Eight days ago, fires began to tear through Los Angeles, driven by powerful winds. Tens of thousands of residents were ordered to evacuate, grabbing whatever few belongings they could with only minutes to spare. Members of my family evacuated one town, only to have to evacuate again from their presumed safe location. Entire communities were […]

Having some knowledge about healthy eating habits is generally helpful. Implementing such knowledge is even more helpful – to a point. When a person spends an excessive amount of time thinking about the quality of one’s diet and taking great measures to eat in a “healthy” way, this can be termed orthorexia. Although orthorexia hasn’t […]

Family Systems (IFS) therapy is based on the idea that we all have various parts or sub-personalities. This is perfectly normal and to be expected. Have you ever thought “part of me wants to stay at home, but another part of me wants to go to the party”? Or “part of me admires my best […]

You may spend a lot of time thinking about what foods to eat to nourish your body and mind – and with good reason, as there is definitely a connection between inflammation and depression, which can be either exacerbated or alleviated in part by your chosen diet. In addition, a nutritious food plan can help […]

Do you find yourself trying to figure out why experiences have happened to you, why certain situations frighten you, or why certain inevitables (death and taxes, as they say) exist? If so, welcome to the human race. Our minds are meaning-making machines. In addition, gaining a greater understanding of issues can be helpful, to an […]

If there’s one skill we all need in this unpredictable world, it’s resilience. Try as we might, and however hard we work, life will not always go our way. Some people respond to challenges and setbacks by bouncing back even higher, like a superball. Other people are more likely to land like a lead weight. […]

Patience is one of the most useful character traits we can develop. Whether we’re dealing with a prolonged case of the flu, a troubling relative, learning a second (or third) language, or digging ourselves out of a financial hole, patience makes it possible for us to withstand frustrations, control our temper, regulate our stress level, […]

Sometimes we need to reboot our lives, much like restarting a frozen computer screen when nothing else will. When we’re feeling wired and tired, we can slow down long enough to ask ourselves, “Is this depression or depletion?” Frequently it’s the latter. When we’ve been burning the candle at both ends for too long, things […]

We are with ourselves 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and the conversations we have with ourselves constitute the most powerful influence on our feelings, actions, and characters. How would you describe your internal conversations? Are they kind, supportive, honest, and patient? Or are they angry, critical, and discouraging? If the latter’s the […]

Is it better for your happiness and health to belong to an organized religion or to be more generically “spiritual”? Does it matter? Being religious generally refers to believing in a specific deity (or group of deities) and the regulations of a particular religion and tends to take place in a relatively formal, organized context. […]