Why you should rethink your New Year’s resolutions — “And now let us welcome the New Year Full of things that have never been.” ~ Rainer Maria Rilke ’Tis the season of New Year’s Resolutions. People make them, and frequently they break them. Many resolutions center around the same general principles: working harder and accomplishing more. For perfectionists, New…

And why I was afraid to go. — “No distance of place or lapse of time can lessen the friendship of those who are thoroughly persuaded of each other’s worth.” — Robert Sout A few years ago I attended my 30th high school reunion. To be honest, I almost didn’t go. When I received the invitation, I quickly…

What to do when feeling grateful is hard — On Thanksgiving, people all over the world — Americans at least — gather around tables and reflect on all the things for which we’re thankful. A common buzz-phrase among self-help gurus is “gratitude is an attitude.” Everyone from educators and religious leaders to my yoga instructor tells us that we…

When you’re confronted with “you don’t look handicapped!” — Much has been written about the difficulties of living with an invisible illness or disability. Well-meaning friends and acquaintances who say, “But you look good” can touch off a sense of isolation and the feeling that no one understands what you’re going through. The word disability is defined in the…

How to bounce back rather than break — Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers but to be fearless in facing them. Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain, but for the heart to conquer it… — Rabindranath Tagore Why do some people seem to bounce back from hard times while others falter…

How to “recover” from an illness that can’t be cured — re·cov·er·y (ri-kuhv-uh-ree): noun –regaining something lost or taken away. The medical model of illness tends to define “recovery” in very black-and-white terms. It implies a cure, or an elimination of symptoms, in which patients return to their pre-disease (or “pre-morbid,” as it is referred to in the medical literature) state. …

How to know if you’re suffering from antidepressant withdrawal. — The use of antidepressants in the treatment of depression and a number of other medical conditions is increasingly common. Millions of people in the U.S. alone (more than 13% of all Americans by recent estimates) take antidepressants. By far the most commonly prescribed antidepressants in the general population are selective…

How to be sick in a healthy world — “You looking good,” said Sethe. “Devil’s confusion. He lets me look good long as I feel bad,” said Paul D. — in Beloved, by Toni Morrison At times, one of the most difficult things about living with an invisible or poorly understood illness is figuring out how to be sick…

How to accomplish big things in small steps. — “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” — Lao Tzu The scientific concept of inertia refers to the resistance of an object to a change in its state of motion or rest. …