“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response.” ~Viktor E. Frankl A few months ago, I was on a crowded highway with my wife and son. Traffic was barely moving. Vehicles were inching forward, one small gap at a time, with the usual impatience hanging in the air. Suddenly,…
“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” ~C.G. Jung For twelve years, I believed I was the architect of a perfect life. I had the “Summa Cum Laude” degree, a respected career in human services, a devoted husband, and two healthy daughters. I had checked every box on the…
“A big part of financial freedom is having your heart and mind free from worry about the what-ifs of life.” ~Suze Orman During my upbringing, my parents often fought about money since we didn’t have much of it. My mom was more of an occasional spender, while my father would go as far as making me wear shoes that…
I recently had the opportunity to take an online Sound as Medicine workshop with Phyllicia Victoria through the Omega Institute, and what a beautiful experience it was. As you may know from my previous emails, I’ve been moving through the hardest time in my adult life for the past eighteen months. I’ve been back and forth across the country…
“The most precious gift we can offer anyone is our attention.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh Five years ago, my son missed a basketball tryout. We had been out of town, and by the time we got back, the rosters were already set. I made a few calls anyway, hoping someone might give a kid a late shot. One coach said…
“Being a people-pleaser may be more than a personality trait; it could be a response to serious trauma.” ~Alex Bachert Growing up in a home, school, and church that placed a lot of value on good behavior, self-discipline, and corporal punishment, I was a model child. There could have been an American Girl doll designed after me—the well-mannered church…
“Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.” ~Jim Rohn I used to think tiredness was a personality trait. I was the person who could work fourteen hours, sleep five, and do it again. I wore my exhaustion like armor. It proved I was serious. It proved I was dedicated. It proved I was worth…
“Anxiety isn’t you. It’s something moving through you. It can leave out of the same door it came in.” ~James Clear Years ago, I had a panic attack while driving across a bridge, and I thought I might die that day. Suddenly my heart started pounding. My breath became shallow and tight. My chest felt constricted, and a wave…
“The most common form of despair is not being who you are.” ~Søren Kierkegaard I didn’t lose her all at once. I lost myself first—slowly, quietly, in the way that only happens when someone you trust makes you doubt everything you think and feel. She was magnetic when I met her. Warm, intense, the kind of person who made…
“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, many are strong at the broken places.” ~Ernest Hemingway My grandmother had just died. My sister and I had come from the room where her body still lay, and we were standing in the elevator in silence when the doors slid closed. My sister looked at me and said, “Now you’re the last…
