New research suggests that focusing on the “silver linings” of our negative traits can lead to positive results. Researchers call the finding a “silver lining” theory.

Whether or not we’re part of a couple, we come into the world alone, we leave alone, and we make many of our most important decisions after we’ve done our own private soul-searching. We and we alone are responsible for our behavior; we create our own lives.

The news was beyond depressing. It was ridiculous. It was unbelievable. Finally, after the closing sortie of auto accidents and snarled traffic, the broadcaster announced, “. . .and now for a great new book by an author who is going to tell you how to live a happy life.”

Awareness is the beginning of healing. It is the transformation of consciousness from feeling victimized and separate to remembering that we are always connected with a higher purpose and a greater objective than simply sleep-walking...

One of the secrets of living a happy life is to become your own best friend. But you can only do this when you know who you are, when you honestly and truly know yourself. Because what does a best friend do? A best friend sees you for who you really are and unconditionally loves and supports the real you...

When I was anorexic, surface feelings took on a villainous and critical role. I know this sounds melodramatic and unrealistic (because it is), but “feeling bloated” literally felt like the death of me. I could not separate my true self from my passing thoughts and feelings.

All my life I wondered, What is my role? I explored this both within myself and with the help of others. I began by asking myself, What can I offer to the world, given my specific skills, life experi­ences, and through the platforms that I will attain?

I realized my nagging feelings of dissatisfaction, that little dissenting voice that made me feel like I wasn't in the right place at the right time, or doing the right thing, was all a set of instructions for how to find inner peace in the presence of my emotional turmoil...

Independence allows us to choose our lives, live them however we want, decide who we marry, what kind of work we do, if we want to have children, and the religion or spiritual path we follow. Independence gives us freedom of choice. We can easily forget an equally important thing … dependence...

Joy enters my heart each time I see the world from a higher perspective than before. I can see more clearly through the eyes of my greater self. I know that finding joy is possible even in the most extreme circumstances...

There are those who think karma is about blame and punishment. This sounds like old-time religion to me -- the methods and fear-based strategies designed to control simple minds and simple hearts. Karma is not like that...

No one gets through childhood without some degree of wounding. If we stay blind to these wounds, they have a way of unconsciously ruling us. Our inner child is the full complement of childhood feelings, needs and...

Take out your journal and write the names of two women you admire. Women who for you embody the word "god­dess." For me, this first list might include Michelle Obama and Helen Mirren. If you're...

It is time to stop being your own worst enemy and begin to become your own best friend. As a psychotherapist, I see time and time again the adverse effects of my clients' lack of self-care. In general...

For years, I looked at myself through the prism of trying to “fix” myself. It was subtle, out of sight, like a current underneath the smooth surface of a river, but it was altering the flow of my life...

Beliefs, dogma, theologies — all the costumes of religion — vary dramatically through time and place. But the call to know love as the ground of our being, and to honor our gift of life through the way that we live it: this does not vary.  Seeking, yearning, tasting and transforming are certainly heart, soul and meaning of...

The more we bristle at the idea of self-responsibility, the more likely it is that we were taught at an early age to feel shame. Blame and shame go hand in hand, one giving rise to the other. They both have to do with finding fault, pointing a finger of judgment, and defining something or someone as “wrong.”

Many of us have a well-practiced habit of talking about the faults of others. In fact, sometimes doing this is so habitual that we don't realize we've done it until afterward. Yet, when we examine its effect in our lives, we quickly realize that this habit...

I've never been a big fan of country music. I have found it depressing, sad, whining, self-pitying... Well, you get the picture. However, now that I live in northern Florida, when I'm in my car and I'm "surfing" radio stations, country music is mostly what I find. Now, I must admit, I've discovered that not...

The question to ask ourselves is "Who are we becoming?" Are we living up to the child we were, or could have been? Loving, playful, wanting nothing more than to love and be loved. (I'm talking about very early childhood. Before we were tainted and "corrupted" by mind games, by competitiveness, jealousy, revenge, etc. etc.)

by O.C. Smith & James Shaw. God's little green apples are yours for the picking. Whether you reach above your head for the green apples, or whether they fall at your feet, you must do the picking. It is only then that you can "bite into" (have) your new and changed experiences.

If you look in the eyes of a young child, one or two years old, very often it looks as if there is a light on in there. In an adult this light is gone. Where does it go? What happens to it? What is the difference between this child and me that I no longer glow with this brightness?

Outside her country home, Dorisse exclaimed, "I've just got to stop and pick some of these delicious blackberries." Until she said that, I hadn't noticed that there were blackberry bushes all around us. I was amazed. Here I was surrounded by a potential source of nourishment...