DDP’s Philosophy of Change
Diamond Dallas Page, the real People’s Champion, of professional wrestling has grown beyond the squared circle to write multiple books and develop a fitness program that is changing lives. Below is a snippet about making fundamental life changes that I’ve borrowed from his book Positively Unstoppable: The Art of Owning It.
Pop Culture and Mental Health
The Best Laid Plans of Harry Potter
Plans are wonderful things. They help us organize our lives and provide a sense of control, right up until they go wrong. Then panic sets in unless you’re Harry Potter and Company. As…
Ziggy on Choosing Your Anxiety
For the anxious soul there are countless sources of anxiety. Some stressors are unavoidable, the mortgage must be paid, food put on the table, etc, but some stressors we choose and when we…
Jessica Simpson Finds New Path
Have you ever been lost in life? Maybe you’ve watched a friend or family member stumble from job to job, endeavor to endeavor with no clear purpose or sense of direction. It even…
Wisdom in Horoscopes. Really?
Wisdom can be found just about anywhere, even in horoscopes. I don’t put much stock into them, but they can be fun from time to time. Below are a few bits of wisdom…
Elsewhere on Serenity Hunter
It’s a Fuck Freud Kind of Day
I enjoy an uplifting thought, quote or insight as much as anyone, but some days one crosses my path and I want to vomit. Today was such a day so I present you with my response. Don’t get me wrong, Mr. Freud may be correct about the “struggle” and some days I may appreciate this thought, but today: not so much. How about you? Do inspirational and pick-me-up quotes occasionally rub you the wrong way?
Sorry, Not Sorry
I feel the urge to apologize, ALL THE TIME, and I suspect many of you do as well. At times, I even feel the need to apologize out of fear that I’m inconveniencing something – and I haven’t done anything wrong. However, there are times when most definitely DO NOT need to apologize.
I was reminded of this today while reading A Dog Named Slugger, a memoir by Leigh Brill, a lady with cerebral palsy. At one point, she tells the story about a an attempted sexual assault – TRIGGER WARNING. Her date is a man named Joe, who also has a…
Becoming a New Person
Everyone has wanted to be a different kind of person at one time or another. Maybe we’ve wanted to be more athletic, outgoing, or successful. Whatever it is, we’ve all had moments when we wished to be something different, something more.
Take Demosthenes of Athens, for example. Here was a young man who was disadvantaged in so many ways that he could have given up at an early age and few would have blamed him. Consider his circumstances:
The Rising Strong Process by Brené Brown
Brené Brown has defined a process that “teaches us how to own our stories of falling down, getting up, and facing hurt so we can integrate those stories into our lives and write daring new endings.”
THE RECKONING: WALKING INTO OUR STORY
Recognize emotion, and get curious about our feelings and how they connect with the way we think and behave.
THE RUMBLE: OWNING OUR STORY
Get honest about the stories we’re making up about our struggle, then challenge these confabulations and assumptions to determine what’s truth, what’s self-protection, and what needs to change if we want to lead more wholehearted lives.
Teddy Roosevelt in the Arena
From Teddy Roosevelt’s 1910 “man in the arena” speech.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better …
3 Rules for Worry from Carnegie
Dale Carnegie offers the following three rules for dealing with worry in his book How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. Content adapted.