I’ve been gradually learning something about myself: I want to be perfect. And the fact that I’m not causes me suffering. All of the major world religions teach this lesson upfront: you’re not perfect, and the sooner you accept that fact, the less agony you’ll put yourself through trying to prove otherwise. In his book,…

One of the most hurtful comments made to me during the worst of my depression was this: “You must not want to get better.” I know that person didn’t intend to be spiteful or mean. She’s just plain ignorant regarding mental health issues. (But I still haven’t let it go, obviously.) Comments like that are…

Thanks to Beyond Blue reader Peg for directing me on the combox to my post “12 Ways to Overcome Jealousy and Envy” to Elizabeth Scott’s review of “The Four Agreements” by Don Miguel Ruiz. As I mentioned on other posts, I constantly refer to this book and I was relieved, like Peg, by this summary…

In “Cutting Loose: An Adult’s Guide to Coming to Terms with Your Parents” Howard M. Halpern calls the interactions that develop between the inner child in us and the inner child in our parents “songs and dances” because, he explains, they have a “repetitious, almost rhythmic, pattern. The same words, the same music and the…

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