Many people in recovery from alcohol or drug abuse, compulsive overeating, gambling, or other addictive behaviors eventually realize that while quitting the behavior is crucial, it’s not sufficient to live a happy, serene, healthy, and useful life. The next step in recovery is emotional sobriety, or learning to deal with the uncomfortable feelings, thoughts, and […]

Both psychotherapy and a mindfulness practice can be powerful and effective ways to help us live more fulfilling, useful, and healthy lives. Moreover, being in therapy while having a consistent mindfulness practice can compound the benefits of both processes. How do these two benefit one another? To define terms, mindfulness is nonjudgmental awareness of the […]

We don’t like uncertainty. We never do. And in times such as these, so much is up in the air. We don’t know what additional restrictions our local government will mandate in terms of sheltering at home and business closures, nor how long they will continue. And what about access to testing and treatment for […]

How do you think your life would change if you had absolute faith that some all-loving and all-wise being could and was managing all of your problems? You’d probably feel a lot less stressed, for starters. You might sleep better at night, be more energized during the day, and be less distracted and thus better […]

Whether or not you set resolutions for the New Year, you probably would like to maintain or increase your happiness quotient. If so, the following tips may prove to be helpful: Write down three positive things that happened to you each day and think about how and why they occurred. Maybe they seemed to happen […]

It’s usually pretty easy to feel good about ourselves when things are going our way, when we’ve been making significant progress on our personal and professional intentions, and when we’re in harmony with the important people in our lives. However, when we fall short of our own expectations, disappoint others, or fail to achieve a […]

A 2010 study of over 2200 people found that about 47% of the time people are not thinking about what’s going on in the present. What’s more, the Harvard University researchers found that when our thoughts are focused in places other than the present moment, we are not as happy as when we’re in the […]

When we hear the word “mindfulness”, many of us think about how being more mindful could benefit our physical health, reduce our anxiety, help us perform better at our job, or deepen our spirituality. Being more mindful can certainly bring about these changes. However, mindfulness can also strengthen our relationships with other people. How does […]

Have you ever flown off the handle and said or done things you later regret? (Almost all of us have.) Or have you been so much “in your head”, focused on facts and figures that you lost contact with your feelings or those of other people? (Probably.) In the first case, you were in what […]

With mindfulness meditation gaining so much popularity over the past few decades, and seemingly even more so in the past ten or 15 years, it can seem as if just about everyone has taken up the practice. According to a recent research article (Burke et al, 2017) based on data from the 2012 National Health […]