Stepping Stones for the Good Life

I see the look on your face.  “Are you crazy?” it says. “How could I possibly be 100% responsible for what happens to me?  If I get hit by a drunk ...

When it comes to stress, the wiring in our brains works against us.  When we’re under stress, what does our brain want more of?  A chemical called ...

I have invited my friend Mary for tea on Friday. On Wednesday, I find myself in my home office plucking a book off the bookshelf and deciding that I� ...

Can you think back on a time when you knew you “should” do something but you just didn’t do it?  If you’re anything like me, this happens more often ...

“Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone?” –From “Paved Paradise” by singer/songwriter Joni ...

Recently I heard an interview with Karl Pillemer, professor of human development in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University and the ...

I’m writing this blog on the day when Karen, my close friend and a friend and treasured colleague to many others, made a peaceful transition from ...

“The goal in life isto find and fully use our own gifts” The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level by Gay Hendricks (p. ...

An incision on my lower right back, marked by a neat row of straight black stitches, is healing day by day. The doctor’s orders are to take it easy ...

A review of the recently-released book The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg, a reporter at the New York ...

Many years ago, a friend of ours who had done quite well financially quipped, only somewhat tongue in cheek, “Money may not buy me happiness, but I ...

One day about a month ago, I was browsing the shelves of the Ann Arbor library looking for a book on CD.  For years, I’ve been listening to books ...

Coming off the holiday season, I find myself thinking about gifts. I received some lovely gifts this year, including beautiful floral note cards, ...

In their book Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength, Roy Baumeister and John Tierney include a chapter they call The Perfect Storm of ...

Below is a fictitious but fairly typical list of New Year’s Resolutions: Exercise seven days a week (well, okay, maybe six) Stop buying stuff I don� ...

A lot has been written about gratitude, which, through the studies of such scholars as Robert Emmons, the author of thanks!: How the new science of ...

More than three years ago, I made a significant change in my life that only afterwards did I give a name to:  a black-and-white decision. For most ...

In his book Be Happy, Robert Holden offers up the notion of emotion as guest.  Below is a poem by Sufi poet Jelaluddin Rumi (from Essential Rumi, ...

In her ground-breaking book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Dr. Carol S. Dweck, the Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at ...

When considering whether to reach for a long-standing goal or dream, have you ever caught yourself saying, “It’s too late” or “I’m too old”? In ...

The other day I plucked off the shelf and dusted off my weekly calendar for 2008. It stands in a long line of failed attempts to keep some semblance ...