I came across this lovely poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson that reminds us what success really looks like: "To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the beauty in others; to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that one life has breathe

If you listen to Dr. Phil at all, you will often hear him say "We create our own experience." On the one hand, this refers to the active decisions we make in our daily life. It aligns with the goals we have, how we want to proceed, move forward, and purposefully ' design' our lives so that we feel fulfilled at the end of the day. But it also includes our reaction to challenge and hardship. Those are the things we don't always have control over. None of us expected 2020 and

I have noticed that during this pandemic, there is an ebb and flow to the attention we must give to Covid-19. We face a change, settle in for the 'long haul,' and then we are faced with another change. Those are the times when heightened feelings are up and you can feel a palpable shift in anxiety. With children returning to school in the next couple of weeks, we are in such a state. Decisions have to be made, differing opinions flood social media; we feel braced for the numb

An article in Good Therapy entitled "5 Tips to Overcoming Insecurity in Relationships" (submitted by Zawn Villines), featured the sage advice that not all insecurity is unwarranted. That sometimes we have to objectively examine the behaviour of our partner to determine if he/she is incapable of meeting our reasonable, emotional needs; therefore creating the insecurity. If upon determining that your issue with insecurity in the relationship is not in your partner's inability,

In a recent episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show: The Podcast entitled "How Healthy is Your Family," she features guest Dr. Paul Pearsall, author of the book "The Power of the Family." These are some highlighted points of what Dr. Pearsall had to say about the health of the family unit: It is important to give dignity and celebration to the simple, daily acts of family life. Dr. Pearsall talks here about the rituals that we create in the family that celebrate time spent together

Yesterday's post examined the concept of AQ - the Adversity Quotient, a concept developed by Dr. Paul Stoltz which looks at our ability to endure hardship. We continue in today's post by looking at CORE, four key components that help build our resilience skills. C - Control: Do what extent can you control what happens next? We often speak about how hardship and challenges are presented to us that are out of our control. The circumstances of any given situation can crea

Dr. Paul Stoltz has developed the concept of the A.Q. - Adversity Quotient . Similar to our E.Q. (Emotional Intelligence), Dr. Stoltz proposes that our AQ is our ability to endure setbacks and is defined as the "hardwired pattern of response to any and all forms of adversity." Although he notes that our AQ tends to develop in childhood; and therefore can often present itself as an unconscious response to hardship, he also maintains that it isn't fixed . Let's start by exam

CAMH (The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health) has created two videos to help adolescents better understand depression. Meant specifically for young people, the first video talks about what depression looks like, what are it's potential causes and what teens can do to recognize and then treat the symptoms. To watch or share Mood Matters: Describing Depression : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xONySz9XLk The second featured video is called Mood Matters: How Food, Movement

If you are looking for a good memoir to read, I would suggest "From the Ashes" by Jesse Thistle. A story that includes conflict and uncertainty at a young age, the experience of abandonment by his parents and how being drawn to addiction led this young man to spend over ten years in a cycle of homelessness, crime and time spent in jail. A cycle in which family members gave in or gave up. From reading this story: I am amazed at what the human brain and body can endure and st

This is a nice little reminder about the importance of having a growth mindset . It comes to us from Carol Dweck: "I don't get it." "I can't do this." "This doesn't work." Take a deep breath. Go for a short stroll. Then add 'yet' to the end of your sentence. "I don't get it....yet." "I can't do this....yet." "This doesn't work....yet." What a difference one little word makes. It moves us from impossibility to possibility, from giving up to trying again. "Yet" can be a very p

I just finished reading "An Astronaut's Guide To Life On Earth" by Chris Hadfield. I have never been too interested in space exploration, but this book came recommended to me by a client, so I thought I would give it a try. Well, I did learn a ton about the space program; all of which was very interesting. Hadfield goes into the logistics of what life on the International Space Station is like, and how weightlessness affects everything you do - things like brushing your teet

As we learned in a previous post, the rainbow flag was designed by Gilbert Baker from San Francisco in 1976. Originally, it had eight colours that were chosen to reflect the diversity of the LGBT community; over time, it has changed and today's version has 6 colours: Red : represents the symbol of life . Orange : represents healing . Yellow : is a symbol of sunlight. Green: represents nature. Blue: is a symbol of serenity . Violet : represents spirit. The rainbow flag

The documentary entitled "Reversing Your Body Clock," produced by The Passionate Eye and featured on CBC Gem , is a very interesting piece on the difference between our birth year age and the age of our body clock (the age your body is functioning at from a health perspective.) The episode features three volunteers. Each go through a series of tests to determine their body clock age; all three are shocked to see that their body clock age is so far above their birthday age.

In our continuing series of questions to reflect on, today we explore the thought: "Write about the place you call home." When I think about the current home that I live in, I think about its peace. I have views of the forest and the river. I love the grounded elements that we chose in terms of colour and texture; the walls and shelves feature treasures from all of our travels. I share my home with my loving and supportive partner, and my gentle and soulful-faced Great Dane.

I often work with clients who come in because their relationship with a loved one or a coworker is difficult. They have tried to navigate the relationship, but there is little space for them, and they find themselves feeling defeated, criticized or feeling 'lesser than.' Upon exploration into the relationship through examples, we begin to identify what appears to be a deeply hidden insecurity in the other. So hidden in fact, it is often protected by what appears to be confide

In a recent episode of Oprah's SuperSoul Conversations , she features Jesse Israel , a social entrepreneur and founder of the mass meditation movement known as "The Big Quiet." Here is what Jesse had to say: "We live in a culture that celebrates more-ness. We glorify being busy. For many of us, this constant noise is exhausting. But it wasn't always like this. For the great majority of our time on earth, we lived in quieter times, in tribes. In fact, the amount of informatio

Yesterday's post featured truths about the brain that have been discovered through science; an interesting one included the debunked myth that our brains form in childhood with little room for change. We now understand that the neuroplasticity of our brain allows flexibility - that we can create new pathways that allow us to adapt to new experiences or ways of thinking. In an article entitled "5 Brain Exercises to Strengthen Your Mind" by Kendra Cherry and featured on veryw

Information from this post comes from Dr. Nicole LePera on Instagram. Neuroplasticity and brain science are constantly discovering new truths about the brain; here are 6 truths highlighted by Dr. LePera: The brain is made up of 60% fat. The brain is not fixed, it's neuroplastic. The brain changes throughout a person's lifetime. Atrophy (brain shrinkage) is present in depression, dementia and Alzheimer's. The brain is in constant communication with the gut. When attention is f

Yesterday's post explored Bruce Gordon's Accountability Ladder ; a useful way to see how, when faced with a problem, we can either stay in a victim mindset and feel powerless, or move beyond the threshold into accountability and empowerment. We began by looking at the first four rungs of the ladder - Unaware, Blames Others, Excuses and Wait and Hope - today we will explore the top four rungs of the ladder, which represent a proactive or growth mindset: The first rung once

I have come across a helpful tool in understanding the difference between being accountable for the change that needs to occur in our life versus being unaccountable. It was originally created by Bruce Gordon, President of the NAACP, and he described the ladder as having eight rungs in the progression of accountability. The first four rungs indicate a reactive mindset, or victim mentality and the upper four rungs indicate a proactive mindset or empowered mentality. Today's po