(Inspired by a comment I left on Stacey Shipman’s great post about me-time)
One common complaint I hear from people is that they don’t get enough “me time.”  That is, they spend too much time doing things for others, and not enough serving their own wants and needs, and they feel tired and resentful as a [...]

I recently met someone who lives the interesting life of a software engineer by day and a guitarist in a rock band by night.  His band seems to be doing well—they’re well-known in the local area, and they just recorded some songs they’re planning to shop around to record labels.  My friend, however, has been [...]

Many of us have our “down” periods—stretches of time, whether they’re moments, hours or days—when we feel like nothing’s working in our lives and wonder if there’s any reason to go on.  We usually react to these “down” periods in one of two ways—distracting ourselves with a frivolous activity like watching TV or surfing the [...]

At times, many of us experience the sinking sensation that we have nothing, or not enough, to “show for” what we’ve done thus far in our lives.  Maybe it’s the feeling that, at our age, we should have more money, credentials or possessions than we do.  Or perhaps it’s the sense that, “by now,” we should [...]

I used to be very unhappy with the way I thought about myself.  I was particularly dissatisfied with the egotistical thoughts I had.  Thoughts would come up like “I’m going to be mega-famous and fill 30,000-seat arenas,” “everyone is going to see me as their spiritual guru,” “I’m a figure of historical importance,” and so [...]

My friend, a highly-paid financial professional, often complains about her job.  She doesn’t like the long hours, the difficult people, the office politics, and so forth.  Usually, I just sit and listen to her concerns, because it feels like she’s more interested in a sympathetic ear than anything else.  But one day, I couldn’t help [...]