“No matter how powerless the world makes you feel, you always have power inside you, through your attitude and through your actions.” ~ Mel Robbins, author of The Let Them Theory We’ve all encountered situations in which someone has tried to bully or control us. But as author Mel Robbins explains, reclaiming our personal power requires knowing the difference between things we can control and things that aren’t in our power to change. We can control our own responses to the negative behavior of others, even though we can’t always change their behavior. We can control how and where we devote our energy — and with whom. We can withdraw…

“Never be in a hurry. Do everything quietly and in a calm spirit. Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset.” ~Saint Francis de Sales I wrote several newspaper articles a week when I was a young mom. Working from home, I also shopped for groceries, drove the carpool, conducted phone interviews, processed the laundry, played with my son after school, and cooked family meals. I don’t know where I found the energy to do so much — but I was often in a rush and more stressed than I realized at the time. Those years flew past like geese heading south…

“Letting go of big expectations allowed me to celebrate even the smallest victories, to be utterly in the winning moment and thankful for my current state.” ~Hillary Allen, endurance athlete A workshop student told me she experienced an epiphany after starting a daily gratitude journal. When she first began the practice, she struggled to find more than one thing “worth listing” at the end of each day. Then she remembered that simple pleasures and “small victories” deserved her appreciation. After she started writing them down, she noticed that her days were filled with them. An uninterrupted hour of reading with a mug of tea … An unexpected card in the…