I recently read a short essay by Emily Perl Kingsley about her experience of raising a child with Down syndrome. Although the essay is widely shared among parents of special needs children, the message is for all of us.  It’s about having your expectations turned upside down. Welcome to Holland When you’re going to have […]

We are learning that willpower, alone, is a flawed strategy for sustaining change because it fights against our powerful and human feelings, impulses, and urges.

In this article, I want to talk about “The Empowerment Model.” For years, I’ve talked about it in the context of “key moments,” those situations and events in which our emotions are engaged and it’s easy to react or act out our negative feelings. But I like thinking of it as an empowerment model because by […]

Self-responsibility is the key to a happy and successful life. Consider that there are two types of problems– “out there” and “in here.” By “out there” I’m talking about events and circumstances. Your neighbor’s dog does its business in front of your house every morning. Your mother-in-law criticizes how you’re raising your kids. A co-worker […]

One step in the process of self-empowerment is embracing reality or accepting what is. This statement seems counter-intuitive. It seems like if you’re going to make things happen and live your dreams then you can’t be content or accept the way things are, but work or fight to make them different. Paradoxically, however, it begins […]

Hi my friend, As I’ve let you know in recent blog posts, I’m now launching my new video course entitled, “Claiming Your Power to Live a Happy and Abundant Life!” As a thank you to my email subscribers, I’m offering the course to you for a limited time for just $9.99 (full price $194). Click here […]

Most of us have ideas about how to improve our nation and the world. And yet we recognize that so many of the political and economic forces at work in the world are beyond our ability to influence. So we watch…and we wait…we hope…and we complain…forgetting that nothing will make the world better than simple […]

Our world is filled with so much noise and so many distractions that we have become uncomfortable with stillness. If things get quiet, we look at our phones. Or if we’re driving down the street, we turn on the radio. We arrive home and turn on the television or keep ourselves continually busy. This is […]

Mother’s Day is just a few days away and I want to take a few moments to write about honoring women, particularly those women closest to us. Here is one of my earliest memories. I was four years old. My mother was working at an ice cream parlor that my parents owned and my father […]

Research tells us that people who have grateful hearts are happier, less depressed, and less stressed than those who are less grateful. They report a greater sense of purpose, more control over their lives, greater self-acceptance, and more optimism. They are more empathetic, more forgiving, less materialistic and have more positive ways of coping with difficulties.