Use It or Lose It: The Hidden Power of Attention
What if "use it or lose it" applies to far more than muscles and physical skills? The hidden power of attention shapes everything from intuition and empathy to habits, dreams,...
When we recognise who we are and that we’re connected at the very core, we open up the doors to changing our perspective on challenging circumstances. We start to view forgiveness with different eyes. To understand this further we need to learn more about how we function.
From whomever or wherever we come, our present is, in good part, made up of the stories of our past. These stories can be thought of as the twigs and string and odd detritus that holds our families together, and in each of these stories, at least one of these “unpredictable personalities” wants to take wing and fly.
First, it’s absolutely vital that we acknowledge that we are not alone in this ‘madness’, that the holidays come around every year come what may. There is no escape but there are plenty of tried and tested techniques to assuage the stress, anxiety and exhaustion that comes along with it.
Love works when we envision anyone bathed in it and project it to them. It works even for those whom we rightfully expect should love us, we assume love us, and of whom we can list 5,328 reasons showing how they haven’t. Love is what forgiveness is about. These words apply, most of all, to our parents. Are you rebelling already, saying, “No way! Not in a million light-years!”?
It's obvious that the holiday season is upon us. The idea is to thrive and enjoy during this time rather than just survive. Give yourself two great gifts for the next weeks - a lack of stress and actually celebrating the true spirit of this time of year – joy, love, and peace.
Most people spontaneously look for solutions that meet everyone’s needs. We want to please the people we love and want to please ourselves. It’s when we get stuck that we start to look for a compromise or think someone has to sacrifice.
When Congress passed the Older Americans Act in 1965 to support elderly people who were struggling—often alone—to continue to live at home, a major plank of the legislation provided for home delivery of meals.
Many people dread family get-togethers even if they really do love each other. We see this happening often – maybe you’ve even had this experience yourself and wonder why it’s so difficult. You really do love these people after all.
There is one universal goal that everyone on earth strives towards: happiness. But what is the best way of achieving it? For many of us, happiness comes from helping others. Some of the most inspirational stories of those who have found contentment are...

I would like to suggest that the holidays don’t really matter and there is nothing you really need to do about them. Such a suggestion, of course, reads like heresy.
These two core issues (or negative messages from childhood) often meet and interact with one another, sometimes in disastrous ways. Usually the carriers of these issues are more or less unaware of them.
December begins, fittingly perhaps, with reflection and blasts from the past, reminding us that we don’t leave our former selves behind as we change and grow, but instead better assimilate them into the fuller, more authentic and effective self that arises out of deep enquiry.

Research shows that satisfaction with life follows a U-shape—gradually falling from early adulthood and reaching a low point around the ages of 40 to 42. But it then reverses direction and keeps rising to the age of 70.

Many of us face challenging times in finances, career, relationships, or health at some point in our lives. We may feel powerless against the economic, social, and family forces around us and live our lives feeling bogged down or hampered by our circumstances, not knowing how to change our lives for the better.
Tasks we find difficult in some way can trigger procrastination. Luckily, there are tools we can use and systems we can put in place that help us prioritize and stay on top of those tough challenges. No matter how big or small the job, if something triggers your procrastination and makes you fall behind, it can be addressed in the following steps...
December marks the beginning of whale season in Hawaii. Around this time majestic humpback whales appear in Hawaiian waters, having traversed 3,000 miles of deep blue sea from offshore Alaska. The whales stay through the winter, mating and bearing their young. To watch them cavort is a spectacle for the senses and the heart.
For me, an unrecognized, unexpressed feeling is like a persistent hand tapping on my shoulder. If I don’t give the feeling what it wants, acknowledgement and expression, the tapping gets more insistent. The feeling pulls more and more of my attention away from the present moment.
Chances are you’ve seen and heard an emotional manipulator at work. Perhaps you even live or work with someone who regularly pulls out their blame gun and sprays accusations on everyone but themselves. They get angry and indignant and go on and on about how stupid, ineffective, or lame others are.
We hold in our mind all kinds of old fears and feelings that we’ve had since childhood, some of which we are only dimly aware. The problem is that the reptilian and mammalian parts of our brains respond strongly to those old feelings, as if they were current realities. We need to work on acknowledging those outdated feelings and fears and avoid being triggered...
Great prophets, gurus, spiritual leaders, and teachers across the world encourage us to search for the Great Light and find this mysterious thing they call "enlightenment". Many people begin their spiritual quest with one major mission: to become enlightened. But what is enlightenment and how can we truly reach it?
For most people, emotional healing is an on-going process and occurs gradually over time. We go through a process of recognising and removing layers of programming and false beliefs that have built up over the years. Over the years I have observed two main types of healing that takes place: specific healing and deeper healing.