Self Development

Mindfulness as Nutrient™

It seems that all we hear about lately relative to health and healing is, ‘Mindfulness this and Mindfulness-based that’. Along with this wave of ideas on Mindfulness come too many misperceptions. As if mindfulness were a product for purchase, that once we own, will make us better. I fear that the word itself, in its… Read more »

The Human Experience

Human beings are cursed with a conscious awareness of their own mortality. Human beings, unlike other species, are cursed with a conscious awareness of their own mortality. I believe that the tragedy of the human condition is that people’s awareness and true self consciousness concerning this existential issue contributes to an ultimate irony: Human beings… Read more »

Steps to Overcoming Your Critical Inner Voice

Most of us are all too familiar with those nagging thoughts that seem to surface every time we decide to push ourselves and try something new. Although the worry and self-doubt we experience when we take on a challenge, interview for a job, apply to a school or ask someone out can be met with… Read more »

7 Ways to Stop Violence at Every Age

Understanding, preventing, and effectively treating violence Seeing an image of a violent adult, it’s hard to imagine the innocent baby they once were. Is there such thing as being born violent? Are there really “bad seeds” when it comes to a human life? Like so many qualities, violence involves a real interaction between genetics and… Read more »

No, I Didn’t Fall Apart When I Quit My Day Job

All of us suffer some kind of tragedy in our lives. When my tragedy hit, my son’s death, I tried all kinds of things to take my mind off of it. I worked out, I wrote, I sought out diversion after diversion – like movies, theater, opera, travel—and I took care of myself the best… Read more »

All Hands on Deck: How We Can Help Someone Who’s Suicidal

The whole world has felt the impact of recent reports about suicide. The suicide rate in the U.S. military reached one a day this year, meaning more U.S. forces died by suicide than in combat in Afghanistan. A U.K. study published earlier this month showed 1,000 suicides to be linked to rising unemployment and the… Read more »

Red Pill or Blue Pill?

What You Don’t Know May Hurt You! If you are one of the millions of people who have seen the Matrix, then you would remember that Neo was given a choice to take either the red pill – which would open his eyes to reality, or the blue pill – which would keep him living… Read more »

The Deadly Recession: Dangers of a Down Economy

I woke up the other day to the awful news about the shooting outside the Empire State Building. As various news media began breaking more details, a single biographic fact of the gunman was repeated: He had lost his job. As Mayor Bloomberg put it, “A man who had been fired from his job about… Read more »

Are You Hardy Enough?

Life is stressful. Financial strains, employment worries, relationship difficulties, and parenting challenges can all lead us to feel overwhelmed. But what exactly makes the difference between those who get pushed over the edge with stress and those who, when faced with stressors, actually thrive and develop? In his 30- plus years of research, psychologist and… Read more »

The Inner Voice that Drives Suicide

Understanding a person in suicidal crisis One in five therapists has a patient who completes suicide. Understanding and preventing suicide is therefore one of the most frightening and important responsibilities of anyone who works as a psychologist or counselor. To treat suicidal patients, a therapist must understand what is going on in the mind of… Read more »