Self-Awareness 101 — You are not your thoughts

"I think, therefore I am!" Descartes' quote was great in its time, but I think it overshadows a larger reality. Most of us spend our time fully in our brains. We remind ourselves of what we need to do, the on-going "To Do" lists. We rehash conversations, worry about our futures, count calories, rewrite the …

A Little Manifestation

If you ask someone what they want, the answer that you'll most likely get is, "to win the lottery" or more to the point, money. The truth is that most people (I can't speak for everyone, because there do seem to be some that believe that whoever has the most money when they die wins!) …

Stress Eating?

You are on your way to check out the new fish that are arriving today at the pet store and a car rear ends you at a stop sign. Then, you get there to find out that they haven't arrived yet and you see your lover petting kittens with someone that you don't know. You …

Right Brain/Left Brain — Chapter 7

I am in my office again. I just finished a pretty easy week at work. I was only covering my own desk, which meant that I had a reasonable amount to do. There are definitely ebbs and flows of work and this was a particularly light flow. It is 6:00 p.m. EDT and it is …

Unconscious Decisions

Going deeper and deeper into knowing and understanding myself is important to me. Who was it that said, "An unexamined life is not worth living?" To me, it is more than that. Discovering oneself can be the greatest and scariest adventure that a person can go on. I often coach people that have put up …

What are you Afraid of?

It is no surprise to anyone that we live in a culture of fear. For the first time we actually have most of our needs met. Good housing, excessive amounts of food and few predators. However, having a low level of fear has been selected for in our evolution. Our brains were designed that way …

The Art of Decision Making

As she got into the car, her entire face lit up. As a mom, I had seen this before and knew that she loved what she saw and how she felt sitting in the car. Her brain, the left side of her brain, that is, had told her to buy the other car. So, we …

No Pain, No Gain

We have been told repeatedly that we must fight against time; fight against our appetites and fight against our bodies. Actually, wouldn't it be nice to just stop struggling? How many people do you know that have themselves scheduled so tight that they barely have time for their family or friends? What are they told? …

A Good Reason to Make Meditation a Part of Your Life

Especially in North America, we are all about the logical, scientific mind. We are quite confident that if you can measure it, test it and quantify it, "It" is real and worth our attention. We are driven by accomplishments and the accumulation of stuff and it feels like we are all in a great race …

Aren’t they irritating?

If you ever notice yourself in a situation where you find someone's behaviour irritating, stop and write it down. We all know the feeling of being rubbed the wrong way. The person acts in a way that gets under our skin and we dislike them because of it. If you experience this you've struck gold. …