Category: Mindset

How 4 Words Changed My Life Forever

Can you think of a moment when someone’s words drastically impacted your life? Maybe this moment came from a parent, a teacher, or a mentor.  Maybe it came from a doctor, a coach, or a friend. For better or worse, words can have a huge impact on the way we live our lives. They can…


What I Learned About Fear From a Cold Pool

For the first 40 days of this year, I jumped into a cold swimming pool with two of my sons, as a practice in facing discomfort and fear. We never looked forward to it, but it taught me a lot about facing things I don’t want to face. The things we don’t want to face can…


‘Relationship Glasses’ Shape How We See Romantic Partners

For some, the COVID-19 pandemic has offered an opportunity to spend more time and reconnect with romantic partners. For others, love on lockdown has magnified relationship difficulties that couples were experiencing before the pandemic, leading to increased relationship stress and dissatisfaction. Break-ups, divorces, and even domestic violence have been on the rise since the pandemic began. Given…


Positive Feedback Loops

If you want to be more disciplined about your day, you might tell yourself, “I’m going to wake every morning, meditate for 15 minutes, plan my Most Important Tasks, and then get started and follow the plan. No doubts about it.” And then your plan gets hit by distraction or interruption, and you feel bad…


We Are All Cats, Aren’t We?

We are all cats. You know what I mean? Perhaps not, if you were quarantined from social media and missed the video of the lawyer in Texas who joined a virtual court hearing via Zoom using a kitten filter. The lawyer couldn’t figure out how to turn off the filter, the judge tried to help,…


Connect by Creating Art With Your Children

Many of us are using art activities to keep children busy at home. Art can help children improve communication, strengthen motor skills, and develop a sense of self. That’s why it’s important to encourage creativity from infancy and place art alongside home learning and as an extension of their play. When young children make art…


The Wisdom of a Jedi Master

I remember it well. The year was 1977. After months of anticipation, it was finally here. “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away …” [cue music] I was 9 years old as I read the crawl of those golden-yellow words on the theater screen before they faded into a dark abyss of…


Moralization of COVID-19 Clouds Human Judgment

Researchers have found that preventing COVID-19 deaths has been elevated to a “sacred value” in society, such that those who question pandemic restrictions are morally condemned. Meanwhile deaths, abuses of power, and public shaming that occur in the name of “preventing COVID” are deemed acceptable. The unprecedented restrictions placed upon Western civilizations in 2020 would…


Feeding the ‘Good Wolf’ Inside of Us

You may have heard the parable about the old Cherokee who is teaching his grandson about life: “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy. “It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil—he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies,…


Relaxing With Chaos

There’s a big part of us that doesn’t like chaos: We want order and simplicity. We want to feel we’re on top of things. But that’s not how life works. So when things feel chaotic, we scramble for some kind of stability. When we feel overwhelmed and behind, we might beat ourselves up and try…