I am thrilled that you understan and can express the value of my and other authors' words.

Wellness is empowering

Try sitting still in silence and counting backward from 100 to 1. The simplest task is a challenge for a cluttered mind. It should take about a minute and a half, but the mind experiences time much slower when stillness is not an established routine. Silently counting is a mindless task unappreciated by the busy mind.

The over-reliance on external stimuli can be a response to emotional stress. While stress is a normal part of our lives, prolonged stress is a threat to optimal living. …

Like many survivors of childhood trauma, developing high-quality relationships was my nemesis. Relationships are where many survivors express their dysfunction while being great at everything else in their lives. I was no different.

Fear of abandonment often produces behaviors that create abandonment. The need for approval attracts highly critical partners. The desire for control results in high conflict that leaves you feeling powerless. One or more of these relationship destroyers arise with frequency for most survivors.

You Are Who You Love

Many survivors enter the healing journey based on relationship fatigue. We get tired of “getting it wrong,” whether with our spouses, children, friends, or…

When the big bad wolf bangs on my door

Huffing and puffing to blow my house down

I’m going to fight, I’m not going to hide

I wish the wolf would come inside

Bring the whole pack I still won’t retreat

Every one of them I will defeat

Not even a werewolf could change my destiny

But what if the big bad wolf is me?

What if I am the wolf in sheep’s clothes

Does it matter if I’m the only one who knows

What if I devour my own house

Because I insist on sharing my cheese with the…

If you want to know why diversity efforts are failing, we need only to look at election results. Even if I concede that Trump is right for the economy, I must believe that money matters above all else. Of course, it does. This is the United States.

But you can’t have your cake and eat it too. You can’t maintain happy, positive relationships with the people whose interests you vote against. Don’t expect your employees, members, or friends to believe you when you say you are interested in equity.

“It’s not whether you win or lose. It’s how you play…

I am one of 60 million adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse. The difference between me and most others is that I live openly, while most survivors live in secret. I lived in silence too for forty years, hiding instead of healing.

According to journals, books, and professional blogs, survivors are stifled by their sense of guilt and shame. While most of us experience those emotions to varying degrees, my ten years of working with survivors tell a different story.

The mind’s preference for the familiar is counter-productive to healing.

Most survivors can work through guilt and shame, given adequate…

Taking care of yourself is the greatest love you can show to others. Where love requires sacrifice and compromise of time, energy, and resources, it doesn’t require selflessness. Sacrificing self-care and joy should not be on the menu for love.

People often neglect their physical and mental needs to contribute to someone else’s quality of life. Many people make unhealthy sacrifices for their families, employers, or social groups in ways that leave them too depleted for self-care.

Every year people renew, then break, their promise to take better care of themselves. …

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. But what if you only had a thousand words left to say? Would you choose your words more carefully to draw the most beautiful picture your heart could convey?

I love you, I’m sorry, please forgive. Sometimes just three syllables are all that need to be heard. So what would you do with the rest of your words?

I believe generation Z would just send texts with emojis to try to cheat, or take long naps to deliver messages in their sleep. They would use smiley, winking, and kissing faces, to…