Imagine biting into a juicy orange.  Can you taste it bursting onto your tongue and roof of your mouth?  It’s just one small example of the ability of the mind to conjure up that sensation just by merely introducing the thought, sight unseen of any orange trees.  Applying this to the broader spectrum of all […]

On solemn days, I often go to my favorite lookout point that offers a sweeping view of the valley below. There’s a small bench nestled between two large bushes that only the locals know, providing perfect solitude and tranquility . Across the valley are rows of houses perched on the hillside in the distance. I transport my mind […]

Two monkeys in a glass cage are separated by a see-through barrier. Both are given the same task, for which they are rewarded a slice of cucumber. This process repeats over and over, with each monkey happily accepting the cucumber for their identical task. But then, one monkey is rewarded with a delicious grape while […]

I am an Extroverted Introvert.  Impossible, you may say, how can one claim to possess polar opposite qualities? Well, if we can be Passive Aggressive or Manic Depressive, then why can we also not be both Extroverted and Introverted? They are not mutually exclusive qualities. We are conditioned to believe Extroverts are the happy and […]

The average smartphone user has 42 Apps on their device and if you are a teenager, chances are that number is north of 100. They are so ubiquitous we are all now intimately familiar with the usual suspects: Facebook, Twitter, Google, Instagram and the corresponding behavior associated with them i.e., eyes glued to the screen, […]

If the task of the first half of life is to put yourself out there to experience the world, the mandate of the second half is to make sense of where you have been and discover who are truly are.  Your first love, travel adventures, career, marriage, children – virtually all of life’s major experiences […]

I know a workaholic who is a traveling salesman, a real road warrior. He thrives on chasing the deal and meeting new people and I always envied his unrelenting passion for his career. But he recently confided to me that it was not all a joyous endeavor, that he hated flying with the constant plane […]

It is hard to see the forest for the trees but most of us traverse up two mountains in our lifetime. We start to climb our first mountain when we are young, as we establish our identity and satisfy our ego. We learn how to navigate our personal journey, often through trial and error, as […]

Perhaps we should amend the famous cliche by adding the following: The only thing certain in life is death and taxes…and stress!  None of us can escape stress – it is, quite simply, omnipresent and ubiquitous in our busy lives today like a toxic element that floats in the air that we all breathe.  The […]

It has been proven we can hold as many as six thoughts in our conscious simultaneously. We are not typically in this state of clarity (or chaos!) but rather more often holding several random thoughts and emotions in our mind without particular focus or specific detail, yet all within our field of awareness. We can […]