Daily experience makes it easy to sometimes forget what is important.

More than anything else in this last several months, what I’ve learned about is being given perspective. Perspective changes how you feel, it changes your experience.

For example: let’s say one is feeling lonely or left out. Perhaps she may feel judged by her friends, due to recent risky decisions she’s made. Or, on another perspective, perhaps her friends are busy with their own new relationships and life in general and still love her just the same, wishing she would stop by sometime. No one picks up the phone because they are all viewing the experience from their own perspective.

I’ve noticed that sometimes I will repeat maladaptive behaviors out of habit. Not because these are the things I wish to do, but because they come so naturally to me. I don’t have to think about them– and that’s probably the root of the problem. I don’t think of them. If I were consciously thinking of them, I would repeat behaviors that were healthy and “good for me.”

While I was going through the motions of getting my degree, I frequently suffered many a night where I would just lie there. Not sleeping. Not thinking. Just waiting for the alarm to ring so that I might get up and do it all over again. Exhausted.

Along my progression of mindful living, I have discovered a few things that have in the last several months, led me to sleep soundly and deeply.

It takes courage and maturity to recognize when something isn’t right for you.

Change is frightening, and sometimes we take comfort in just keeping the status quo. However, as much as it’s frightening, stagnation can require much more energy from you than putting forth the effort to not only DECIDE what you want, but then to ACT and GET what you want.

A series of days in which my mind has been filled with the fog of worry and anxiety… a battle of my internal wits throwing out euphemisms and cliches and proverbs in an attempt to guide my thoughts… Thoughts become things… Physical reality or spiritual reality or mentality or psychology or…??

Dearest Ash,
My kids are so rotten.  They’re totally hyper and like to break whatever rules I give.  Here’s an example:  I told them to pick up their rooms, and instead of picking it up, they go in there and play with their stuff.  They’re in first and third grade. I yell, and I threaten to [...]

How you feel is everything. Your emotions are a lens through which you view the world. If you change your thoughts, you can change your emotions. You CAN transform your life. You CAN transform the world in which you live. Here are a few simple points:

Positive psychology may appear to be a new set of ideas or concepts that are ground breaking and new.  The honest truth is that it’s been around for the entire documented history of mankind.  It has its roots in Eastern Philosophy and early paganistic methods.   Eastern philosophy promotes the idea of meditation, and paganism promotes [...]

Dearest Ash,

My kids are great in the morning for me, but when they get to school they act like little crazies. They run around like banshees, are louder than the other kids, and won’t sit still. By the time lunch comes around, they are throwing tantrums and the teachers are exhausted. Right after lunch, they’re angels again, but within a few hours, they are doing a repeat of the morning’s behavior. When I pick them up from school, they’re cranky and tearful. By dinner time, they’re my little angels again. What gives?

Dearest Ash:

My husband and his three kids and I live together in a small home. His kids are disrespectful to me, and they often will do exactly the opposite of what I ask them to do. When I try to enforce a rule, they either ignore me or argue with me. I’ve tried being patient, and I’ve tried being nice. The kids do alright with their own parents, yet seem to have no respect for me. What do I do?