Happiness & Success
Achieving Happiness Through Acceptance of Life
The quest for happiness often leads to frustration, as many fail to realize that the...
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- Written by: John Cianciosi
How can we motivate ourselves to overcome anger? We might begin by considering the nature of anger to see whether it is a necessary, helpful, or pleasant state of mind. In other words, does anger improve the quality of our lives in any way?
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- Written by: M.J. Ryan
Certainly, not everyone is frightened by change. But for those of us who like predictability and routine, times of great change can bring on intense fear. That’s why it’s crucially important to recognize what we’re feeling and have coping strategies in place.
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- Written by: Jude Bijou, M.A., M.F.T.
Anger is in everyone’s emotional constitution to one degree or another. It oozes out in big and little ways, no matter how valiant the attempt to disguise it. It shows up when you act meanspirited, inconsiderate or bossy, or when you just find yourself frustrated about...
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- Written by: Joyce Vissell
There is a great need in every human being to be acknowledged and blessed by another person, especially their parent. People often strive to receive acknowledgment of who they are. When they do not receive acknowledgment or blessing, they can feel hopeless or unworthy.
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- Written by: Alan Cohen
I had a nasty neighbor who regularly picked fights over all kinds of issues. People drove too fast past her rural home; her neighbors partied too loud; vandals were supposedly stealing from her water line; trees encroached on her property line; and on and on...
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- Written by: M.J. Ryan
I have tremendous patience with people. I can get occasionally frustrated, annoyed, or even angry, but ultimately my patience kicks back in. I simply refuse to give up on a living being. You too have enormous patience for something and the more you study what fosters your patience, the more you will...
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- Written by: Shari Rathman
After 9/11, I was writing (and publishing online) inspirational messages that focused on peace... Now twelve years later, we stand at the precipice of who knows what, and peace still eludes the planet...
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- Written by: Mary Hayes Grieco
As a species, humans love control. We want to control our environment, physical and emotional safety, financial security, and self-image. Yet this same passion for control gets us into trouble as individuals and as a species. If we do not exercise wisdom, control can easily become addiction, tyranny, and repression. We find ourselves rebelling against...
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- Written by: Karen Casey
Changing our thoughts can be as easy as A, B, C. And that's the key to creating a different set of experiences that leads to the different life many of us deserve. One of my favorite ideas from A Course in Miracles is...
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- Written by: Mark Nepo
On the one hand, being free of heart depends on our ability to engage all our feelings. On the other hand, being free of mind requires letting go in a way that keeps emptying us of the residue of our experience. Otherwise, that residue can block our perception...
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- Written by: James Allen
As long as people are determined to cling to their preconceived opinions, mistaking them for Truth and refusing to consider dispassionately the positions of others, they can neither escape hostility nor arrive at blessedness.
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- Written by: Stephanie Bennett Vogt
Self-care includes a healthy dose of humor. If you’re not laughing every day, it’s time to start. Laughter creates powerful chemicals in the brain that act quickly to reduce stress and tension and lower blood pressure...
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- Written by: Stan Goldberg, PhD
The pain from the past that people experience often follows them to their deaths. I had been visiting Vince weekly for five months, and every week he began by telling me about his distaste for his brother, whom he hadn’t spoken to in twenty years. His animosity had to do with a...
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- Written by: Joyce Vissell
Is there a resentment that lives inside of you? When we first started our counseling practice, a woman came to us that had been raped. We asked her to try forgiveness and compassion. She looked at us like we were crazy. One month later...
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- Written by: Alan Cohen
We can upgrade all kinds of old patterns and situations in a much shorter time than it took to create them. Before we can do that, however, we have to let go of the notion that healing takes a long time, is hard, and requires pain...
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- Written by: Thomas M. Sterner
Our concepts of ideal and perfect are always changing. The evaluations and judgments we make unconsciously in every second of our lives that jump-start our emotions and bring us much anxiety and stress....
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- Written by: Stan Goldberg, PhD
In the West, we place our cemeteries away from our everyday lives, as if there were an impermeable barrier separating life and death. We pretend that death will go away if we just ignore it. We know that this isn't true, but...
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- Written by: Thomas M. Sterner
Everything we do is a habit, in one form or another -- how we think, how we talk, how we react to criticism, which type of snack we instinctively reach for. Even when faced with a circumstance for the first time, we respond to it from habit...
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- Written by: Alan Cohen
The end of this year might be a good time to decide which stories you want to leave behind and which you would like to take into the new year and amplify. Some stories are worth telling and others are not worth telling. Some stories empower us and others disempower us...
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- Written by: Joyce Vissell
A disappointment can really be a blessing in disguise. We had an experience of this recently while returning home from our three week work trip in Europe. I admit, I have a big thing about seats on the airplane. Sitting next to Barry is the most important thing for me. I also like to have an aisle seat. Sometimes...
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- Written by: Ken Druck, Ph.D.
“Live in the moment!” bumper stickers cry. “Live in the now!” self-help books declare. Movies like The Bucket List preach the importance of living life in all its fullness before your time on earth is up. And yet, “being in the now” is easier said than done, right?
