Slowly my need for alcohol diminished. I was no longer afraid of facing my emotions. When my life hit that famous rock bottom in 2013, I didn’t go to a meeting or to treatment. I didn’t even accept that alcohol was playing a part in the disintegration of my ability to get through life’s

“I just want to be happy.” That’s a pretty common reply to the question, “What do you want in life?” So what is happiness? What causes it to be present and what causes it to flee? Is the problem with Happiness that we treat it like a noun, believing Happiness is a fixed destination much like a point on a

As we start the New Year, I’ve begun thinking of ways we can refine and develop our family communication skills. Communication is the method we use to exchange information. In the family unit, it can be between partners, between parents and children and between children. Communication can be with words but can also be with

  Theme parks. Party themes. Theme songs. Are you catching the theme? Themes are a way of organizing a big picture category, a vibe, a value, a guiding principle. Disney chose the theme “The Happiest Place on Earth” and everything associated with this franchise is driven to fulfill that experience. Resolutions are the typical theme of

  Have you ever noticed the best runners cross the finish line with a flourish? They save a burst for the end. They cross the line as winners. As we approach the finish line of 2016, do you find yourself looking at the goals you wanted to achieve while thinking or saying, “What’s the use,

  It seems that each time my friend and I read a couple of chapters for my review, we see that the topics mesh effortlessly. I can’t imagine two more closely connected chapters than the topics of domestic abuse and violence and shame. We are reminded by Rosemary O’Connor, the author of this book, that

  Back when my 14-year-old son called me from school and said he knows he should be happy and he is a lucky boy, but he feels like he wants to die, I truly panicked. It was as if I wasn’t hearing the right words coming out of his mouth. I knew I wasn’t equipped

As we slam into the end of the year it seems we can’t avoid the bombardment of messages telling us to buy buy buy. Yet, by next year it’s likely whatever was bought this year will either be broken, out of fashion, not the Apple 8, or lost and forgotten.  But there is something you

  I remember when my first spiritual teacher told me that love was the most important thing there was, that it could transcend and heal all things. I thought he was crazy….not the love I was familiar with. The love that I knew was learned from those perfect families on TV and any of that

In October I was invited to visit Alpine Horizons, a new rehabilitation facility in Switzerland that deals with addiction treatment and preventative programs for those at risk. I was given access to some of the program activities and taken through the program structures, all of which are impressive. Their team of international experts is headed