How to Stay in Self-Energy During the Holidays (Even When Family Pushes Your Buttons)Holiday gatherings can be wonderful… and also surprisingly triggering. We may love our families, but they often have a special talent for activating the parts of us...

An Idea to Make Holiday Gatherings Even More FunIt wasn’t fair! Each Christmas morning, I would find wonderful presents under the tree for me, but Santa never brought anything for my mom and dad. I was a little disappointed in Santa, to say the least...

If you are local to the Madison, WI area, I would love to get your feedback on my new talk related to IFS - Inner Alignment for Outer Impact. No fee, just feedback. It will be on December 11th at the George Culver Library in Sauk City at 10:30 am. I'...

Staying Positive Around Negative People - The IFS Method You'll Want to TryThe most common question I get after my talks on positivity is: “Okay… but how do I make the other people in my life more positive?”You might be thinking of your boss. Your pa...

This Might Be the Most Important Work You Can Do for the World Right NowLately, I’ve been thinking a lot about how easy it is to get pulled into the heaviness of everything happening in the world. I’ll read something online, or scroll through social...

When I’m riding my bike, and I see a rock or stick in the road, I remember the advice from when I was first learning to ride. “Your bike is going to go where you look. If you focus on the rock in the road, your bike is going to hit it.” Were you ever...

Have you ever noticed how easy it is to let your stress and frustration out when you get home after trying to hold it together during the day at work or school? Or maybe you see it in others. They feel like they can let their guard down once they get...

In the past couple of weeks, I’ve lost two people in my community to cancer well before their time. I work with cancer patients, and I know that there are no guarantees, no matter how much work people do. But loss can be difficult. I try hard to look...

Let’s say you’re planning to get together with friends on the weekend to have a picnic. As a plan, you set aside the time, maybe gather up some food, and are looking forward to having fun. But your plans are disrupted. Maybe it’s because of the weath...

What are these common truths? You’ve probably heard them many times, even as a child, yet we often overlook them. However, they consistently prove themselves to be true. Life is not fair Things do not happen the way we want People are not perfect Hea...

Have you ever had a coworker snap at you for no reason? Have you ever had a family member respond in a grumpy manner? Have you ever had a fellow driver cut you off or make you wait unnecessarily? Why can’t other people live up to our expectations? In...

I love the holiday season! I enjoy the festivities, lights, music, and gatherings. And I also know that it’s famous for interesting family/friend dynamics. We might be feeling a little more stressed, with more to do so our patience might be low. Or w...

One of the most important things I’ve learned from the past 10 years of studying, applying, and teaching positive psychology is the power of our thoughts and how we can actually get better at managing our thoughts so they make our life better. And I’...

My husband asked if I wanted to go for a walk. As we headed out, I asked how things were going for him that morning in his machine shop. I could tell by his scowl that he was in a bad mood. He said he was frustrated because he’d wasted a lot of time...

Imagine that you looked at your “to-do” list this morning and the top thing was do something that feels good. This priority came before cleaning the house or doing paperwork or running errands. What could you do that would make you feel good today? W...