Religious

“In a world where you can be anything, be kind.” ~Unknown “Girls are mean!” I nodded knowingly as my boss struggled to explain the difference between raising boys and girls. I couldn’t speak to raising boys, but I remembered all too well what it was like when my daughters were growing up. Girls traveled in […]

“The real meditation is how you live your life.” ~Jon Kabat-Zinn I never saw myself as someone who would meditate. It wasn’t even on my radar until my wife suggested it while we were both working on our wellness. I chuckled. Like a lot of people, I assumed meditation meant sitting still, trying to clear

“Shame is the intensely painful feeling or experience of believing that we are flawed and therefore unworthy of love, belonging, and connection.” ~Brené Brown, Atlas of the Heart This past year, I started the journey of investigating—maybe even befriending—“my” shame. I use quotes around the “my” because most of the shame is not mine; much

“Rule your mind, or it will rule you.” ~Buddha I used to be trapped in a cycle of overthinking, replaying past mistakes, worrying about the future, and mentally holding onto every thought, just as I physically held onto old clothes, books, and my child’s outgrown toys. The fear of letting go—whether of physical items or

“You should be angry. You must not be bitter. Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. It doesn’t do anything to the object of its displeasure. So use that anger. You write it. You paint it. You dance it. You march it. You vote it. You do everything about it. You talk it. Never stop talking

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” ~Albert Einstein For a long time, I lived under the illusion that I was solving the problems standing between me and my desires. Whether it was love, success, or the kind of life I dreamed of, I believed I was

“Life doesn’t allow for us to go back and fix what we have done wrong in the past, but it does allow for us to live each day better than our last.” ~Unknown It’s funny how from one day to the next your entire world, the core of your belief systems, and the way you

“When you can’t look on the bright side, I will sit with you in the dark.” ~Unknown There are moments in life when pain feels consuming—when it lingers, reshapes us, and forces us to confront parts of ourselves we’ve long avoided. Recently, I found myself in one of those moments. I was overwhelmed, unraveling, and

“Pain is not wrong. Reacting to pain as wrong initiates the tangle of emotional resistance against what is already happening.” ~Tara Brach The wooden meditation hall creaked softly as sixty people shifted in their seats, trying to find comfort in the silence. Outside, winter rain tapped against the windows, a gentle metronome marking time. I

“Our painful experiences aren’t a liability—they’re a gift. They give us perspective and meaning, an opportunity to find our unique purpose and our strength.” –Dr. Edith Eger, The Choice: Embrace the Possible The loss of an unrealized dream sent me spiraling down, down into the darkness. A darkness filled with a despair and hopelessness that