I first thought about the concept of highs versus happiness when I heard the author Mark Manson speak about it on a podcast with YouTube life coach Jay Shetty. Mark discusses the concept of differentiating the two words in his book, “The Subtle Art of Not Giving A Fuck”. He explains, “If you have to …
Category: Personal Wellbeing
HOW TO MAKE SOLITUDE WORK FOR YOU
Feeling comfortable with my own company has always come naturally to me. I haven’t yet been able to identify if it’s because of my inborn personality, the environment and lifestyle that nurtured me, or a combination of both. My father was in the Navy, so we moved homes a lot as a child. This made …
WHY WE SHOULD LOVE (OR AT LEAST LIKE) OUR DAILY ROUTINES
If you’ve had the chance to read a few of my blog posts so far, you might have gathered that the pandemic taught me a lot. (I’ve spoken about lessons from the pandemic here). One of these lessons is how crucial it is to develop enjoyable daily routines that we can commit to for the long …
WHY WE NEED TO BE BORED MORE OFTEN
The word boredom doesn’t typically evoke many positive feelings within us. We associate boredom with disengagement, monotony, feeling uninterested in the current situation and hoping to be or get to somewhere else. Boredom creeps up on us while we’re waiting too long for anything, when the movie/book/presentation isn’t going anywhere and when our daily routines …
DECISION FATIGUE AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT
What exactly is decision fatigue? Decision fatigue is the mental and emotional depletion from making hundreds to thousands of minor and major choices over an average day. Whether it’s something as trivial as if you should hit Snooze in the morning or not or as significant as whether or not to get yourself and your …
HOW TO MENTALLY DECLUTTER IN UNDER AN HOUR
Living in an age of information overload can get the better of us at some point or another. Our jobs, relationships, task lists, current world events, and daily social media and technology interactions can leave us feeling depleted and overwhelmed all at the same time. We lose focus, become disengaged, irritable, and unmotivated. On days …
THINGS I THOUGHT I NEEDED TO BE HAPPY BUT DON’T
I’ve been reading Deepak Chopra’s “The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success.” He discusses the misplaced, extremely high value placed on material abundance as a universal marker of success. Moreover, he says, success is a journey and not a destination. It also includes good health, energy and enthusiasm for life, fulfilling relationships, creative freedom, emotional stability, …
TWELVE SIMPLE WORK-FROM-HOME PLEASURES
The pandemic forced us all to get creative with finding ways to maintain a positive attitude and find pleasure in the simple things of life. As we all know, most of our escapist habits and tendencies were snatched away ruthlessly by forces out of our control. Not since I was a child have I had …
HOW MEDITATION ADVANCED MY LIFE IN 5 KEY AREAS
HOW IT STARTED I never really took the time to understand and adequately experiment with practicing meditation until the COVID-19 pandemic. I was always too busy, too skeptical, too impatient. The idea of dedicating precious time in the morning to a relaxation technique seemed to contradict the purpose of the previous night’s sleep. Instead, I …
TEN UNEXPECTED LESSONS FROM THE PANDEMIC
As we round the turn of the world’s second Christmas spent in the psychological and physical confines of the COVID-19 pandemic, the focus tends to be on what we can buy for loved ones (and ourselves) to distract ourselves from the weariness of further restrictions and booster shots. We feel an even stronger need than …