Be aware of your intake with Television, the news feeds our fear instinct and many prime-time shows are feeding violence and discord. I am not saying never watch TV, just be aware of how much you watch, and which shows you choose. Television is one source of food that we feed our psyche. Suggestion: Work on nourishing your mind with passion projects at least 2 nights a week instead of watching TV. Practice mindfulness meditation. Meditation is easy, you can’t do it wrong, there is nothing weird, hocus-pocus, or new age about it. Mindfulness meditation is based in psychology and science, anyone can do it. With mindfulness the goal is self-understanding. In meditation we quiet the thinking mind so that we can see beneath the constant, unconscious chatter, that fills our minds. We go to the gym to work out our bodies which helps us stay physically healthy. Mindfulness is the gym for our brains. Meditation helps our minds to stay healthy by integrating all aspects of our being, so we are functioning [...]

Many of us have brutal self-talk when we do something less than perfect. That inner voice can be very harsh, even downright mean. Sometimes the shame demons, as Brené Brown calls them, are relentless as they pounce—from the inside—at the slightest misstep. When the shame demons or the inner critic lines up the firing squad, self-compassion steps in, as if to says, “I’m here. You’re ok. You are safe. You are loved. We’ll make it through this together.” Self-compassion is recognizing you need a hug and being able to give that hug to yourself. When we act with Self-compassion, we treat our inner workings as if we’re holding our two-year-old little self—gentle and loving. Self-compassion is feeling empathy for our own pain and having gentle self-talk and willingness to relieve some of that suffering by accepting our own imperfect humanness with a loving embrace. Self-compassion understands our humanity, there are times when we are awesome and times we’re not. There are times we remember and times we don’t. There are times when we [...]

Is it possible to feel such deep love for a human being or an animal, to the point that if they were harmed, we would wish to seek vengeance on the perpetrator? The easy answer is yes. The more complex answer is no. Let me explain…on the surface it seems as though our love is propelling us to avenge our beloved who has been harmed but is it really love? Chris Hedges writes, “The initial selflessness of war mirrors that of love, the chief emotion war destroys. And this is what war often looks and feels like, at its inception: love” (War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning 159). It feels like we are acting out of love because we are motivated by our need to protect those whom we love but the underlying emotion propelling us is fear—fear of losing our beloved, fear that our beloved with never be the same after this pain and trauma (it may resonate more clearly to use the word anger in place of fear). If [...]