Articles on 'Emotions & Attitude' ↓

Over the past while I have been feeling a bit down. My life seems to be on a cusp of change, but I feel that I am spinning my wheels. Do you know what I mean? Have you felt like that? Old patterns are, well, they are getting old.

New vistas are drawing beautiful and powerful images in my mind, but the stress of living in a redundant mental space is wearing on me. I can feel the change but I am caught by habit.

What to do? Well, whenever I am confronted with stasis — whenever I feel stuck in a lifeless rut — I go back to basics. And what can be more basic than nature? Nature has always been my bedrock; it has balance and moves gracefully with change. Nature can stimulate us likewise to regain our own balance, and to accept change with enthusiasm and grace.

And so we went on a trip into the wisdom of nature’s beauty and power. Continue reading →

Does sexual desire interfere with your ability to love someone unconditionally?

For some reason, the majority of emails I receive are about relationship issues, and the concept of unconditional love. It seems that many people have difficulty loving unconditionally within a sexual relationship. Several readers have recently asked for my thoughts on reconciling the two.

Because of this confluence of concern arriving in my Inbox, I’ve decided to post one of my responses here. Perhaps it can serve as food for thought to others who question the compatibility of unconditional love with sexual relations. So here is an extract from a recent letter, and my response:

This letter (in brief) comes from Brad in New Hampshire. Continue reading →

This morning I woke up wondering about good and evil. I wondered if goodness exists apart from human perception and religious concepts. I wondered the same about evil. Does evil dwell somewhere in the universe, independent of our judgment and imagination?

We use the words good and evil in pairs. Are we implying that one cannot exist without the other? If so, are we saying that the yin/yang of human perception is an absolute truth; that there is no ultimate goodness or ultimate evil; just an eternal tug-o-war? Continue reading →

Today is a soft and sunshiny day and I want to share it with you. It isn’t officially spring yet where I live, but through the window today, the sky is blue and winter’s colors are gradually moving out of phase.

Green shoots and flowers-to-be are pushing through the brown of winter, the birds are creating homes, and the sun is caressing my heart–reminding me of all things possible, bright, and beautiful.

Winter is gray where I live. And I feel winter’s grayness because it reflects the low clouds that swirl within me; the socked-in system of unreconciled emotion.

But the sun is shining now. I feel its warmth. I see its clear light. There is nothing more beautiful than the warm rays of sunshine in the winter of your heart.

Do you feel it also?

Detail of painting by John Rocheleau

Satisfaction is our primary objective in life. Everything we do, we do to satisfy ourselves in one form or another.

This self-gratification reflex of ours is far from self-fulfilling though. Everyday, we make choices to satisfy our desires, and what we choose while under the influence of this intoxicating human imperative, is often unwise.

Short-sighted satisfaction carries a steep price tag, and willing or not, the debt is always collected. Our drive to satisfy ourselves can then seriously damage us.
Continue reading →