New Cycle for a New Year: Watch Your T.E.M.P.O.

Emotional cycles are the interactive elements in our relationships with family members, friends, and co-workers. Negative cycles start when we become triggered by a someone’s troubling tone of voice, facial expression, or remarks. Immediately, we will feel an emotion that often prompts us to get angry or anxious. We may feel a bodily sensation due…

Gratitude: Motivation & Practice

Hope for Humility & The Good Life As we gear up for a season with seemingly endless opportunities to receive gifts, I contend that one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself is developing a more robust practice of gratitude. Even though we like to believe that we do things altruistically for others most…

I See You, I Hear You

Children want to be seen and heard.  They long for connection with their parent or caretaker. They want to know they are important, loved, and valued.  What does it mean to “be seen and heard”?  It means to be known and for someone to know you and take interest in and validate the things that…

Wordle, Walks, and Ways to Connect with Your Teen

When I was a teenager, I sat down to breakfast each morning and waited for my dad to pass me the sports page. The 20 minutes we spent talking headlines, him in his suit, me in my flannels and Timberland boots – it was the 90s – was critical to our relationship. It was just…

All or Nothing

Happy New Year! In the 2006 cinematic masterpiece, “Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby,” the main character is a race car driver whose thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and behaviors all seem to flow out of a statement his father made to him when he was a young boy. “If you ain’t first, you’re last,” yells…

Roadmap for the Wonder Years

Have you ever selected a path in life and all you see in your future are your hopes for what it will be? Then the opportunity arrives and there are all these intricacies and nuanced outcomes you hadn’t even considered? Welcome to parenting! When we imagine our children as babies, we often don’t think about…

It Takes a Village

We have all heard the phrase “It takes a village” when it comes to raising a child, but it turns out that’s actually true! 80% of women experience “baby blues” in the first several weeks after birth, and roughly 1 in 5 women and even a number of non-birthing parents will end up experiencing a…

The Value of Being Present

When I was around 9 or 10 old, my Dad took me and my older brother, Danny, to the Cabarrus Creamery.  Although connected to a large ice cream factory, it was a simple store front that served excellent frozen treats directly to the public. I vividly remember the details of my banana milkshake that day. …