Most people think of mood as something to fix, manage, or improve. We feel low and immediately look for a lift — a distraction, a treat, something to pull us up and away. But mood is not only a state; it is a signal. It tells us something about our energy, pace,...
We are always speaking inwardly, even in silence. This ongoing conversation, self-talk, becomes the unseen architecture of our emotional life. Sometimes it’s a steadying presence, a quiet coach reminding us we’re capable. More often, it is a relentless judge,...
We all carry moments that return to us unbidden. A door we didn’t walk through. A conversation that ended too sharply. A relationship that might have unfolded differently. Some regrets are small irritations, others feel seismic, and a few lie like stones in the psyche...
There is a Zen saying: “Whatever I encounter is my life.” Not the life I planned. Not the life I compare to others. Not the life I rehearse in my imagination. The one I am meeting, right now — with all its beauty and incompleteness. Most of us don’t resist the present...
If you’ve ever watched a dog rise from sleep — slow, unhurried, arching through its spine — you’ve witnessed something most of us have forgotten. A creature returns to its body before it returns to its day. Animals do not ask whether they’ve earned a stretch, whether...
There are relationships where ordinary communication does not work — where reason is met with distortion, vulnerability with mockery, and accountability with rage or punishment. When someone repeatedly manipulates reality, demands admiration, and reacts to limits as...
