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Naturally, in our culture, most people associate September with “back to school” / learning time.  If you are a life-long learner, as I am, you probably still get that sense of calling toward learning something new and fresh as fall sets in our midst. In neuroscience, it’s been well established that learning is part of what stimulates new neural pathways in the brain across the whole lifespan.  Dr. Daniel Siegel has identified the 5 major ways in which we can keep stimulating new neural pathways.  I have created an acronym – REANA – to help you remember these ways of keeping your brain thriving: R – Repetition – as when we repeat an action to learn it, whether learning a piece of music on an instrument or any other kind of skill we want to master. E – ...

You may have noticed, as I have, an abundance of programs and books on attracting one’s soul mate.  Finding that special soul companion is not necessarily easy, regardless of age. Off course online dating is increasingly popular and it leads to the desired results for numerous couples. But, for every couple whose initial romantic connection grows and turns into an enduring relationship and even marriage, there are about 10 couples who won’t make it past the honeymoon phase of 3-4 months.  Most of those couples will breakup within 6 months while others will settle for an increasingly unsatisfying relationship that is marred by doubts, patterns of conflicts and distancing behaviors mixed with periods of momentary closeness. Sooner or later, those relationships are...

By this time, most people have long forgotten their January resolutions and/or year-end goals. But hopefully you are among the exceptional. It’s very common to inadvertently deviate while striving to stay on the trajectory from envisioning, goal setting, and consistent action, to tangible reality and thriving accordingly.    You might know that in aviation, it is said that course correction is applied by the pilot in flight as much as 90% of the time. And much like in aviation, life’s unexpected winds or fog can easily trump your momentum towards your goals: adversity, competing commitments, stress or even just multiple distractions will gradually, or suddenly, shift you away from your course.  Especially if your goals are about a compelling soul-driven...

At the BC Human Resources conference in April, I was excited to hear best-selling author and Harvard psychologist Shawn Achor talk about ways to enrich our lives by growing our gratitude mindsets, optimism and by deepening our relationships. After that day, I began reading his books and I’m including his insights here while sharing some of my reflections about the cost of worrying. Perhaps, like me, you’ve observed comments from people suggesting that if they don’t worry about their work or their family, it means they are being uncaring and/or irresponsible. But if you look at the impact of this pattern more closely in families, you’ll see that parents who worry incessantly about their children will end up inadvertently transferring their anxiety on their...

Among the numerous studies I have seen about workplace satisfaction, about 50 to 70% of employees are overly stressed, dissatisfied or even disengaged.  Thanks to positive psychology, turning some of its attention to the workplace, research in that field is revealing and pointing the way to practical suggestions that can richly enhance its culture while also augmenting productivity and engagement. At the University of Michigan, for example, the business school specializes in studying positivity in the workplace; it’s called Center for Positive Organizational Scholarship. Here are 3 simple ways to help transform a workplace culture towards more positivity, more kindness, generosity, empathy and communication: –        Give more FRE – Frequent Recognition and...

At a certain point on the journey, especially in midlife, people commonly ask themselves this question – is this all there is? Sometimes, this question comes up because our intuition is momentarily connecting us with the vastness of our own infinite potential.  In that moment, we feel that we were meant to accomplish something of greater significance, perhaps something that would serve others in a more meaningful way.  But, for various reasons, we now realize that we have actually tapped but a small portion of our own profound potentiality, and lost the boldness to re-connect with its largeness, to bring it into fuller expression.   In my experience through 10 years of coaching, that question – is this all there is? – has been indicative of a vague kind of...