Companion Planting
In our garden of life, many people come and go. Our interactions with others can bebeneficial or detrimental to our well-being, growth, and development. I have alwayscarried a very romanticized view of love and relationships. Only in the last few yearshave I become to understand and appreciate those who grow nearest to me within theborders […]
Why The World Needs More Social Workers Right Now
As defined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a social worker is a skilled professional that helps individuals, groups, and families cope with life’s challenges, through methods like counseling, psychotherapy, research, and even policymaking. By helping people get on the right track, social workers ensure that everyone in the community can adequately perform their social […]
Toxic Positivity and Emotional Intelligence
The happiness movement is suffering from another overly simplistic interpretation of positivity: the belief that one should only allow positive emotions no matter how dire the situation. Susan David, author of Emotional Agility: Get Unstuck, Embrace Change, and Thrive in Work and Life and popular ted talk speaker, discusses toxic positivity as being stuck […]
Rebuilding Back Ethically
2020 was a hard year, but 2021 presents new challenges and more importantly, new opportunities. As the Covid-19 vaccine rolls out and slowly the world reopens, the questions present themselves: How do we want to build back? Do we want to return to where we were before the pandemic? Or do we want to change […]
Working on Relationships, Part 4: Marriage, Partners, Swiping Right
Coming out of my 20-year marriage in the late 1990s, I felt like Rip Van Winkle entering the Matrix’s dating scene. Where we once employed gyms and bars as the places to meet one or two potential partners at a time, we seemingly transformed overnight onto online websites and apps where you can literally meet hundreds […]
Working on Relationships, Part 3: Soul Mate Radar Detector
Ah, what’s better than the feeling of falling in love? Finally finding your soul mate, happily ever after, yadda yadda. Then two, or maybe five years later, we’re realizing maybe they’re not our soul mate after all. The prince is actually a frog and pushes our buttons like no other. Is something wrong with our soul mate […]
Working on Relationships, Part 2: Boundaries
Trigger warning: pleasers and conflict avoiders, you’re not going to like this topic. You’re going to learn that a healthy relationship includes setting boundaries, which may displease or cause conflict. Setting boundaries means that you first know your values and how you wish to be treated, then communicate those wishes to others. Respecting boundaries means that […]
Working on Relationships, Part 1: Intimate Communication
A lifelong student of relationships, I have worked hard – and am a work in progress – at learning the skills needed to create healthy relationships. Intimate communication is one of the most transformative and essential relationship skills, one that I hope everyone will learn. Communicating with intimacy is important because it happens on deep […]
Communication in a Committed Relationship
Successful relationships require commitment and good communication. This advice often seems to be misconstrued as being limited to articulating views and beliefs clearly to the other. Good communication should be reciprocal, aimed at mutual understanding. Too often we just want to be heard without committing to listening deeply to others. If we are uninterested in discovering […]
Journey to Be in a Relationship
Like most girls, I spent my childhood imagining that I’d meet a wonderful man and live happily ever after. The search was the hard part, according to cultural lore. One day, about 6 years into my marriage, and much to my surprise, I found myself crying as I walked down the street. Why? I had 2 […]
