I confess… trying to wrap my head around all the civil unrest, protests, police brutality, and general mayhem over the past couple weeks has sent my head spinning. I’m concerned that the Coronavirus, far from over, will have a heyday with all this “congregating” and cause a second wave of infections and more deaths. Yet,… Continue Reading
Mindfulness – The Key to Mastering Your Mind and Your Life
“Mindfulness is the aware, balanced acceptance of the present experience. It isn’t more complicated than that. It is opening to or receiving the present moment, pleasant or unpleasant, just as it is, without either clinging to it or rejecting it.” – Sylvia Boorstein Are you the type of person who lives in the present moment?… Continue Reading
Why Optimism is Important – Especially Now
You may not like how things are going in the world right now. Or how your life is being affected by it all the shelter-in-place mandates and restrictions. These pandemic circumstances have required us to adapt and/or change our normal routines. And that’s stressful. In fact, it’s the very “definition” of stress: being knocked out… Continue Reading
How to Practice Acceptance When What-Is is NOT What You Want
Acceptance doesn’t mean resignation; it means understanding that something is what it is and that there’s got to be a way through it. – Michael J. Fox We’ve all heard that acceptance is crucial to living a happy, worry-free life. Yet, some things are just un-acceptable, right? Like this coronavirus situation… Maybe you’re not happy… Continue Reading
The Ultimate Surrender: an Irreverent Look at the symbolism of Good Friday
Face it. The world-as-we-knew-it has changed. The goals, plans, priorities, or motivations you started with this year are probably much different than what they are right now. I know mine are. Even comparing “what-was” the first of March to “what-was” the beginning of April is dramatically different. Who could have predicted we’d be stockpiling toilet… Continue Reading
Music – the Universal Language
Sharing something a little different today. I wrote the songs recorded in this new YouTube video several decades ago. They are here, first time sung all together, by Shane Kennedy and Christopher Joel Carter at Trinity United Methodist Church. (I was organist there in the early 2000’s.) Whether you’re Christian or not, I hope the… Continue Reading
4 Tips to Calm the Anxious Mind
It’s impossible to feel anxious and calm at the same time. So, when your anxious mind tries to take over, take charge with these four tips. With the new coronavirus spreading through the world, everyone is feeling a heightened sense of anxiety. Whether it’s concern for your job, financial security, personal safety, your health, or… Continue Reading
Coronavirus: Putting the Pieces Together
Frankly, there’s so much information circulating about the Coronavirus, it’s hard to know what to share. The past few days I’ve read article after article, highlighted dozens of printed out pages, scribbled numerous notes in the margins, and brainstormed multiple outlines trying to come up with a perfect, concise, just-what’s-needed body of information. And yet, here on… Continue Reading
The Biggest Block to Your Happiness. (It’s not what you think)
Contrary to the billion-dollar positive thinking industry – and our constitutional “unalienable right” to pursue happiness, attaining happiness as a final, end goal is unrealistic. Not only can it set us up for disappointment, it’s just not how life really works. Happiness is really more like a “by-product” of living a life of meaning. This… Continue Reading
Are You Happy? Really?
“Listen with your heart… for it houses the secret whispers of your Soul.” What is happiness anyway? If you consult a dictionary, you’ll get answers such as, “a feeling of pleasure, contentment, or joy,” “a state of well-being.” PositivePsychology.com says it’s a “changeable state… not a long-lasting, permanent feature or personality trait.” We often believe… Continue Reading