Overcoming a Dysfunctional Litter
Is it true that well-behaved women rarely make history? I’ve seen this bumper sticker on many a car, and while I realize it’s meant to be humorous, something about it has always irked me a little bit. I think it’s the implication that being naughty is how you make things of historical importance happen. Which [...]
In those same AA meetings where people talked comfortingly about being “garden variety drunks,” there was a wise old timer, I’ll call him Bill, who liked to say, “We’re all just grains of sand on the beach–but every grain is sooo important.” Bill was a smart guy, and due to some sort of independent wealth, [...]
Is there something you want to change about yourself but are continually stymied in doing so? For example, maybe you want to quit smoking or overeating, but haven’t had the willpower to break the habit. Each time you try, you find yourself giving in to powerful cravings and, afterward, feeling remorseful or ashamed. You’re probably [...]
Last week, I watched a Nova episode called Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial, about a school district whose board members tried to force the science teachers to read a disclaimer about evolution that said, basically, that it was “only one theory.” The teachers refused, the board members insisted, and angry parents sued, claiming a [...]
Lately, I’ve been writing a lot about feeling disconnected from yourself, but I haven’t actually defined what I mean by “disconnected.” I’d been assuming—and we all know what that does—that the symptoms I list such as depression, resentment, addiction, numbness, etc. are definition enough. But one of the primary symptoms of being disconnected from yourself [...]
Sometimes looking back at ourselves can be difficult. Even something as simple as a high school picture can make us cringe with embarrassment. “That hair! Those clothes! Ohhh, what was I thinking??” Sometimes, it’s even worse. Maybe we held beliefs that we’d rather not own as ours; this is the personal history I’m addressing here. [...]
Being present for other people can be scary. If you’re like me, you probably fret about if you’re any good at it. You might secretly believe you don’t much to offer, don’t have anything profound or even helpful to say, or aren’t very good at being comforting and supportive. Sometimes, you may even get annoyed [...]
If you want to learn new things, you can’t be afraid to feel awkward and look stupid. In fact, if you want to grow in any direction, field, or discipline, you have to embrace awkwardness and celebrate ignorance. You have to understand the beauty of stupidity. I have a friend who is brilliant at being [...]
I don’t mean to be a doomsayer or to shock or scare you into action, but time is running out. I say this as a simple statement of fact. We have a limited amount of time, and once it’s gone, it’s gone. Most of us get seventy-some years (although that’s nothing to count on), and [...]
Developmental psychology is the branch of psychology that studies, well, human development; how and why we become what we become. There are many, many developmental theories, some deeply complex and consisting of dozens of stages, some simpler and consisting of only a few stages. Some of the more famous developmental theorists/psychologists include Abraham Maslow, Erik [...]