Empowering people to make strengthening choices
“[Dad], can I have a motorcycle when I get old enough?” “If you take care of it.” “What do you have to do?” “Lots of things. You’ve been watching me.” “Will you show me all of them?” “Sure.” “Is it hard?” “Not if you have the right attitude. It’s having the right attitude that’s hard.” […]
A sad story in modern life, at least in America, are all of the mass shootings in our public schools. As a psychologist I worked with students and their families who were directly affected by two different shootings. This is a story of how one young man recovered from a high school shooting. A Wonderful […]
We tell ourselves stories every day. Furthermore, these stories are powerful determiners of how we feel and act in everyday life. And today I want to talk about a common story that many people repeat to themselves. I call it the “I’m not okay” story. Unfortunately, it is a story that undercuts the happiness and […]
I’ve written quite a bit, recently and in the past, about managing our negative emotions. Learning to do so is a big part of finding peace, growing in emotional intelligence and creating more enriching relationships. Today, I want to help you understand anger, particularly the positive aspects of anger and why it’s an essential emotion […]
People are experiencing higher levels of anxiety, in our society today, than ever before. So I want to offer you a powerful process for managing anxiety by sharing a personal story from early in my career. A Daunting Request I had just graduated from the University of Minnesota with my Ph.D. in counseling psychology and […]
It is a Saturday evening around 5:30 and I’m facing a decision. It’s not a life-changing decision but rather a little decision about how I’ll handle the evening. Relatively minor, in the big scheme of things, but one which has consequences. I feel pretty lousy. Although normally healthy, I’ve been assaulted by cold and flu-like […]
In my studies of gratitude, I came across a beautiful story of gratitude told by Maureen Deuterma. It offers a perspective of what matter most. Email from a Friend I received an email from a friend of mine today sharing the good news that he had been promoted to vice president in a prestigious company. […]
If you’ve been following me for long, you know that I write about the ABCs of happiness—appreciating, becoming and connecting. From my study of the topic of happiness for many years now, I’ve reduced happiness to these three themes. Beginning today, I want to share some thoughts and also research about the third part of […]
