Be the friend to others, that you wish them to be to you. Madison Taylor, DailyOM The opposite is just as important. Choosing a friend takes a certain amount of caution, especially those that evolve into more intimate relationships. We need to make sure the friend we pick is treating us the way we deserve […]

All Aretha Franklin wanted from her man was a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T. But what did she mean by that? Respect is not that easy to define out of context. We can easily give examples of when respect is absent, but it’s not nearly so easy to define in our daily interactions with people. The definition from […]

Without communication, there is no relationship. Without respect, there is no love. Without trust, there’s no reason to continue.” ~  ME.ME Market In every relationship, trust is an essential ingredient. That goes for relationships with family, friends, co-workers, organizations, etc.  A relationship that is missing that ingredient is like a house with a ceiling, but […]

The relationship you have with yourself is the most important relationship of all. Welcome back to the series on relationships! If you are just “tuning in”, this is actually the 3rd article on the subject. Here are the links to the first two: RELATIONSHIPS MATTER – Introduction to the Series Loving Without Conditions – Part […]

Unconditional love is the active choice to love someone no matter what may come your way…. In unconditional love, satisfaction comes from putting someone else first and prioritizing their health and happiness with no expectation of reward for yourself.” Nadine Kalinauskas, E-Harmony Article Love given without any conditions…. none. How do you know if you’ve found […]

Relationships … the source of many conflicting emotions. Is it worth it? We have healthy relationships and we have unhealthy relationships. ALL relationships can help us grow, but healthy relationships are what we aspire to have, of course. But, what does a healthy relationship look like? In an article on the website of Northwestern Medicine, […]

In the process of letting go, you will lose many things from the past, but you will find yourself.” ~ Deepak Chopra What is your banana? There is a way of catching monkeys in Asia that takes advantage of the monkey’s obsession with holding on. A coconut is hollowed out and a small hole is […]

Acceptance is being in the moment without necessarily agreeing with it. It’s about facing reality rather than trying to control it.” We have been talking about mindfulness, why it matters, and what mental attitudes allow us to cultivate it. So far, we have covered non-judging, patience, beginner’s mind, trust, and non-striving. This attitude – acceptance […]

Almost everything we do, we do for a purpose, to get something or somewhere. In contrast, the essence of mindfulness is BEING vs. DOING. When we are striving, we are living in the past and the future. When we are non-striving, we live in the present moment. Why push so hard Why keep your head […]

Who do you trust? In Erik Erikson’s eight stages of human development, the first foundational one is about “basic trust.” He focused on trust and mistrust of the outer world (especially the people in it), and to be sure this is important. Yet often what looks like “the world is untrustworthy” is at bottom “I […]