Consciousness/Thriving

What Does it Mean to Be Your Authentic Self?
This above all:
To thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
-- Shakespeare
"To thine own self be true." That is about the soundest advice you could get. But, what…

Feeling Isolated and Alone This Holiday Season?
Do you think everyone else is going to have a wonderful Thanksgiving except you? Does it feel like you are the only one who isn't going to be having a warm and fuzzy time? You are not alone! There are so many people who feel alone and isolated…

The Greatest Gift
I have a bowl with the Ralph Waldo Emerson quote, "The greatest gift is a portion of thyself." One day recently, I placed it on my new coffee table. The next morning, I discovered that my obviously gifted cat, Finnegan, had placed his favorite…

Stress and Family: Spending Holidays With ‘Loved Ones’ Who Aren’t Very Nice to You
Below the surface of many family holiday gatherings are mini dramas playing out, contemporary grudges and resentments and unresolved childhood issues. Nothing hurts with such emotional depth as these familial battles. For the tender-hearted,…

Tips for Dealing With Other People’s Opinions
They say opinions are like noses -- everyone has one. Whether you like it or not, people have opinions about you. What you do with those opinions is entirely up to you.
Consider a coaching client of mine who had a really tough time dealing…

Why You Should Stop Making Snap Judgments
Dictionaries specify that the word "judgment" refers to the process of forming an opinion after careful consideration. Judgments have their place in a court of law where, by social agreement, authority is granted to a judge or jury to determine…

When Friends Don’t See Eye-to-Eye
Did you ever have a really good friendship where everything was just rolling along until one day you hit an impasse that you couldn't seem to get past? I've been hearing a lot of stories like this lately and have had my fair share as well. So…

Generosity or Greed — It’s a Matter of Choice
"There is a struggle that is more interesting than pleasure or ego satisfaction... There is something far more interesting than what money can buy." -- Jacob Needleman
I find it fascinating that 92 percent of Americans claim belief in God yet…

What Is Karma and How Does it Work?
The term "karma" is often used with great casualness, with little understanding of its profundity. People dismissively say "it's my karma," suggesting that their destiny or fate is merely the luck or bad fortune of the draw. This use of the…

Karma, Karma Everywhere
Sometimes, I walk through this world and just marvel at the fact that we are all souls with individualized karmic agendas. Our lives and stories are woven together in a perfect complexity of clearing our individual and collective karmic accruals.…
