Your Reaction To Any Given Situation is Your Choice

Maybe not initially, but after that it is. Like it or not, shit happens. And there isn’t a damned thing you can do about it. When shit happens, you’ll react to it. This always comes in three stages. The first stage is your visceral, immediate, automated reaction. What that will look like is situational, dependent on factors including what, where, how, why, and when, and often unpredictable. This can include immediate rage, anger, frustration, joy, surprise, excitement, or interesting combinations

Be Who You Need

You’re more powerful and capable than you realize. Human beings are social creatures. Even the most introverted people still need people (just fewer, more specific people). How you need people in your life is extremely variable. Sometimes it’s simply about knowing someone is there in some way. Other times, you need someone to shoot the shit with. Sometimes you need reassurance, validation, encouragement, or some other external recognition/acknowledgment. Still other times, you need literal assistance from another person. Lots of

New Year To Start Anew – Or Not

It’s okay not to change anything with the new year. Today is the day after yesterday and the day before tomorrow. It also just so happens to be the first day of a new year according to the Gregorian Calendar. One of the enduring ideas of the new year is to make some sort of resolution. A quick search showed that New Year’s Resolutions date back thousands of years. What exactly is a resolution? A resolution is defined as an

Don’t Let Them Win By Making You Negative

Find and/or create positivity in the face of ongoing insanity. One of the most distressing things about 2024 coming to an end is what we can expect in 2025. Specifically, the incoming US administration and all the bullshit, fear, and uncertainty they’re bringing to the table. Even those who gave their support to this insanity are uncertain what it will mean. This is making it increasingly easy to be fearful, distressed, and negative. There is no telling what will happen.

Thank You For Being Here

Thank you for being you. The holidays are a mixed bag. For some, this is a happy, joyful, amazing time. But for others, it’s a sad, unhappy, awful time. Your mileage may vary. I can relate to the discomfort many experience this time of year. As a child, I grew up as a non-Christian minority (my family is Jewish) in a very Lutheran area. Coupled with that, I was also the only one who had divorced parents, one of whom

Asking for Help Does NOT Make You Weak

The power and positivity of kindness, compassion, and empathy It can be difficult to ask for help. This is especially challenging now when so many forces equate asking for help as a weakness, unbecoming, and something to be avoided. That’s simply not true. Asking for help does NOT make you weak. What it does is make you open to receive kindness, compassion, and empathy. I don’t care who you are or what your circumstances might be. You have an innate

You Choose How You Approach the Unknown

This is a necessary element of mindfulness. The year is coming to a close. A lot has happened in the world, and much of what’s occurred has created a surreal amount of the unknown. A great deal of the unknown we’re facing is scary. Certain people about to take power are expected to abuse it, and there is no telling how that will impact people like you and me. All I know is that the unknown is hugely, massively uncertain

You Choose Your People

You get to choose who you give pieces of your head, heart, and soul to. There isn’t a damned thing you can do about “them.” Them? Those people. The ones making all the surreal, ludicrous choices. Those people who deny science, believe lies, and accept things as true that aren’t. You can’t do anything about them. This is deeply disheartening. On the one hand, you probably want to believe that people are inherently good. I know that I do. But,

If You Fall Today Get Back Up Again Tomorrow

You’ve done it before and will do it again. Nobody lives an absolutely, 100% perfect life. Nobody. Every person on the face of the Earth has crappy days, experiences stress, contends with shit on various levels, and feels bad.  Everybody who lives, has lived, or will ever live, will experience this truth. Sometimes this is not due to anything you did or didn’t do. Shit happens. You have zero control over anyone or anything else in the Universe. So that

Judgment Does Nobody Any Good        

Being judgy is easy but, like blame, fixes nothing. Spend any time whatsoever reading or watching the news or browsing social media, and you will see example after example after example of judgment. Some of it is meant to point out problems and place the blame where, admittedly, it belongs. Other elements of judgment come from seeing some less-than-ideal people receive their comeuppance. Sometimes it’s a matter of seeing what someone else is going through and either judging yourself better

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