Most people sneeze about four times a day. Long ago, the Romans and Greeks considered sneezing a sign of wellness and expressed their good wishes to the person who sneezed with the joyful proclamation, “Live long!” Yet somewhere along the way, sneezing became associated with sickness. Certainly, sneezing...
Resiliency is the internal strength you use to carry the emotional load of life. It helps you navigate more easily through challenges and stressors that come your way. Just as you might exercise to strengthen your muscles, you can practice resiliency to bounce back from...
Life is strange these days. I’ve been thinking of how, as parents, we try our best to endure hardships with the smallest possible impact to our children, to protect them from scary news and preserve fun moments during a tough situation. Sure, life is going to be...
“I cried last night,” my coworker told me. “I’m having a hard time with all of this,” someone mentioned on a conference call. “I’m disappointed my plans had to change,” my friend posted on social media. In the past week, I’ve noticed many people are talking about their feelings more openly. If...
“I should be on my field trip to the Crayola Experience right now,” my daughter Ella stated as she worked on her schoolwork at our kitchen table. She frowned. “I’m so mad we don’t get to go.” The field trip had been planned for months. Ella was especially...
Last weekend, we stocked up. I am pleased to report we are now the proud owners of one precious toilet paper pack from Costco. It felt like we won the lottery, since we were down to our last two rolls. We also visited the grocery store. Even though the...
The word “disaster” comes from the Latin negative prefix “dis” (without or away) and “astro” (planet or star). When this word was formed, misfortune was thought to occur because of the unfavorable position of the stars. While most of us have moved away from believing...
In one of my favorite writings distinguishing sympathy from empathy, Guy Azoulai writes that a sympathetic response to someone’s suffering is akin to seeing someone drowning in the ocean and jumping in the water to help. Both people quickly find themselves struggling in the dangerous...
The girls were playing at the park with a group of friends. They began to climb a tree. One of the older boys climbed past the rest of the children, scrambling up the tree. He quickly reached its highest branches.As the boy sat perched at...
I thanked the people in the aisle and middle seats as they stood to let me pass by to my window seat on the plane. As we settled in, the woman in the aisle seat explained that she hated to fly and was scared out...