I launched my blog in 2009 when I was wrestling with a midlife crisis. Since then, the digital world has changed so much. I was new to both Facebook and Twitter when I started blogging, and I was still rocking the BlackBerry for email. Instagram hadn’t launched yet. Podcasting and short videos are what the cool kids do these days, blogging is considered old fashioned. But I still find it the best way to share my thoughts and to profile people who inspire me.
I hope you’ll find something here that inspires you, or at least sparks a conversation. Some of my favorite posts are pinned to the top, scroll down a bit more to find the most recent, or check out the categories in the sidebar.
Deepak Chopra talks about the value of flexibility in the sixth spiritual law, detachment.
“This doesn’t mean you give up your intention to create your desire, you don’t give up the intention and you don’t give up the desire, you give up your attachment to the result.”
Once I stopped coloring my hair, I began to understand I was defying the cultural expectation that we not age, like Peter Pan, and that challenging social norms is unnerving to some.
“People don’t learn from experiences, they learn from the reflection on their experiences.”
Recently when I was meditating with my eyes closed in a dark room, I saw a white light that got brighter and brighter. Eventually it felt like I was staring at the sun.
Looking at this make-believe light prompted an insight: So many people describe seeing a bright white light when they’re dying because it’s the first time they stopped to notice it. That light is always there, trying to glow into our lives, but we’re too busy with our distractions and pursuits to notice.
“Attention energizes and intention transforms,” Deepak Chopra says in this chapter about intention and desire. “Whatever you put your attention on will grow stronger in your life. Whatever you take your attention away from will whither, disintegrate and disappear.”
According to Robert Waldinger, director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, “The clearest message that we get from this 75-year study is this: Good relationships keep us happier and healthier. Period.”
After hosting a goal-setting session for about a dozen women, with career coach Lauree Ostrofsky facilitating, my heart feels full recalling the enthusiastic support these ladies gave each other all day.
When you’re in sync with the power of the universe, you can achieve your goals with surprising ease.
Nan Sanders Pokerwinski weighs the winter options: Stay in and make progress on projects she’s been itching to get into or go enjoy activities with friends?
Deepak Chopra tells us that everything that is happening in this moment is the result of the choices we’ve made in the past.
Deepak Chopra says giving and receiving are part of the same action. If you want to receive more, you have to give more.
I used to think, as many people do, that if we’re unhappy with ourselves, we’ll be driven to get better. And if we were all of a sudden content with ourselves, we’d stop doing anything.
I no longer believe this.
Seven Spiritual Laws has been such a touchstone for me that I’m going to recap each of these laws over the coming weeks. The first law is pure potentiality.
How can you prioritize making and maintaining friendships? Is there something you’re doing that you could ditch to make room for friendships, or could you make better use of downtime? Can you combine socializing with something else that’s already on your calendar?
Tony Marceda shares a deeply personal story of learning to manage his anxiety and panic attacks in a way that leaves him feeling like himself.
Allison Tray writes: I did something really radical: I decided that I did not have a sleeping problem. I used the power of my thoughts to convince myself that as a living creature, I required sleep and it was going to happen.
Think about the origin story of the first Thanksgiving: When white people showed up in a place Native Americans already inhabited, the natives showed the immigrants how to survive, then celebrated their success.
We travel great distances to eat turkey with our families around this tradition built on unity, not division.
Early on, I adopted a philosophy for traveling and shopping that seems to work for my lifestyle: “If I could carry it, I could have it.” It emerged when I was just starting my business and was pretty strapped for cash. “No carts allowed” saved my wallet.
Despite all the energy I have spent for the better part of two decades trying to convince myself to ignore the strong pull of place, it turns out, being in the wrong place (especially after being in the right place) can take a real toll. So can two decades of beating yourself up for wanting something you don’t think you should want.
I choose to encounter clutter and make it my own. Am I a hoarder? Probably a little. I prefer the terms “collector” and “archivist,” though. They carry the elegance of scholarship and a bit of the self-righteousness of learning from the past.
My college newspaper adviser, Jim Wojcik, gave me a pep talk during my first job after I graduated. Woj told me everyone’s first job is hard. Think of it as boot camp. You’re there to get real world experience. Tough it out for a year. If you hate it after a year, you move on to the next place up the career ladder.
My relationship with stuff changed because of Katrina. Before, I was a collector of stuff.
Marie Kondo is the author of the cultishly popular book “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up,” which has sold nearly 6 million copies and seems to have taken on an even larger cultural footprint. I’ve asked friends to share their perspectives on clutter in their lives.
My heart aches each time I hear police have killed another black civilian. I feel each death deeply, personally, because I feel a part of the police family. How would you feel if your sibling killed someone?
