Monique once told me, It is the driven of the world who have the hardest lives. They don’t see their families or have time to enjoy a garden or a bedtime story. They may have money and prestige, but t...
Laughter, music, prayer, touch, truth telling, and forgiveness are universal methods of healing.
In our strange and difficult times, one reason the American dream stays alive is that new people keep showing up who believe in it. And, because they believe that America is the land of freedom and op...
In Legacies, Portes and Rumbaut report that most immigrants move into the middle-class mainstream in one or two generations. That is the good news. The bad news is that if they don't make it quickly i...
For our own positive mental health, we need to reconstruct some constraints. It is no accident that retreat centers are an increasingly popular vacation spot. Retreats restrict choice and thus, parado...
Bliss is an illuminating experience followed by a great feeling of acceptance and calmness. Joy and gratitude are part of this experience. We hold at the same time the deepest sorrow of the world and...
As a general rule, I don’t talk long to climate change deniers. From sad experience I have learned that it is impossible to change their minds.
Anyone who wants to can come to America. This is not true. We have strict rules and quotas on new refugee arrivals.
Ambition and Initiative
. . a philosophy that teaches: try to live a life that is not too arduous, not too comfortable, not too difficult, not too grandiose, and not too complicated.
Her realization that friendships were necessary for happiness,
Culture doesn’t make it easy to sort through this issue.
Whereas job distribution used to look like a triangle, it now looks like an hourglass. There are many jobs at the top and at the bottom, but the jobs in the middle are gone.
When transitions happen and identities change , one of our greatest challenges is to find a new sense of meaning and purpose in our lives. That sounds simple, but it isn't easy. As my doctor brother o...
When clients focused on positive sensory memories, they often pictured their summer vacation on a beach or the aroma of their grandmother’s cooking or the sound of music on a city street. These memori...
What I find most sustaining is what I loved as a girl: lying down on my back and looking at the sky. That is my first memory and I hope it is my last.
We can be intentional in our decisions about vacations and leisure time. Before we make our decisions, we can explore questions like, How far from home will we travel? Shall we go by bike, car, train,...
Visiting with other human beings may be one of the most ancient healing tonics.
Unless carefully managed, a physical disability can become a social and emotional one. I didn’t want to spend my life maintaining my health—I wanted to be fully alive and engaged with the world. I
To truly recover, one must find a deep sense of purpose and meaning.