How to Create Your Compass and Find More Joy in the New Year
The New Year can be a fresh start. It can also be a lot of pressure to declutter and organize, lose weight, build your business, get a new job, set audacious goals and improve yourself. We all know what happens to most resolutions. Even goals and plans can feel more...
The Perfect Gift for Anyone — Write a Meaningful Letter
November is a month that makes me think of Gratitude and Connection. And also Family, as I often get to see extended family at this time of year. All wonderful things. And having said that, I also struggle in November with the overwhelm of the holiday busyness. I feel...
3 Faces of Gratitude — And How Gratitude Can Boost Your Mental Health
“Be grateful for what you have” … Have you ever had somebody say that to you when you mentioned a challenge you were going through? It’s really off-putting to have somebody dismiss what feels hard for you. It’s important to have a place for sadness, anger, all those...
How Focusing on Belonging and Meaning Help You Thrive
We all have a need to feel understood, to give and receive affection, and find our people. In other words, we need to feel we belong. In her book The Power of Meaning, Emily Esfahani Smith says that two conditions need to be satisfied for us to have a sense of...
Are You Telling Yourself Stories You Could Let Go Of?
We all tell ourselves stories. They may be stories of our own or stories we internalize from others. Our personal stories can be a source of strength — or they can hold us back. Sometimes our inner critic can be really loud and we tell ourselves stories about why we...
What Tiny Great Things Have You Done Recently?
Do you ever find yourself saying, “I have so much to do. I never get anything done?” What if you thought about the things, even tiny ones, that you have done? We tend to focus on what we haven’t done — the things not crossed off the to do list, the project we keep...
How Nature and Flourishing Go Hand in Hand (Even If You’re Not “Outdoorsy”)
Time spent in nature is essential to me. The ocean, redwood trees, kettle ponds, and wildflowers … these things fill me with joy and awe and gratitude. When I’m overwhelmed or out of sorts, I step outside. A walk or run in nature, even just taking a few minutes to...
3 Reasons Your Values Matter — And How to Find Them
Last quarter I took a wonderful and heart centered course at Stanford called Living on Purpose. Maybe it resonated with me because the curriculum was similar to my course, Revisioning You. Or maybe it was so satisfying because the Professor was heart centered and...
Flourishing, Not Languishing —3 Steps You Can Take Today
If languishing wasn’t part of your vocabulary before, you might have encountered it during the pandemic. Adam Grant wrote about the blah feeling many of us were experiencing, but languishing (or its opposite flourishing) isn’t tied to the pandemic or other upheaval. ...
What Can You Learn Today? Benefits of a Growth Mindset
I am a lifelong learner. I devour books and TED talks and podcasts. I love workshops and classes. This year, I decided to do a deep dive into learning with a year-long program at Stanford. I’m learning about sleep and dreams, 19th century history, meditation … and so...