Ready to Kick Your Smoking Habit?

Throughout the day, if you’re a smoker, you probably savor stealing a few precious minutes away from your hectic tasks for a cigarette break. These important “Me-Time Moments” can feel like a decadent reward and a revitalizing treat. However, are you aware that the chemicals in cigarettes include arsenic, formaldehyde, and hydrogen cyanide? Yep, the …

What Triggers Emotional Eating?

Emotional eating is a yearning for something that reaches far beyond nutritional fuel. Stress often triggers us to indulge in emotional eating. When we are emotionally hungry we may be starving for love and understanding; we may be yearning for respect, acceptance, or a sense of belonging. Transitions during the day are common stressful times …

How to Prevent Perfectionism from Polluting Your Major Celebrations

When we experience a rite of passage, in a sense, we are walking across a bridge. In the process, we are leaving a familiar place and transitioning to an unfamiliar place. These important rite of passage “bridges” in our lives serve as platforms to momentarily embrace, honor, and celebrate major life transitions. Rite of passage …

Disengage From Passive-Aggressive Communications: Flex Your Assertiveness Muscles

Passive-aggressive communications often lurk quietly in the shadows of our relationships. These behaviors may not be disguised behind sunglasses or trench coats, but they do frequently express in hushed tones. For instance, do you have a friend who calls you to tell you how angry she is at her husband, son, daughter, or sister? You …

Spring – Releasing & Renewing

As our winter hibernation period winds down, we lethargically come out of our cozy caves, stretch, and feel the warmth of the sun. When our muscles and limbs warm up, we receive a surge of new energy. Spring has arrived! After a good afternoon frolic in the sun, we are given an opportunity to return …

Mindfully Embracing Change

Dealing with change is an ongoing issue in all of our lives. Therefore, understanding our own personal style of dealing with various aspects of change—beginnings, middles, and endings—can be helpful. Comedian Jerry Seinfeld in his book, SeinLanguage, shares an insightful and humorous story called “Dining Out” that inspired me to come up with the following …

Isn’t it Time to Move Beyond Our Mysterious Weight Loss Barriers?

With 2009 behind us, we may want to compassionately assess how much impulse control we exhibited regarding the overwhelming number of temptations that were offered to us during the onslaught of holiday cheer (sometimes morphing afterward into holiday jeer!). The good news is that this fresh New Year may serve as an opportunity to take …

Creating a Soul-Full Holiday

Endless to-do lists, long lines, traffic jams, frazzled nerves, short-tempered drivers—rushing…rushing…rushing…or is it dashing…dashing…dashing to survive another holiday? Sound familiar? Then you may find that your holiday cheer has turned into holiday fear: fear of survival, not having enough cash or credit for presents, fear of not being skinny enough to fit into your cocktail …

Authenticity for the Whole Family

Last month I touched on the topic of authenticity in relation to the film Whale Rider. This month I want to expand on the topic and let you know about two excellent books that help cultivate authenticity for family members of various ages. Be Yourself, Everyone Else Is Already Taken—Transform Your Life With the Power …