By James Leatherman “No feeling is final.” ~Rainer Maria Rilke I’ve battled depression for most of my life. In my younger years, it gripped me pretty frequently. I was first hit with suicidal thoughts at the age of fifteen, and it scared the bejesus out of me. I was young and dumb and had no idea…

By Steve Kaminsky With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin, Without any doubting or quiddit,  He started to sing as tackled the thing  That couldn’t be done and he did it. —Edgar Guest   I’ve always believed in the adage “actions speak louder than words.” I’ve never been one to seek…

By Laura Lloyd “When you no longer believe that eating will save your life when you feel exhausted or overwhelmed or lonely, you will stop. When you believe in yourself more than you believe in food, you will stop using food as if it were your only chance at not falling apart.” ~Geneen Roth I used…

By Christine Rodriguez “The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” ~Eleanor Roosevelt For some of us, like me, the question, “What is my purpose?” creates a ton of anxiety and a feeling that our self-worth is being undermined. It’s hard…

By Brittney daCosta “The body is a multilingual being. It speaks through its color and its temperature, the flush of recognition, the glow of love, the ash of pain, the heat of arousal, the coldness of nonconviction. It speaks through its constant tiny dance, sometimes swaying, sometimes a-jitter, sometimes trembling. It speaks through the leaping of…

By Zachary Goodson “Our thoughts create our beliefs, meaning if you think about yourself a certain way for a long enough period of time you will ultimately believe it.” ~Anonymous You’re ugly. You’re stupid. You’re a loser. Imagine thinking this way about yourself every day. No exaggeration. That was me. When a girl didn’t want to…

By Jess Stuart “To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.” ~EE Cummings For many years I felt like a fish out of water, but I desperately wanted…

By Ann Davis “Solitude matters, and for some people, it’s the air they breathe.” ~Susan Cain Do you get ticked off too? I mean, when people say you’re awkward, naive, and anti-social. Your feelings get bruised, and then you find yourself drowning in a sea of unhappiness. All you want is to be normal. To be…

By Osha Key “Universe is not outside of you. Look inside yourself; everything that you want, you are already that.” ~Rumi I remember when I was a kid, “thirty years old” sounded very old and mature. “Someone who is thirty clearly knows everything about life and has it all figured out.” That was my assumption. Life taught me…

By Psychic Danielle Being a Reiki healer, I encounter people with all kinds of issues. The most common one is healing from a heart break! I have worked in Reiki healing for over 12 years and 85% of my clients come to me to heal from a pain that they can’t move on from. Reiki…

By Melissa Renzi “Sometimes I think I need a spare heart to feel all the things I feel.” ~Sanober Khan I felt her agony and loneliness as if it were my own. Even as I write that sentence, my eyes well up and heaviness fills my heart. Then, I’m reminded to apply the advice I give…

By Will Aylward “When we get too caught up in the busyness of the world, we lose connection with one another—and ourselves.” ~Jack Kornfield It was a Monday a few weeks ago, 6:00am, and I was taking a morning walk. The only light in sight was the neon yellow glare of the street lamps. My heart…

By Kim Speer I will breathe. I will think of solutions, I will not let my worry control me. I will not let my stress level break me. I will simply breathe. And it will be okay. Because I don’t quit.” ~Shayne McClendon It was a Wednesday afternoon in late July, and I felt like my…

By Cam Taylor “Sitting silently beside a friend who is hurting may be the best gift we can give.” ~Unknown There’s a time for words and a time for silence. Thankfully, when I went through one of the darkest periods of my life, I had friends who knew what time it was. When things go well,…

By Vironika Tugaleva There is no magic cure, no making it all go away forever. There are only small steps upward; an easier day, an unexpected laugh, a mirror that doesn’t matter anymore.” ~Laurie Halse Anderson It began in elementary school. I was a chubby immigrant with a thick accent and hand-me-down clothes. I so badly…

By Kari Dahlgren “There isn’t enough room in your mind for both worry and faith. You must decide which one will live there.” ~Sir Robertson Do you consider yourself a worrier? Maybe even a perfectionist or Type A personality? When I’m not at my best, I can be all of those things combined. (Not cute, I know.)…

By Aska Kolton “Never lose yourself in a relationship. Love your partner fiercely, but always follow your unique dreams and desires. Be true to yourself.” ~Unknown All my previous relationships drained me. Not only because I was with the wrong men and kept trying to make things work where there was no way, but also because…

By Lianna G. Ruben “The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them.” ~Ralph G. Nichols   My partner and I were in our first few months of a long-distance relationship. This was a new stage for us and…

By Lori Deschene Have you ever found it hard to motivate yourself to do something that was good for you, only to eventually do it, feel amazing, and wonder why you waited so long? That’s what meditating was like for me. Even though I knew I could do it for only five minutes each day to…

By Jill Dahl “Rather than being your thoughts and emotions, be the awareness behind them.” ~Eckhart Tolle “I don’t believe you,” I jutted out my chin like a petulant toddler. Collapsing back into the tufted leather loveseat, I conceded, “I want to believe you, but I can’t.” My therapist had just explained to me that I am…