InnerSelf

by Marie T. Russell.

I've never been a big fan of country music. I have found it depressing, sad, whining, self-pitying... Well, you get the picture. However, now that I live in northern Florida, when I'm in my car and I'm "surfing" radio stations, country music is mostly what I find. Now, I must admit, I've discovered that not...

by Alan Cohen.

I saw a bumper sticker proclaiming, "Don’t follow me -- I’m following my bliss." Good advice! How much more creative and successful would your life be if you remained true to your own inner guidance rather than imitating the paths chosen by others?

by Stuart Wilde.  Q: In step seven of your book, you talk about guilt as a great human weakness. I was brought up in a family where I was made to feel guilty for everything, and find it difficult to transcend this deep-seated emotion. How would you suggest I banish guilt from my life...

by Alan Cohen. What if someone close to you turned out to be a hero to millions? The seeds of greatness can sprout anywhere, through anyone. Every great person, from Galileo to St. Francis to Martin Luther King Jr., grew up as a normal person and did normal things with normal people. Probably none of their buddies expected...

by Katherine Gibson. Self-doubters tend to dismiss compliments and embrace criticisms. They focus — even highlight — their weaknesses, ensuring that others see their shortcomings as clearly as they do. Eleanor Roosevelt's clever one-liner "No one can make you feel inadequate without your permission" says it all.

by Marie D. Jones..

I once worked for a rather abusive woman who constantly berated, belittled and badgered her employees -- me included. If any of us sought to stand up for ourselves, we were chastised and told in no uncertain terms that we were insecure whiners who should appreciate we had a job in the first place.

Sometimes when things don't go the way I want, rather than sitting back and letting things go their own way, I start pushing and shoving and trying to make things happen the way I want... Can you relate to this one? Whether it's something at work, or at home, or wherever, we start getting forceful and insisting on things going a certain way (our way).

by Cheryl Canfield. The quest to discover 'Who am I?' and 'Why am I here?' is often preceded by some crisis that serves as a wake-up call and has the potential to propel us, if we're willing, into a more expanded or spiritual awareness. It was cancer that gave me the opportunity to test the principles I had...

by Jim Brickman with Cindy Pearlman.

Face it -- the one person you never spend time with is yourself. It's almost too mind-boggling when you think of the questions that would immediately come up if you did: Would I find myself amusing? And here's the big one: Would I even like myself?

In my community, there is one man whose life speaks louder than his words. He is known as Sam, and he lives on the streets. His life provides us with a sense of charity so that we can live guilt-free in our lavishly furnished homes. We don't want to learn how one could adapt to living on the street.

A testimonial of an encounter with a policeman who assisted in showing her the way back to the path of enlightenment and recovery: "One morning last spring I was driving down US1 at 5:30 in the morning. Well, I wasn't just driving, I was speeding. I was going at least 15 miles over the 45mph limit, and my mind was not on the road..."

by Philip Simmons. It's been almost four years since I was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease, a degenerative and ultimately fatal neurological condition. In that time, I've managed to finish climbing all forty-eight of the New Hampshire peaks above four thousand feet, a task begun at age six with my first ascent of Mount Washington.

by Shane Archer.

A testimonial from someone who went from self-hate and self-destruction and ended up behind bars to discovering the goodness within and set out on a path of recovery.

by Tracie Ann Robinson.

There are so many ways that we can apply courage in our lives. Courage to speak one's opinion, to stand up for what is right, to face tough issues head on, to pick oneself up after an injustice, and to not necessarily do as everyone else does. Courage to be true to oneself.

by Tracie Ann Robinson.

A thought or decision can certainly redefine our direction in life and in love. There's a lesson in every experience. However, one usually doesn't figure out the lesson until well after the experience...

by Tracie Ann Robinson.

Failure isn't something I enjoy -- not that anyone really does -- but some of us are very hard on ourselves when it comes to failure, while some shrug their shoulders and go on. I valued public perception over my inner peace and individual needs.

by Peter (Pan Pericles) Coukoulis, Ph.D.

It has been so important to connect with my soul, to listen, and respond through the heart and the emerging feelings as I sought some genuine interaction with people and the world around me. Opening up to the unconscious and confronting it by dealing first with the personal, disassociated parts of our personality is a major step in the process of individuation.

by Sandy Boucher. I began a course of chemotherapy that was supposed to last forty-eight weeks. The one still point in this turning world was the Buddhist practice I had been cultivating for fifteen years. This practice had steadied me through major crises in my life, providing a reliable base point to which to return, no matter what else was going on.

by Nancy L. Snyderman, M.D. and Peg Streep.

I never expected life to be so messy. The life I imagined for myself, growing up, was simpler and neater than the one I actually ended up living. Life was, I thought then, a straight, unobstructed road to the destinations I would choose, with pretty vistas and sunsets on the way.

by Mark Epstein, M.D.

There is a story that has kept popping up in my work over the years. It is one of the tales of Nasruddin, a Sufi amalgam of wise man and fool. He has the peculiar gift of both acting out our basic confusion and at the same time opening us up to our deeper wisdom.

by Sandra Miniere, M.Ed. My first time hiking I was in physical distress just walking uphill. Resting briefly, I recovered and continued. I began imagining a string at the top of my head connected to the top of the mountain. The peak was pulling me to it. I also imagined myself standing on the summit.

by Adam Thilem. Article (short-fiction) that takes a look at being homeless and a way in and out of that experience.

How many times have you prayed for something to happen in your life? Yet, if you think back on some of the prayers you've asked along your journey I?m sure you can come up with at least one that you are grateful went unanswered..

To perform, whether surgery or dance, we must practice. We practice doing what we cannot do. By giving ourselves wholly to practicing we may transcend practicing, and find ourselves playing, with mind, body, heart and soul fully surrendered.

by Howard 'H' White. If I told you that there was just one thing you could do that would give you everything you want, would you do it? Well, all you have to do is believe! All that matters is that you can see what you want and believe in it with all your heart and soul. Few people believe that strongly and still fewer work hard enough for their beliefs to reach fruition. How much do you believe?

by Aeeshah Ababio-Clottey & Kokomon Clottey. Fault finding serves as a means to justify an illusory sense of superiority. To become a love finder requires us to be vigilant and self-realized. Most of us are just regular, ordinary people; therefore, vigilance will be our primary tool for taking note of our blaming and fault finding.

by Karen Bentley. The ability to see your own anger is critically important. Anger takes many forms: irritation, lack of patience, refusal to communicate, holding a grudge, making fun of someone, manipulation of another, criticism, blame, complaints...

by Marie T. Russell.

From stories dating back to my childhood, I have memories of the lamb as being the weak one... The one who followed innocently... the one who had to be sheltered... the one who had to be picked up and carried to its nourishment and to its shelter. I recall seeing a lamb at its birth, and its legs were unable to support its weight. The lion on the other hand has...