We often find it easy to criticize others when we feel we’re on a righteous or virtuous path to greater growth. Yet by criticizing others we are not truly being loving. We’ve fallen into another egoic trap. Once again we topple off our self-made, illusory pedestal!

Love can overcome our fears but sometimes it’s subtle. Our fears may be veiled in self-righteous criticism. Can we let others be without putting them down?

Here‘s some food for thought on where we might fall into the trap of being righteous or critical of others, especially when they are not on a similar…

Everyone has compassion at their core. This is my purview. As a life and leadership coach I’ve deeply studied human behavior, my own included, as you will read below. Everyone has a loving place in their heart, a full range of feelings — which may be buried very deep — and a door to the truth of who they really are.

Sadly for some, that door to their full expression, including heartfelt compassion and empathy, is securely locked, perhaps for all of their lives, because of family influences. We know this is what has happened with Donald Trump. …

Being a Life and Leadership Coach keeps me very curious about human behavior. I was eager to read What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing jointly authored by Oprah Winfrey and neuroscientist Dr Bruce Perry; especially because there’s someone in my life who experienced trauma from two main care-givers at a very early age.

Through deep dives into my own life experiences, and by helping others to do the same, I already knew that our adult behavior is strongly influenced by the beliefs and programming we soak up from those around us during our formative years.

Oprah…

We can help others who have fallen on hard times by recognizing them as valued and respected fellow-humans in a practical way.

People often need to find a way forward to feel empowered, to feel safe and become enabled to make a worthwhile contribution to their local community; provided they are ready and willing for this step forward in their lives.

A small gesture may give people a glimmer of light which could radically change their perspective. A bigger gesture can enable positive change in their lives to happen quickly. For example the gesture of providing a community of tiny homes for the homeless.

Opportunity Village in Eugene, Oregon, was created by Square One Villages.org as a village of the tiniest of tiny homes. This community is a group of safe shelters in which its occupants can feel safe and have a base they can call home. This is a heartening example of a much-needed, big humane gesture, made possible by…

Are you working really hard in your workplace but not being appreciated?

Consider these:

1. Are you doing this job for yourself, knowing it feels ‘right’ for you no matter what others say or do? Be careful not to be a people-pleaser. You could be trying to please people in work, or pleasing your parents’ long-held expectations of you, or perhaps answering the expectations of your spouse.
2. Love and appreciate your self, never wholly depend on others to do that. Receiving praise and gratitude is nice, but if we depend on others for our appreciation and value, we become co-dependent on them.
3. Practice self-care and life balance. Do not over-work in an effort…

My duties as my mother’s only daughter became more intense in her 89th year, as we strived for her to continue living in her own apartment, albeit with daily visits from nurses, home helpers and me.

During the last 24 months Mum had survived a major hip injury and returned to her home. Together we had gotten through the rigors of intense and intimate skin therapy for her persistent psoriasis.

Much of my life revolved around Mum at that time. That meant letting go of some other aspects of my life, but I valued our times together during those final…

What happens if incarcerated men and women are given a second chance at life’s opportunities; in particular a better, higher education?

It’s been clearly proven that those who are able to access such an opportunity return to society as well-educated individuals with a new sense of integrity, compassion, worthiness and personal determination to live a better life. This was made clear in the Emmy-nominated PBS documentary College Behind Bars. The four-part documentary follows long-term prison inmates in New York State who become graduates via one of the most rigorous and effective prison education programs in the United States — the Bard Prison Initiative.

Long-term prisoners in the United States enter their jail sentence having been labeled as a threat to society…

We’re aware that stress wrecks our emotional well-being and greatly affects our physical health, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Simple breathing techniques are readily available to help us.

Fears and anxiousness - AKA stress - is sourced in our limbic system. That is the primitive part of our mind and body that originally evolved to keep us alert and safe from the likes of saber-toothed tigers. Now it’s gone too far. We’re living stressed lives 24/7 and there are no saber-toothed tigers.

In our efforts to escape internal stress, we’re dependent on distractions which become our addictions…