Category: Serene Living
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How to Make It Better
Photo by fdecomite By the end of the first hour at the office, I was feeling overwhelmed and didn’t like it very much. Not that anything was particularly any weightier than usual. It was just the annoying little time and energy consumers that plague most work days and add unnecessary stress. Most of them are…
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Morning Strategy Sessions with the Universe
Photo by MaddieDigital   On my way to work in the mornings, in the dark without a lot of traffic on the road, there seems to be much more time to think. It’s a quieter spot in the day, even though there’s really no obvious difference in driving to work 2 hours later. Yet, the energy…
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Body Image: Are You a Temple or a Tool?
Photo by Howie Berlin Sitting outside my doctor’s lab and waiting my turn to “donate” blood, I was struck by a conversation I overheard in which the nurse explained that she’d seen everything and it was “all natural.” What bothered her patient about body image didn’t bother the nurse at all. She said that she…
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Enjoying My Flaws
Photo by true2source I have strawberries. There’s a medical term for it, but I don’t remember it. [added: cherry angioma] All I remember is that my lovers have always referred to them as “strawberries”—either with great fascination or great disdain and precious little in between. They’re tiny scarlet freckles, no larger than the size…
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Why I'm Not Looking for My "Other Half"
Photo by Dave Parker It’s been at least a dozen years since I was first introduced to Stephen Covey’s THE 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE but I had forgotten his theories on dependence to independence to interdependence until someone read them to me recently in context of our work environment. I was still…
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7 Tips to Stop Getting Advice You Don't Want
Bowl of Smoke photo by Melanie Cook. A few years back, imperfect strangers would stop me in the grocery store and give me advice. On everything. My looks, my clothes, my love life, my purchases. Everything. If one more person had told me what I should do with my life, I would have exploded. I…
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The Bracelet Challenge
Some of my favorite bracelets. It’s not that I aspire to be Xena, Warrior Priestess, with my armbands and steel brassiere. (Okay, maybe I do, but that’s beside the point.) It’s a challenge I’m taking. Some people refer to it as the “Bracelet Challenge,” but I’m not using it in quite the same way…
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The Best Happiness Advice a Teen Ever Gave Her Mom
Photo by Derek Kolb. Since my divorce three years ago, my older daughter has come up with some real gems. Forget all the self-help gurus in the world–my teenager’s guidelines for joyful living boil down to these three. Never take advice from unhappy people. That might seem simple, but how often do we really think…
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The To-Don’t List
Photo by Fuschia Foot Since I was old enough to write, I’ve kept a to-do list. It’s a necessary tool in my daily living and I don’t apologize for it. I acknowledge and honor it.I’ve started a different kind of list, a totally “selfish” list that’s designed to keep me from letting my time get…