Self Help
Experiencing Life Through a Child’s Eyes
The everyday can quickly become mundane and get old pretty fast. Speaking of old, haven’t you observed that it seems the older we get the more cynical we become? When we were children we’d think about relationships in a dreamy sort of way, all stars in our eyes. Maybe falling in love, finding “the one” and finally getting hitched in your mind looked exactly like a fairytale. Then, a few heart breaks and a couple of decades later, you’re a lot smarter and a hell of a lot more realistic. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s Not About the WHY, But the WHAT
You have a friend who has a lead foot. The dude’s always speeding. He’s gone 45 in a 15 MPH school zone with kids crossing but has never been caught, never even been honked at or yelled at by a fearful parent. He’s never going slower than 80 mph on the freeway. During lunch he brags about how his car insurance just went down again after receiving another good driver’s discount! He parks illegally in disabled spots for hours at a time, never pays for the meters cause he doesn’t carry around quarters and rarely obeys any traffic laws. This lucky SOB has never once been pulled over for a ticket and never has been in a crash. He’s even driven inebriated numerous times coming home from all sorts of parties and not once has he been pulled over. Read the rest of this entry »
Stopping the ‘Should-Haves’
Regardless of where you are at in life, almost all of us can look back at a moment or moments and reflect on all the things we didn’t do but should have. Perhaps you’re going back to school and finally getting the degree you always wanted, but you took a few detours getting there. You started a family, worked while your husband went to school or maybe you were single and just not ready. You wanted to travel, explore your options, live life and have a little fun. Read the rest of this entry »
When The Going Gets Tough…Get TOUGHER!
Have you ever heard of the sunk cost principle? It is business terminology that refers to how much time, money and resources one has invested that can no longer be recovered. It’s gone, baby, and there’s nothing you can do about it. So move on.
According to a University of Scranton, research found that just 8 percent of individuals actually achieve their New Year’s goals. The study showed that our brains are unable to process large lists, therefore making them counter-productive to our accomplishments. When you begin making an extremely long list, a Forbes article states that attempting to always knock the ball out of the park can be “psychologically daunting.”
Journalist and author of Mind Over Mind suggest keeping resolution lists shorter. While we’re still have more than half a year to go to reach Jan. 1, it is for certain that we all have at least one goal we’d like to have come to fruition next year. There is nothing wrong with having a dozen or so goals on your “to do list,” but have you reached a point where you feel like throwing in the towel? Read the rest of this entry »
How Well Do You Handle Stress?
Studies have shown that stress can wreak havoc not only on the body but also almost every area of your life. Unaddressed stress can cause sleep disturbances, poor eating habits, health problems, acne break outs, angry outbursts and even addictive behaviors.
One of the healthiest ways to combat stress is through exercise. When you exercise, natural endorphins are released that are said to be as potent as taking Prozac. That is right. According to a London research conducted in 2007, Mycobacterium vaccae, which is a bacteria found in soil, stimulates the precise neurons in the brain that Prozac does. So when out running trails, for instance, our feet kick up the soil and we absorb particles to provide our brains with a positive mood booster similar to that of antidepressant, psychotropic medication. Who would have ever thought? According to the article, when serotonin levels are low in our brains it can cause a number of mental ailments such anxiety, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), bipolar disorder, irritable bowel syndrome and fibromyalgia.
Writing With Hope 