Personal growth
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Attitude
“The last of the human freedoms is to choose one’s attitudes.” – Viktor E. Frankl In Man’s Search for Meaning, Austrian neurologist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl chronicled his experiences as a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp. The book — one of the ten best-selling books of all time in the U.S. — describes Frankl’s psychotherapeutic method of identifying a positive purpose or reason to go on living. In short, he concluded that attitude is everything. The meaning of life glimmers in every moment we’re alive. As Frankl reminds us, when we are unable to change our situation, we have the freedom to change ourselves. We choose how to…
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How connected are we, really?
“We live in a technological universe in which we are always communicating. And yet we have sacrificed conversation for mere connection.” ~Sherry Turkle Words have tremendous power. As social media users learned early in the game, our words can unite — and our words can alienate. Today’s quote is another favorite in my “communication collection.” Sherry Turkle, a social science and technology professor at MIT, reminds us that online connection doesn’t offer the same emotional health benefits as in-person communication. Here, she hints at the danger of spending more time online than we spend developing deeper relationships with others. ~CL If you missed it earlier, here’s a link to a…
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Walking our talk
“The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion.” ~Paulo Coelho Few things annoy me more than being judged, vilified, or bullied by a hypocrite. How often do you encounter folks who preach a rigid set of morals and values — yet their lives exemplify something else entirely? Just for starters, there’s the parent who drinks too much but punishes his underage kids for doing the same. And how about those political pundits who condemn the lifestyles of others while hiding a few dancing skeletons in their own closets? If you’re hoping to earn trust or influence others, remember that your life is telegraphing its own message every…
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To your good health
“The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will instruct his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease.” – Thomas Edison As I age, I’m paying closer attention to the diseases listed in my family history — and trying my best to avoid them. I just completed a stressful, two-part annual physical that stretched over the past two weeks. For the most part, everything is fine, though there are some refinements I need to work on with my physician. Luckily, he’s a practitioner of preventative medicine, and his longtime guidance has kept any serious medical issues at bay.…
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The gift of receiving
Excerpted from my book of published columns, Writing Home, this essay was first published in Chicken Soup for the Soul (Healthy Living Series) and reprinted in Catholic Digest, April 2007. It was also featured on Sirius Radio. THE GIFT OF RECEIVING A few years ago, when I was diagnosed with osteoarthritis in both hips, I read everything I could find about coping with chronic pain and illness. I was amazed at how often I’d stumble on a paragraph that advised patients to “look for the gift in your pain.” Pain is a gift? Thanks, but no thanks, I’d mutter to myself. I had just turned 44 and hadn’t planned on slowing…
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