By Alana Mbanza “No feeling is final.” ~Rainer Maria Rilke I met him the last semester of college and was instantly attracted to him.  I was definitely attracted to him physically, but it was the way he sat in class with such quiet confidence and mystery that made me long to know him. I practically drooled…

By Maria Stenvinkel “We do not heal the past by dwelling there; we heal the past by living fully in the present.” ~Marianne Williamson I’ve struggled with it. Letting go, I mean. I’ve struggled with moving on from my past. I’ve struggled with ridding myself of guilt, shame, and grief. I’ve struggled with freeing myself from…

By Nicole Barton “Everything in the universe is within you.” ~Rumi When I was twenty-three, I lost my job through chronic illness. I thought my life had ended, and I spent the next few years an anxious, panicky mess—often hysterical. Eventually, I took off to scour the globe for well-being techniques, and searched far and wide for…

By Monica Viera “One reason people resist change is because they focus on what they have to give up instead of what they have to gain.” ~Rick Godwin Dave and I met earlier this January. I was immediately attracted to his aquamarine eyes and his tattoos. I met him on the eve of my twenty-sixth birthday…

By Jen Picicci “If you believe it will work out, you’ll see opportunities. If you believe it won’t, you will see obstacles.” ~Wayne Dyer Gwen and I first met at a lactation group for new moms. She seemed like someone I’d get along with, and we talked here and there, eventually becoming Facebook friends, but nothing…

By Bryn Bamber “I used to dislike being sensitive. I thought it made me weak. But take away that single trait, and you take away the very essence of who I am. You take away my conscience, my ability to empathize, my intuition, my creativity, my deep appreciation of the little things, my vivid inner life,…

By Stephanie Deni Let’s face it, we can’t always have what we want.  There will be times in your life when the person you desire simply does not desire you back.  When what you’re seeking is not seeking you and it can be really devastating and at times, quite difficult to get through and get…

By Sandra Cooper “Emotional intelligence begins to develop in the earliest years. All the small exchanges children have with their parents, teachers, and with each other carry emotional messages.” ~Daniel Goleman I consider myself an expert on the emotional needs of children. Mostly because I was one. No one goes into parenthood anticipating the ways they…

By Craig James Ruvere “Our lives improve only when we take chances and the first and most difficult risk we can take is to be honest with ourselves.”  ~Walter Anderson Society has a series of unwritten and sometimes unspoken laws they expect both males and females to abide by without question—a perceived set of standards and…

By Berni Sewell “You are imperfect, permanently and inevitably flawed. And you are beautiful.” ~Amy Bloom “Just look at yourself!” “That chubby face, those massive hips and thighs. The stumpy legs.” “No wonder he doesn’t love you anymore. No wonder he left you for her! She is so much prettier than you are.” I stood in…

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 Vishnu “Some of us think that holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go.” ~Hermann Hesse She knew it sooner than I did. And more intensely than I did. I, on the other hand, may have considered our differences but never thought of them as deal-breakers. I tried to justify the many…

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 Psychic Jessica “I need to understand my Life Purpose!” I have often heard this statement from clients asking me to help them in their life purpose. So, I thought about writing an article about how I could help you with making decisions about your life purpose and the direction to take. This information can…

By Hannah Brooks “We come to love not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly.” ~Sam Keen When we fall in love, we feel excited to experience some of the most joyful moments of our lives. Because love is supposed to be the source of the best feelings, right?…

By Michelle D’Avella “Don’t hide from your feelings. Press into them. Learn from them. Grow from them.” ~Unknown There have been times in my life when you could look at my cell phone call log and see back-to-back conversations for hours. I am blessed to have a large support system of loving friends and family, and…

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 Nadene van der Linden “You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.” ~Jon Kabat- Zinn Over the years I’ve talked to a lot of people about that one love, the one who got away, the one who it didn’t work out with, the one with whom the timing was bad. I’ve had…

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…