“You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.” ~ Buddhist teaching   How often do you give [...]

Maybe you don’t feel obligated or stuck in “having” to give, but you also never thought about the value of your love, and what it really means to those who receive the gift of your love. When you give something (your time, your love, your affection, your caring, etc.) that you don’t think has any [...]

Have you ever thought about the love you “give away,” and what that really means? Do you notice that you are often doing things for others – and feel like the scale is always tipped in their favor, never in yours? Or have you just operated on automatic pilot, going through the behaviors of caring [...]

We’re all familiar with our buttons being pushed – can’t really avoid it if we interact with other human beings. When that happens we often go into reactive mode, with old beliefs kicking in to muddy the waters, and old behaviors showing up without our even thinking about it. It’s a big part of how [...]

What to Do When Outdated Childhood Roles Cause Static in Caring for Elderly Parents I’m going to make a bold statement and say that the quality of your relationships with your siblings is one of the biggest determinants of the quality of your life as an adult. Does that surprise you? Many people create adult [...]

Do you ever find yourself asking in frustration, “Why does my brother/sister always do that?!” So many questions arise when it comes to sibling relationships. It goes far beyond simple power struggles, jealousy over who has the most or best toys, competition for attention, or resentment about perceived favoritism on the part of their parents. [...]

As long as our parents are alive, a part of us remains the child. So particularly when we’re talking about our parents, it’s helpful to understand that all of the relationship issues and challenges we had as children growing up together (which we may have thought were behind us!) can rise to the surface. We have [...]

If you’ve been following me for any length of time, or have read my book Being Well Within: From Distressed to De-Stressed, then you already know how important I believe this question is for achieving the kind of relationships and life balance most of us wish for. (HINT: Note the key wording distinction there – [...]

If you read the first two parts of this series, you’re starting to see the pattern here, I’m sure…. There is always a hidden – yet very helpful once uncovered – set of beliefs, assumptions and/or automatic reactions driving our decisions and behavior. Once we find out what those are, we can immediately stop letting [...]

On this auspicious date when Cupid shoots his arrows (and hopefully lands one on each of  us!), how would you like to know a powerful secret for being your own best Valentine? Well, today’s post contains an important key to finding and maintaining a state of self-love. I hope that the concepts it teaches stay [...]