According to brilliant psychologist and pioneer of the positive psychology movement Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the key to a leading a fulfilling life is striking a balance between action and contemplation: “Inner conflict is the result of competing claims on attention. Too many desires, too many incompatible goals struggle to marshal psychic energy toward their own ends. It … Continue reading
Shakespeare originally coined the phrase “jealousy is a green-eyed monster” but it’s so widely circulated that today the expression has passed into common speech. Why has this image endured for centuries? What spared this characterization from fading into oblivion when so many others slipped into the dusty cracks of history? I suspect it’s because no other writer … Continue reading
When asked what “big magic” inspired her to write Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, Elizabeth Gilbert replied that as a writer she most often met people who yearned to live creatively but could (or would) not. When she talked to these people, they always had sensible reasons why they couldn’t get to the … Continue reading
Nothing is more toxic to the soul than comparison. Glancing at the biographies of established writers, I feel myself infected with that familiar poison: by the time she was my age, Jodi Picoult was already married with children, had published several books, worked as a creative writing instructor at a private academy and English teacher … Continue reading
e.e. Cummings once said that “to be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best—night and day—to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.” Journaling is the greatest bulwark in this battle. Writing and reading, everyday, is how … Continue reading
The Blank-Faced Confidante 