I had a friend who claimed she was clairvoyant. Let’s just say for the sake of this post that she was, because I’m on my way to making a point and you don’t have to have an ability to see the future to know that. And I’d say from my experience that my friend had a gift of extraordinary perception. She saw things differently than … Continue reading The Cat Conundrum
Life is like a great meandering stroll through a vast wilderness of ever-changing scenery. Such a long tramp is bound to change us, so it’s highly likely we’ll undergo one transformation after another as we travel. I was an only child during the earliest stages of my “journey.” I spent the first few years of my life living in a quiet, rural setting where neighbors … Continue reading Repost: Others
What On Earth Are You Thinking? What is External Self-Awareness? Most people think about self-awareness the same way they do sex. They believe they’re great at it when, in reality, no-one knows where on God’s green earth the G spot is (or that there even is one). One of the major components for building self-awareness is understanding what other people honestly think about us (including our ability … Continue reading The Three Areas of Self-Awareness: What On Earth Are You Thinking?
I’ve been writing about happiness recently. This is the third (and final) installment in a series of pieces on this subject. The first installment can be found here and second one, here. While prepping myself to write this, I began to think of analogies. Can happiness be cultivated in the same way a farmer prepares for a good harvest? Think about it; a bumper crop doesn’t just happen … Continue reading Repost: Can Happiness Be Cultivated?
What on Earth Am I Feeling? “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” – Blaise Pascal Disconnecting the autopilot is the practise of noticing when you’re distracted and then actively bringing your attention back to the present. But there’s a problem. It’s called turbulence. (Namely, your emotions.) This is what happens when a pilot takes the autopilot … Continue reading The Three Areas of Self-Awareness: What on Earth Am I Feeling?
After I wrote the post about my mother, The Choices We Make: My Mom The Spy, my friend Eric was over at my house and read it, so my seven-year-old daughter wanted to a turn to read it. She said liked the part “Instead of secret meetings at night, she was called to hold our hair when we threw up and calm our fears when … Continue reading Can I Tell You a Secret?
Do you know how hard it is to get Taylor Swift tickets? You literally have to win a lottery. Well… Continue reading Why I Went To A Taylor Swift Concert
The Three Areas of Self-Awareness According to Tasah Eurich – author of Insight: The Surprising Truth about How Others See Us, How We See Ourselves, and Why the Answers Matter More Than We Think – there are 3 major blindspots to self-awareness. Those are: Behaviour blindness is being oblivious to your own actions. Not noticing when you are getting distracted or why. Emotional blindness is … Continue reading The Three Areas of Self-Awareness: What on Earth Am I Doing?
I came across something called the Map of Consciousness in a book I’ve been reading recently – Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender by David R. Hawkins. In it he talks about the different emotional levels we operate on. He presents them in a way I’ve never seen before – as a kind of ladder that we can climb. Starting with depression at the bottom … Continue reading The Ladder of Enlightenment
A few days ago, I had a Zoom meeting with Omar, my nephew by marriage. It’s been a while since I last mentioned that I married an Egyptian woman—a truly beautiful person named Azza—a little more than twelve years ago, back when I was living in Cairo, Egypt, and teaching at the American University in Cairo. Omar is Azza’s sister’s son. He’s in his early … Continue reading I Wish You Well, Omar
Dear, Readers, I’m speaking for all Wise & Shine writers when I say that we so appreciate your continued support of this blog. To show how thankful we are, we want to ask you to share a link to your blog or site in the “thoughts” or comments section at the bottom of this page. Please feel free to include a statement about what inspires … Continue reading Sharing is Caring
Controlling our judgemental impulses. Continue reading Life Is A Midway Horse Racing Game?
If there’s one aviation disaster that darkens my knickers more than most, it’s AirFrance 447 – the scheduled passenger flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on June 1st, 2009. In a very simplified nutshell, this is what happened. Approximately 2 hours after takeoff, AirFrance 447 entered a storm system that caused the instrumentation that measures the aircraft’s airspeed … Continue reading The Automation Paradox
Have you ever been tempted to have a duvet day? Find out when I snuggled down with my duvet for a break Continue reading Is the duvet day something we should all benefit from?
Most of us are familiar with the old saying, “When it rains, it pours.” I’ve been thinking a lot about that adage recently because there’s been quite a lot of pouring rain in my life over the past few months. A few weeks ago, I wrote about needing to take a leave of absence from writing for this blog after being diagnosed with a degenerative … Continue reading It’s Been Pouring
“Time doesn’t heal emotional pain, you need to learn how to let go.” ― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart During my adolescence, I was bullied relentlessly for over two years. It was one of the most challenging periods of my life. I was at boarding school at the time. Halfway across the world from my parents. I felt isolated and alone. So, … Continue reading Regaining Lift: A Stall Recovery Guide for Life
Hi, all. Wise & Shine is looking for a few new writers. If you’d like to apply to join the team, send samples of your writing via our “Contact” form. Please familiarize yourself with the sort of things our blog publishes before contacting us. We’ll send a set of writing guidelines to those who send examples of their work. We look forward to reading your … Continue reading Want to Write for Wise & Shine?
Her anger was subdued but she was volatile. It wasn’t my fault this time though. She had just gotten home from school, where she teaches fourth grade. It wasn’t a particularly bad day, but for whatever reason she was in a sour mood. Irritation and distaste bubbled just below the surface of her unamused facial expression. Continue reading Grumpy 101: What To Do When You’re Angry For No Reason
Dear Wise & Shine Readers: As some of you might have noticed, I’ve been mostly away from the site in recent weeks. I’m writing to let you know that I’ll be taking a leave of absence from the blog. I’m suffering from extreme burnout. Additionally, I was recently diagnosed with an incurable degenerative condition. I won’t die from this illness, but I will become increasingly … Continue reading An Explanation
It’ Super Bowl week! All the football cliches are on full display this time of year. “Leave it all on the field.” “Take one game at a time.” You know the rest of them…. But there’s one sports cliche that caught my attention more than usual over the past few weeks- playing for each other. Continue reading Playing For Each Other- A Football Cliche Goes Deep
