The New Year is almost upon us and I can hear people making their New Year’s resolutions. I have always wondered why they don’t make these changes when they feel the need to change something that’s causing them unhappiness. And, more important, why do they need resolutions? Why don’t they just do it when they realize what it is that’s interfering with their happiness? And the odd thing about this is that they may be waiting several months for the …
High school was not a happy time for me. I was painfully shy and always felt as though I was on the outside looking in. I knew that I would love college but I also knew that I just had to get through high school as quickly as I could. Toward that end, I went to school every semester, summer, winter, spring, and fall, with no breaks in between. It was during this time that I became aware of the …
I just received a very disturbing email from a friend of mine. There was a link to a video showing a man carrying a small handheld device that can read a person’s credit cards or bank debit cards that he’s carrying in his wallet, purse, briefcase, or hand if they have the RFID (radio frequency identification) microchip symbol on it. This RFID technology is called blink technology, or contactless technology because it allows a person to use their card without …
The thing I have heard the most during the years I have been counseling clients is, “I want to be happy.” I have heard that refrain even more than I have heard, “I want to find my soul mate.” Even when people are tired of living alone, they want to be happy more than they want to find a partner. I came across a quote by an unknown author who said, “When I was in grade school, they told me …
Yesterday was Christmas and I woke up with a fierce craving for a piece of rich, gooey, chocolate cake with chocolate fudge and a scoop of ice cream. The kind of dessert that should come with a warning label that says that it’s illegal or immoral and eating it is at your own peril. I was telling someone very dear to me about a restaurant that’s been in business for at least thirty years, and how, when one of my …
What would you do if you woke up from a coma in someone else’s body, speaking a foreign language? Rory Curtis, a twenty-five-year-old British man, was in a coma for six days following a horrific car accident on a busy motorway in England. He suffered extensive brain damage; his blood vessels had burst and blood was leaking into his brain. For six days, doctors battled around the clock to save his life. When he woke up, he was speaking fluent …
How does someone go from liking and respecting someone to disliking him enough to killing him? I might be able to understand it if this were a romantic couple and it was a crime of passion where emotions run so high that you don’t even register what you’re doing, but it’s harder for me to understand it in a friendship where there isn’t an emotional overload of a sexual nature. Sometimes, it’s motivated by jealousy but I can’t even imagine …
As a rule, during the holiday season, I used to see people being nicer and more jovial. Maybe not quite jovial, but more mellow. This year, there seems to be a marked decrease in the holiday cheer. Usually during the days leading up to Christmas, people used to be more patient when standing in long lines at the store. This year, there is more of an attitude of resignation. In the past, people used to talk to each other while …
I’ve always told my clients that if they have survived childhood, they can survive anything. And that’s true. Think of it this way: as a child, you are powerless and often feel like a victim. You can’t get your way too often if, at all, and you are often punished for things you didn’t feel you did wrong. And these aren’t even the children who have suffered physical or sexual abuse, nor are they the children who have suffered emotional …
It’s interesting to read articles about allowing ourselves to eat chocolate in moderation over the holidays to prevent us from feeling deprived. Most of them advocate that we plan ahead so that it’s included in the meal and, that way, we’ll be too full from the meal to gorge on it. I don’t know who these writers are but I can tell you, with absolute conviction, that if you have a sugar addiction, you won’t be able to stop with …