Worried About Moral Decline? It’s Just an Illusion
“The world is always ending…”
— Arthur Miller
“Remember when people used to be nice to each other?” I have heard some version of this on countless occasions and have voiced it myself. The perception that...
How Our Minds Shape Reality
“Ow… Ow… That hurts soooo much… Ow…” My patient was literally howling in pain. It was the middle of the night and I was the intern assigned to draw her blood for a procedure in...
The Benefits of Being Profoundly Bored
“Only boring people get bored” … I have said this to my kids on countless occasions. Boredom has always been something I eschewed—in my mind, it is on par with laziness and suggests a lack...
A Counterintuitive Strategy to Give Yourself a Boost
When someone is going through a rough patch, the typical recommendation is that they speak to a professional about what is bothering them. Articulating one’s feelings and challenging negative thought patterns, the thinking goes,...
Just One of These a Day Can Keep Anxiety and Stress at Bay
We are often told that happiness comes from within but decades of research points us in a different direction. Accumulating evidence shows that happiness comes from “with” as much as it comes from within. A brand...
Five Steps to Transform Ill-Will into Good-Will
“Not forgiving is like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die.”
— Anne Lamott, Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith
Last week I wrote about apologies and heard back from many of you about apologies you...