As a woman, you have likely experienced plenty of situations in which you did not feel heard, especially in male-dominated group settings. Women are often perceived as bossy, overbearing or even rude when we speak as much as men, so we often try not to take up too much verbal space or risk making a bad impression.We’re also more likely to stop talking when interrupted. I don’t have any easy solutions for the broad societal issues at play here, but I can offer some helpful perspective.
Read More...6 Steps to Transform Emotionally-Charged Conversations
Becoming a more mindful communicator is one of the surest paths to enhancing your relationships with others – from the everyday interaction you have with a stranger to the most important people in your life. The truth is, communication can be surprisingly difficult, given how often we engage in it. We tend to skim emails, fill in the blanks with what we think someone means or pull out a point (often out of context) that a speaker didn’t intend.
Read More...5 Steps to Access Inner Wisdom in a Crisis
When a crisis strikes – whether in our personal lives or on a larger scale – it’s only human to have an emotional reaction. The trouble begins when these overwhelming emotions cut us off from our inner wisdom and cause us to react in ways that often multiply our stress (and don’t help solve the problem we’re facing). What we really want is to be able to access our inner wisdom to make constructive decisions, from a place of calm, that actually help us move through the crisis.
Read More...When Grief Keeps You Paralyzed: 6 Gentle Steps to Move Forward
Grief is a universal human emotion. At some point, we all experience it – whether we lose someone dear to us, suffer a trauma or tragedy, or simply live long enough to feel the ache of loss that accrues naturally over a lifetime. And although grief affects us all, it’s rarely easy to deal with. Our ancestors marked death with lavish feasts, loud and sustained lamenting and the wearing of mourning clothing for at least two full years – yet grieving today has mostly become a solo endeavor, and one we’d better hurry up and get through.
Read More...Learn from Your Mistakes and Move on with Self-Compassion
Have you made a mistake today? If so, welcome to being human. Mistakes are an inevitable part of life. But what is the secret to learning from them and moving on quickly? In our rather punitive culture, we often head straight for self-recrimination. We berate ourselves, magnify the meaning of the mistake, or get stuck in replaying it in our minds. Researchers at Duke and Wake Forest Universities suggest, however, that the opposite approach – self-compassion – may be much more effective.
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