We are born with brains, so we come into this life with the basic equipment needed to think, but that doesn’t mean we all have the innate ability to think well. I guess this is analogous to the fact that we have been given arms, but the average bicep looks and functions considerably differently from … More Building the Muscular Mind (Installment One)
Being a pessimist is more complicated and more positive than it sounds. Take me, for example… … More Optimistic Pessimism: A Glass Half Full Of Negativity
Salaam aleikum! Last time I wrote to this beautiful audience we were pointlessly overthinking. A lot has happened since then. For starters, we just concluded a protracted general elections in my home country Kenya. This event takes place every five years here and is one of the most mentally and emotionally gruelling periods. Away from … More HOW TO DECLUTTER
You all know about the half empty or half full glass of water. By saying how you see it, you will understand if you are an optimist or not. And if you would like another perspective on a half empty or half full glass, you can read Wynne’s post The Glass Is Refillable. But what … More A Glass Full of Water
Happy Saturday, all! I struggled this week. I wrote three or four pages on a topic that I thought would become a blog I could publish today or tomorrow, only to discover that I needed to hold off on posting it. Midway into the piece, I realized that my ideas hadn’t yet ripened and thus … More Projects and Podcasts
A couple of weeks ago, I took both my kids to the doctor’s office. When it came time for the flu shots, the tech asked me to pick which child should go first. I picked my 3-year-old son. He reacted with an “ouch” and then was on to the next thing. My 7-year-old daughter went … More Do You Listen To Your Pain?
The practice of meditation may at first seem counterintuitive or foreign to the Western mind. With the abundance of digital technologies and entertainment options available to us, why would anyone abandon these luxuries to sit alone in silence. Surely there are more productive ways one ought to spend their limited time here on earth. Yet … More The Science of Mindfulness
Slow down and look around. Notice and take stock. Clear your mind and let “what’s now” take over. … More Being Present: What’s Now
Hi everyone, Happy Sunday! My recent experience showed me that you can get all you want and be the richest person in the world, but if you don’t have anyone to share it with, it does not mean much. This is a (unfortunately) new understanding for me because I have always been goal-oriented (goals that … More Family and Friends
Quitting a job you hate can be scary but remaining unhappy is much worse and more scary. Here’s my experience of quitting. … More Quitting A Job Is Scary, Not Quitting May Be Worse
The other night my seven-year-old was being short-tempered with her younger brother and snippy with me. I asked her not to take out her mood on others and she replied “I don’t know what to do with the meanness!” Huh. Isn’t that a great question? I was raised in a household that believed “If you … More What To Do With Our Inner Meanness
If you’re a long-time reader of my blogs, you know that I spent about two decades living the life of an expatriated American. I am proud of that time in my life. I first went abroad as a Peace Corps Volunteer, to Poland, not long after the collapse of the Soviet system, and then lived … More Beware: Garbage In, Garbage Out
Why I recommend getting caught in the rain as a wellness practice. … More Pina Coladas? Nah. Getting Caught In The Rain? Yes!
Recently, a friend sent me a printout of a sermon that my dad, who was a Presbyterian pastor, gave on parenting 36 years ago. She had a printed copy and kept it filed away. Now that her kids are long grown, she sent it to me. In it, my dad gives a quick synopsis of … More Good Mood of the Soul
My wife and I take care of a few feral cats that live in our neighborhood. They move quietly and gracefully into and out of our backyard and remind me of lithe shadows. We feed and water them, and when it got summertime hot back in early June, we constructed a crude but effective cat … More Goodbye Spunky
Do you think your life looks like a hamster in a wheel, that you turn around and around without living the life you want? To live the life you want you may read and follow some advice taken from the method Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy, developed by Albert Ellis (1913-2007), an American psychologist. The basic … More Living the Life You Want
What learning how to run taught me about life. … More Running: It’s Not About Actual Running
To help people becoming resilient, we shall first have a look at the meaning of resilience. Let’s see the etymology of the word as it is found on the Merriam-Webster: resilience 1 : the capability of a strained body to recover its size and shape after deformation caused especially by compressive stress 2 : an … More Helping People Becoming Resilient
Last week I was driving in my car with my almost 7-year-old daughter at 8:29am when she said “Darn, I’m always a minute late for my favorite time.” She likes palindromic times – in this case 8:28. It made me think about what I’ve been working on lately. Life feels hectic – summertime means different … More The Quality versus Quantity of Time
Are you the kind of person who targets higher and higher and is never satisfied with the achieved result? If so, don’t worry but be aware that being perfectionist is a weapon to double cut. If you are too demanding with yourself, you are a candidate for burn-out. Perfectionism is like stress: in small doses it is fine, … More Burn-out and Perfectionism