Everyone has stretches of sadness. Shifting how you think about and relate to sad feelings could help you through these times I have a particularly … Continue reading Avoiding sadness can backfire, here’s how to turn towards it

The ripple effects of kindness and 10 ways to spread it I was sitting by the indoor lap pool, waiting for a lane to open. … Continue reading Kindness Is Contagious, and You Just May Want to Catch It

Here are four strategies for making life transitions with greater ease. I have been watching with fascination as the woodchuck (a familiar furry friend in … Continue reading How to Know if It’s Time to Make a Change

How to get a daily dose of well-being one drop at a time. Many of us have bucket lists. Nothing wrong with that in and … Continue reading Forget Your Bucket List—Try Buckets of Well-Being Instead

Why we’re not mindful much of the time, and what to do about it. I was having a very ordinary moment washing my hands in … Continue reading 5 Ways to Step Out of Autopilot and Into Your Life

What to do when we’re face-to-face with difficult emotions. Last summer, I had a most interesting standoff with a fox. I had seen some creature … Continue reading Lessons About Facing Emotions From a Standoff With a Fox

A Personal Perspective: What I learned about resilience from endurance events. For someone who hadn’t owned or ridden a bike since I was a kid, … Continue reading Four Ways to Keep Going When Things Get Tough

Strategies to keep grounded in the face of painful emotions. If you are struggling deeply with recent world events, you are certainly not alone. I … Continue reading How to Keep Anchored During Difficult World Events

How to handle hassles and challenges without getting swept away. The day the giant piece of glass (for a display case that my husband was … Continue reading 3 Steps for Navigating Life’s Daily, Unexpected “Storms”

How to work with regret and rumination to find mental ease. Imagine that you take a large piece of luggage and fill it with rocks … Continue reading Six Ways to Loosen the Grip of Regret

How to stop going down rabbit holes and get more done. Picture this. You have work or other things to be done, but you tell … Continue reading Five Strategies for Being More Productive

Four steps to cultivating playfulness in your adult life. When was the last time you did something playful? As kids, we innately know how to … Continue reading How to Reclaim Your Playful Self and Find More Joy

How to step out of worry thoughts, intense emotions, and unhelpful behaviors. Whether we realize it or not, many of us get hooked—a lot. We … Continue reading An ABC Strategy to Unhook From Unhelpful Mindstates and More

Most people would agree that communication is at the heart of every relationship. Yet, we often find ourselves in situations where we react to others … Continue reading How to Up Your Communication and Save Your Relationships

As I walked through the wooded path on one of my favorite hiking trails, I heard a sound that I haven’t heard in a very … Continue reading How to Recharge in a Few Minutes a Day

Why your posture, muscle tension, and breath matter. The other day, I was having an immensely frustrating conversation with a customer service representative who I … Continue reading 3 Simple and Science-Backed Strategies for Reducing Stress

Steps for finding ease during the holiday season when you’re feeling down. While the holiday season is—according to everything from greeting cards, to songs, to … Continue reading Holiday Blues? You’re Not Alone and Here’s What You Can Do

Your nervous system may play a more important role than you realize. Have you ever been to an amusement park and experienced butterflies in your … Continue reading How to Get Unstuck From the Stories That Trap You

Understanding the power of kindness and how we often underestimate its effect. On the day of my mother’s funeral, I remember sitting in the back … Continue reading How You Can Make an Impact in 30 Seconds Without Knowing It

Seeking shade: A short practice for working with unpleasant emotions. It has been oppressively hot for many days now, the kind of hot that melted … Continue reading How to Find Comfort and Ease Amid Difficult Emotions

The power of mindful awareness and intention to replenish. When I walked outside yesterday to sit in my favorite meditation spot, I was taken aback when I … Continue reading How to Revitalize Yourself When You’re “Drooping”

The other day at a friend’s house I watched a squirrel as she tried for an hour or so to get at the seeds in … Continue reading How to Overcome Procrastination in 4 Steps

Finding the extraordinary may be no farther away than your front doorstep. The bird’s nest outside my door is a testament to something truly awe-inspiring. … Continue reading Want to Experience Greater Well-Being? Try a Little Awe

How to reset your stress response to find greater balance. I’ve spent more time than usual lately resting on the floor on my back, with … Continue reading When Doing Nothing Is Good for You (and Your Nervous System)

In interactions, our nervous systems respond automatically to perceived threats. The other day, my computer was hacked. The morning had started off badly, with my … Continue reading For Better Relationships, Get to Know Your Nervous System

4 reasons to cultivate well-being and how to get started. Recently, I had a number of days when I felt in a funk. I felt … Continue reading Stop Striving for Happy: Try Well-Being Instead

A values-based approach for starting the new year. With everything going on in the world right now (as I am writing this, the pandemic continues … Continue reading Tired of Traditional New Year’s Goals? Try Kindness.

Learn ways to stop stress drains before they spiral. Imagine if whenever you encountered emotions such as irritability, frustration, impatience, and the other emotions that … Continue reading An On-the-Spot Strategy to Shift Out of Negativity

Use the five W’s and mindful awareness to help with unpleasant feelings. Have you ever experienced a time when you were upset, irritable, angry, sad, … Continue reading 5 Strategies to Cope With Difficult Emotions

The science behind taking a few deep breaths. Every day as I walk through our garage, I pass a toolbox sitting on a shelf that … Continue reading Why This Surprisingly Simple Tool Helps You Cope With Stress

The power of creating cues of safety and positive feedback. What does it take to thrive? Plants are fairly straightforward—give them the right combination of … Continue reading 9 Ways to Create a Thriving Environment at Work or Home

This essential element of mindfulness can help break unhelpful patterns. On a recent night, I was just starting to drift off into that sweet, relaxed, … Continue reading 3 Ways Curiosity Can Help Calm Reactivity

How to make choices that serve your long-term well-being. Does any of this sound familiar? You hit “play next episode” on Netflix (for the third … Continue reading 5 Strategies for Stopping Unhelpful Behaviors

Three strategies for building your inner nurturer muscle. Consider which of these is true for you: Do you have a loving, supportive, kind, and encouraging inner … Continue reading Inner Critic vs. Inner Nurturer: Which Will You Strengthen?

Three strategies for bringing ease in the middle of the night. A number of years ago, we had torrential rains that turned the area right … Continue reading How to Turn Down the Worry Brain (and Sleep Better!)

How to navigate the challenges of this pandemic in the new year – By fostering a resilient mindset. If I had to sum up in … Continue reading 4 Ways to Strengthen a Resilient Mindset Amidst Adversity

How to give the gift of presence this holiday season and beyond If you are thinking about gift-giving this holiday season, you might try the … Continue reading Three Ways to Be More Present in Relationships

Finding Moments of Stress Relief in Our Challenging World Imagine reading this sentence without any punctuation it just turns into one sentence running into the … Continue reading How to Dial Down Your Stress Response

Proactive strategies for how not to lose your mind If you are a parent you know that this pandemic has challenged you in ways you … Continue reading SOS for Parents During the Pandemic

Cultivating well-being amidst difficulty. Feeling Down? You’re Not Alone This pandemic is a particularly challenging time for most people. If you have been feeling down more … Continue reading 3 Strategies for Lifting Your Mood When You’re Down

Connecting with our deeper values one day at a time. As I opened my front door on a recent May morning, I was greeted by … Continue reading Three Steps for Finding Purpose in the Everyday

Here are some things that I am trying to do: 1. Understand that Black Lives Matter Some people are inclined to say that “all lives … Continue reading Five Steps White People (Myself Included) Can Take in Response to Systemic Racism

Practical tips to try when you are anxious. I’ve been up in the middle of the night a lot lately. It’s given me the opportunity to … Continue reading 5 Strategies for Coping With Anxiety During the Pandemic

At times when I have felt a sense of helplessness in the face of uncertainty I have turned to simple meditation practices to help me … Continue reading Mindful Pause for Difficult Times: Finding Coping Strategies for Resilience

Finding resilience during the outbreak. I have a confession to make. I am writing this blog as much for you as I am for me. These are … Continue reading Coping Strategies for Uncertain Times: Calming Your Nervous System During the Coronavirus Outbreak

Six tips for positive and lasting change. Most people are aware that making healthy lifestyle changes would be good for their long term well-being, yet … Continue reading Making Healthy Habits That Last

A short practice for change. Sitting by the edge of the indoor pool on a winter’s day, I swung my feet into the water, feeling … Continue reading How to Shift Perspective When You’re Stuck in Your Own Way

How to move past self-doubt and toward your goals. The Five Words That Will Stop You in Your Tracks There are five words that will stop … Continue reading ‘I Could Never Do That” and Other Myths We Tell Ourselves

A mindful and values-based approach to moving through the holidays While many people delight in holiday time, for other people the holidays aren’t all that … Continue reading How to Bring Ease to Holiday Stress

An informal meditation practice for facing life’s challenging moments When life throws us challenges, it can be beneficial to have ways to comfort ourselves amidst … Continue reading S.O.S. for Difficult Emotions

Why it’s good for us and how we can do more of it. Among so much disheartening news these days, once in a while there is … Continue reading Beyond Empathy: The Power of Compassion

Slowing Down to the Speed of Life Finding Moments of Presence I came across a rather unusual sight as I pulled into the parking lot … Continue reading New Research on the Benefits of Informal Meditation Practice

Transform a hassle into an opportunity. Somewhat in a hurry to get home, I had just finished my errands and began to feel a familiar … Continue reading How to Escape the Irritability Trap

Strategies for getting to what matters most Let’s face it—in this digital age it is so easy to get sucked into minutia, is it not?   With electronics … Continue reading How Not to Get Sucked Into an Electronic Time Warp

Changing Our Narratives, Changing Our Lives Not long ago I was caught up in a temporary funk of self-doubt.  I was at a several day event … Continue reading A Strategy to Unhook From Mental Suffering

A mindful practice for all ages. As a child, and much into my adulthood, I spent countless hours worrying about things that I could not … Continue reading How to Help Kids (and Ourselves!) With Worry

What do these two people have in common: a young man playing the cello, and a father eating with his daughter at a local restaurant? … Continue reading How to Show Up for Your Life: Turning the Ordinary into the Extraordinary

Perhaps this scenario sounds familiar:  You decide to change a behavior that isn’t serving you (like quitting smoking or spending less time on electronics) or you want … Continue reading Seven Breakthrough Strategies to Reach Your Goals: How to Grow Inner Resources for Change

It probably comes as no surprise that what we think and say to ourselves day in and day out, over weeks and years and decades, … Continue reading How to Build Resilience in the Face of Failure (and Success)

Consider this scenario that happened to me recently. I had a very important phone conference scheduled with someone at 10:00 a.m., and I had been awaiting … Continue reading How to Step Out of Your Mental Traps: Getting Out of the “I” of the Storm

Have you ever felt like you are just going through the motions of your day, not fully engaged with your life?  Or perhaps it is easy … Continue reading How to Create Meaning and Purpose in Our Daily Lives

I find it fascinating to watch an object rolling down a hill, gaining momentum exponentially.   This phenomenon is one that I have observed not only … Continue reading Reversing the Downward Spiral: Tapping Into the Power of Positivity

The results of a research study looking at whether meditation at work is beneficial or detrimental was recently reported in the New York Times (Sunday, June … Continue reading Is Mindfulness at Work Detrimental? A Cautionary Tale About a New Research Finding

Happiness…it’s the holy grail, right?  Dr. Tim Bono, in his book Why Likes Aren’t Enough:  A Crash Course in the Science of Happiness, addresses this and other myths … Continue reading Finding the Medicine For Your Soul

For better or worse, we’ve inherited a worrying brain. This was really good news for our ancestors who had to survive harsh conditions and constant predators, and … Continue reading Antidotes for the Worrying Mind (part two)

Mark Twain is quoted as saying: “I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.”  The … Continue reading How Worry Takes Us Away From Our Lives (and What We Can Do About It)

Recently, a memory of an experience I had made me think about how we can empower our girls and young women in a culture that … Continue reading Empowering Our Girls: Being Part of the #MeToo Solution

Let’s face it — changing behavior is difficult. If it were easy, we wouldn’t find ourselves coming up with the same New Year’s resolutions year after … Continue reading Three Tools For Making Lasting Change

As much as the approaching holidays can be a time of joy and celebration, for many people this time of year is also filled with … Continue reading How to Transform Stress This Holiday Season: A Practical Guide for Creating Greater Ease and Meaning

We all long for acceptance, to feel seen and heard and held in a space where we are accepted unconditionally by another person. Some of us … Continue reading How to Grow Self Acceptance and Find Wholeness: A Challenge of Being Human

While stress is an inevitable part of our human experience, chronic stress is not. Yet it is an epidemic that affects so many of us. … Continue reading Three Minute Meditation to Reset

I became intrigued by this idea of what I call “the sandwich effect” when I began noticing how I spent the first few minutes and … Continue reading The “Sandwich Effect”: Starting and Ending Our Day To Be Our Best Selves

While stress is not all bad, it can sneak up on us unaware and sometimes escalate us to the point where we react in unhelpful … Continue reading A Practical Tool To Put the Brakes on Stress

Our brains are hard-wired to scan our environment and pick up on threats of all kinds.  Often the “threats” that trigger this primitive part of … Continue reading How To Calm Our Anxious Selves

As a psychologist, I have seen time and time again the power of people taking very small steps to bring about very significant changes. Whether … Continue reading The Remarkable Power of Momentum: Using it to Change Your Life One Small Step at a Time

We all experience times in our week, and in our lives when we fall out of balance. For some people this might mean staying up … Continue reading The Cost of Not Paying Attention, and How to Come Back Into Balance

What do we do when we come up against anxiety? We all experience anxiety at times, but it is one of the more uncomfortable emotions … Continue reading Lessons From the Fifth Floor: A Personal Account of Moving Through Anxiety with Greater Ease

As human beings, we have a tendency to resist difficult or unpleasant experiences, and this resistance can unwittingly contribute to our unhappiness. There is a … Continue reading What I Learned About Life From Standing On My Head

This is the second part of this post. If you missed the first part, feel free to check it out HERE. As I mentioned in … Continue reading 10 Tips for Living Your Life With Less Stress and Greater Joy – Part 2

Our well-being is fundamental to everything in our lives, from our emotional and physical health, to the quality of our relationships, to our work life, … Continue reading Ten Tips for Living Your Life With Less Stress and Greater Joy – Part 1

One unfortunate consequence of mindfulness becoming mainstream is that the term “mindfulness” has become so used that it has been at times overused and misunderstood. … Continue reading The Unfortunate Consequences of Mindfulness Gone Mainstream: Untangling the Myths

     While the holidays are supposed to be a time filled with joy and celebration, they are, for many, more often filled with stress. … Continue reading A Five Minute Practice to Decrease Holiday Stress and Reclaim Holiday Joy

            Take a moment to try a quick experiment.  Say the following out loud if possible, or to yourself if you prefer:  “This is awful.  … Continue reading The Power of Our Thoughts and How to Flip the Switch on Stress

As a psychologist, I’m in the business of helping people deal with stress, and lately there has been a growing amount of it.  According to … Continue reading How Psychology Can Save Us During This Election

My daughter recently interviewed me on my thoughts about “what does it mean to be healthy,” for a college project she is doing. What I … Continue reading Whole Person Health: Nourishing Mind, Body and Spirit

I happen to love running.  It’s something that gives me strength (physically, but also mentally) by allowing me time to be present to nature around … Continue reading What My Muscles, and Your Brain, Have to Do With Cultivating Well-Being

As I was standing in the near darkness tonight watering my plants, a memory came back to me from many years ago that made me … Continue reading The Gift of Pausing

            We all have had moments where we lose perspective.  I know for me, I have gotten caught up in … Continue reading A Fascinating Exercise in Perspective Taking (Learning to See the Whole Picture in Each Moment)

       Change is difficult for most of us.  I envy the person who can leap into change with hardly a fear or trepidation; … Continue reading The Revolving Door: Navigating Change and Transition With Greater Ease

Being human is inevitably stressful.  As I think most people would agree, some stress is an unavoidable consequence of living our lives.   Whether we were … Continue reading How Full Is Your Container and Why It Matters

Personal Reflections to Inspire Well-Being     Every day as I walk through our garage I pass a toolbox sitting on a shelf, that mostly goes … Continue reading A Mindful Pause: A Simple Tool For Well-Being

Being in a State of Presence:  Learning to Live Life One Moment at a Time Personal Reflections to Inspire Well-Being We are blessed with the … Continue reading Being in a State of Presence: Learning to Live Life One Moment at a Time