environmental toxins influencing the increase in ADHD in individuals, most notably artificial flavoring, preservatives and coloring...
- By Paulo Coelho
A farmer knocked heavily at a convent’s door. When the brother doorkeeper opened the door, the farmer stretched out a magnificent bunch of grapes to him. “Dear brother doorkeeper, these are the most beautiful grapes produced in my vineyard. And I come here to give them to you as a gift.”
Our first experience with touch is our mother's loving caress in our home. Within our family we learn how, when and where to touch. Yet natural touch among family members is an often neglected means of communication...
Too many people are afraid of being alone, afraid of discovering something dreadful about themselves. We see people constantly surrounded by a group of friends, postponing the inevitable confrontation with themselves. We see people rebound from...
- By Isha Judd
How can we tell if our intimate relationships are based on need or something deeper? Here I share some common indicators of codependency and other behaviors that erode goodwill and harmony in relationships and...
- By Tim Ray
"Until Death Do Us Part"... How much do these words have to do with the reality of life in the 21st century and with modern-day relationships? Let's compare the reality of women and men today with the time when this marriage vow arose...
Ending a relationship is so painful and makes us feel so awful — bad, hopeless, inadequate, desperate, lost, lonely, and worthless — that most of us are afraid we won't live through it. We feel bad about what our families will think, we're afraid of what...
- By Alan Cohen
It's tempting to want to fix others and tell them how to live. But you have no idea how someone else should live. It's hard enough to figure out how you should live — so how could you even begin to know someone else's right path?