Why Am I Feeling This Way?

An exercise in self-analysis. As I write this, I’m preparing for my annual vacation to southwestern Pennsylvania. I have attended an enormous medieval reenactment event every year since 1996 (save 2 years due to the COVID pandemic). This draws 10,000 people or more, and we spend up to 2 weeks hanging out with friends, enjoying classes on all sorts of medieval topics, eating, and partaking in various forms of combat. I have been doing medieval rapier combat (fencing) with the

You’re Not a Bad Person and Nobody Hates You

Unless you intentionally withhold kindness, compassion, empathy, and hurt/harm others. Everybody has their own beliefs, values, and habits. No two people think absolutely, perfectly alike, or in sync. Opinions are like assholes, so everybody has one (unlike assholes they frequently have more than one). Concepts of good and bad are fluid and ever-evolving. Today’s good guy is tomorrow’s villain and vice versa. People change. The pendulum swings in both directions. It’s very easy to get caught up in all the

Do You Control Your Anger or Does Your Anger Control You?

This is more of a choice than most people recognize. Emotions come in a wide variety of sizes, shapes, and colors. They can be so small that they seem nearly invisible or so large that they seem unstoppable and overwhelming. Despite the idea that Star Trek’s Vulcans are emotionless, the truth is that they train tenaciously to tightly control their emotions. One of the most dangerous traits of toxic positivity is the denial of negative emotions. Toxic positivity puts on

You’re Not The Only One Who Feels That Way

It helps everyone to recognize and acknowledge this truth. I think it’s quite obvious that we’re in the middle of a massive mental health crisis (and for the sake of brevity I’m putting mental, emotional, and spiritual all under the aegis of mental health). This is especially true in the United States. First, there was a narcissistic President elected (Trump) who induced anxiety and caused division in ways we’re still dealing with (especially with him somehow running for reelection despite

What Can You Do About That?

The answer depends on whether “that” is personal or broader. The evolution of humankind is amazing. Relatively speaking, we’ve gone from hunter/gatherers struggling to survive as individuals to farmers struggling to survive as a community to whatever we are now blazingly fast (only about 12,000 years). What we are now is an interesting mystery. Only in the past 100 years or so have human beings developed the ability to communicate instantly across the globe. We’ve gone from a knowledge base

Everybody Wants Kindness, Compassion, and Empathy

They are not, contrary to popular belief, scarce or lacking. Sometimes it feels like it’s all spinning out of control. I like to think that I’m a reasonable, thoughtful person. So how come it feels like I’m few and far between among people? First, there’s an important truth to consider. Bad news sells. Keeping the narrative negative puts eyes on websites, attracts viewers and readers, and makes the owners of the parent companies money. In truth, this is mostly thanks

Your Path Will Challenge You

Walking your own path in life is not selfish. You alone live inside your head, heart, and soul. Only you can think what you think, feel what and how you feel, and act or not on your intentions. You get to decide and choose if you take a positive or negative approach to life at any given time. Nothing that you do is written in stone. Everything about who, what, where, how, and why you are is changeable. Changing might

You Can’t Turn Off Your Brain

You can, however, change your mind. One of the biggest misconceptions when it comes to meditation is that you need to turn off your brain. Quiet the mind, silence the chatter, and so on. This is, of course, almost impossible to do. Sure, you can get some peace and solitude of mind for a time. But you can’t turn off your brain. The meditation that I practice is mindfulness meditation. I know, as such, that my brain is going to

Focusing Within Is Not Selfish, It Is Necessary Self-Care

Focusing without will depress, upset, and disempower you. The world is crazy. Let’s just call it what it is. When the Supreme Court decided that Trump could claim some immunity and that judges could overrule regulatory agencies at will, I found myself deeply angry. And scared. How did we step so far backward? Why could these 9 people decide that a President might as well be a King; and agencies meant to protect the environment and common people could be

You Can’t Make Them Understand

But you can be understanding and have an impact that way. People can change. But only if they desire to. When they don’t, they won’t. Sometimes you’re forced to change. Circumstances utterly outside of your control force change. A fire burning your home to the ground changes where you live, getting fired or laid off changes where you work, being dumped changes who you have a relationship with, and the like. You can’t do jack shit about these. They happen,

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