Cultivate Compassion

“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice  compassion.” - Dalai Lama If you're looking for some long-term happiness in your life, you might consider giving the cultivation of compassion a try. Short-term happiness often comes from pleasures like sex, gambling, video games and so on and have a very limited effect. You want something more permanent and you can achieve that...

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Turning off the Noise Inside Your Head

That infernal, internal tape deck telling you all of the bad news for today, next week, ten years from now. Sometimes it's something small like you forgot to feed the fish this morning but it's going to keep running in your head reminding you what a moron you are and how dire the consequences are going to be. Other times it may be an anxiety attack detonator, prodding you constantly so you know that doom and death are very near. Without getting...

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Triumph in the Face of Adversity

Right now many people are facing tough times.  Life as we once knew it has changed and we may find ourselves confronting situations we have never dealt with before.  While we might not be able to control things that are occurring in the world, we can control how we react to what is happening.  Specifically, we can control how we use our minds and thoughts to get through difficult circumstances.  The following are simple...

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Now and Zen - The Broken Glass

How many times have you gotten upset because someone wasn’t doing their job, because your child isn’t behaving, because your partner or friend isn’t living up to his or her end of the bargain? How many times have you been irritated when someone doesn’t do things the way you’re used to? Or when you’ve planned something carefully and things didn’t go as you’d hoped? This kind of anger and irritation happens to all of us — it’s part of the human...

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Become a Human Lie Detector, a Primer on Subterfuge

What does deception detection have to do with Peace of Mind? Glad you asked. How many times have you wondered if, or later found out that someone lied to you and you reacted with anxiety or felt overwhelmed at least momentarily. Lying is a big part of this game called life and whether or not you're playing along, you're still in the game. It pays to be armed with the truth and the means to ferret it out. Once you realize that you’re being lied...

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Giving Your Power Away

Wisdom from my Dad: Some years ago it was the highlight of the summer to catch fireflies, or lightning bugs as we call them in the south, and collect them into a jar. The goal of course was to attempt to fill the jar as full as possible and theoretically have a nature made lantern of sorts. Dad was careful to point out that keeping them very long in a jar was hazardous for the the  bugs. "Well what if I put a lid on it with holes...

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