I heard an interesting question the other day about whether anyone even notices the impact of a single person. Does it matter what we as individuals do? Can we really make any difference at all? Although the question wasn't directed to me, I had an answer anyway (this may not surprise those of you who know me ). And this seemed like the perfect place to show the beginnings of that answer, although I just might find myself inspired to create a longer version of these thoughts -- if you'd be interested in this, just let me know. So here we go.... The short answer is yes, each of us does make a difference. The long answer involves a few different lines of research about how you feel and what you do.   more »

Apologies -- I've gotten temporarily distracted from my agenda of posts on creating self-change by more posts from Rick Cockrum's Shards of Consciousness. This week he's writing a series of articles on Happiness and I wanted to do a quick article about his first in the series: Happiness, Emotion, and Fulfillment - Part 1. One of Rick's conclusions was that happiness can't be found outside ourselves, an insightful interpretation he made of the studies he reviewed. This is absolutely one of the take-home messages of the positive psychology approach -- the way your world (and you) appear is highly dependent on how you're looking at it. Look at your world as half-empty and you'll see half-emptiness (or worse) all around you. Look at it as half-full and likely to get filled up and you'll be experiencing that fullness. Research has shown that optimism is good -- from the perspectives of your physical health, your emotional resilience, your personal growth, your relationships, your work....and on it goes. And here's an interesting addition to his point:   more »

Is "lack of willpower" a problem for you? At New Year's did you lay out a number of changes you were going to make "this year" and then start finding yourself "without the willpower" to make them happen? One of the most common reasons people give for failing to change something about themselves -- or for not even trying to change -- is that they just don't have enough "willpower". But the idea that large doses of "willpower" is the most important characteristic you need for change is just not true.   more »

Lately, I have become more and more interested in what the psychology world calls "positive psychology" -- the research related to what goes right in life and strategies for how to maximize feeling good about one's life instead of psychology's tendency to always be focusing on the negative -- what's wrong with you, what needs fixing, etc. From my perspective, our brains (head and heart!) are just as involved in what goes right. In fact, the more evolved areas of our brain are related to positive feelings and thoughts...   more »

1. Start with a healthy amount of Heart. 2. Add one effective and efficient Brain. 3. Mix thoroughly. 4. Let sit. 5. Check occasionally (especially in cases of environmental disturbances); add a pinch more Heart at least every 24 hours to maintain healthy growth. And that's it! Easy, eh? What's that? You're not an experienced Evolution cook? No problem...we'll take it one step at a time!   more »

On my website, I talk about neurofeedback as a tool for personal change and growth and emphasize that I am not doing "treatment" when I work with someone using neurofeedback. Why do I emphasize this? Why is it so important?    more »