“Remember, you have been criticizing yourself for years, and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens.” ~Louise L. Hay There it was—glaringly obvious on the page. An embarrassing typo stared back at me from the backside of a brochure I’d received from the printer. A brochure I wrote, laid out, and yes, gave the final…
“Sometimes growth doesn’t look like becoming more—it looks like leaving behind what no longer fits.” For a long time, I believed that outgrowing a friendship meant I had failed at it. That belief took root early, at boarding school, where friendships weren’t just social—they were survival. We didn’t see each other for a few hours a day. We lived…
“Trauma is not what happens to you, but what happens inside you as a result of what happens to you.” ~Dr. Gabor Maté Most people think trauma comes from what frightened us. But not all trauma is rooted in fear. Some wounds come from betrayal—when something violates our sense of right and wrong, and we’re left to carry the…
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response.” ~Viktor Frankl For a long time, my first response to difficulty was a single, aching question: “Why me?” It surfaced whenever life took an unexpected turn—when plans collapsed, when effort didn’t materialize, when circumstances felt unfair and overwhelming. I believed that…
“Meditation is a way of being, not a technique.” ~Jon Kabat-Zinn I didn’t think I was someone who “couldn’t meditate.” I had read the books. I understood the benefits. I knew, intellectually, that sitting with my breath was supposed to help me feel calmer, more present, more myself. And yet every time I tried, something inside me tightened. My…
“You can’t perform your way into being loved. You can only reveal yourself and trust that the right person will love what they find.” Finding the unmarked door, I stepped into a dimly lit room pulsing with that “Love Jones” energy. Neo-soul played low, red lighting cast shadows across faces, and the bass line vibrated through my chest. This…
I think it’s probably fair to say that most of us are feeling overwhelmed right now. We’re all dealing with a lot. Work stress. Family responsibilities. Relationship struggles. Health challenges. The pressure to keep going even when we’re absolutely exhausted. Lately my own life has been ridiculously full. Between running the site, homeschooling my older son, and navigating some…
“With self-compassion, we give ourselves the same kindness and care we’d give to a good friend.” ~Kristin Neff For a long time, I carried a question with me that I rarely said out loud. It wasn’t dramatic. It didn’t sound cruel. It felt reasonable—even responsible. What’s wrong with me? The question surfaced whenever I felt stuck. When motivation disappeared….
“Ironically enough, when you make peace with the fact that the purpose of life is not happiness but rather experience and growth, happiness comes as a natural byproduct. When you are not seeking it as the objective, it will find its way to you.” ~Unknown I had ten days to pack up my life. I was moving from Toronto…
“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.” ~Buddha For most of my life, hoping for something better wasn’t a problem. It was my fuel. If everything had lined up the way I once imagined, it would have looked something like this: steady financial security, meaningful creative work recognized by the world,…
