Tag: personal development
Lost Innocence
Although I love the person that I've become, I can't deny that there are certain aspects of myself that I wish I could revert back to, particularly in relation to my spiritual life. Sometimes I wish I could go back to the former version of myself for whom faith in God's goodness, let alone existence, ...
Top 6 Lessons from the Past Year
To be honest, I’m still scratching my head wondering why I’ve been unusually happier this past year. It’s not like I accomplished anything big. The resolutions I made last year are the exact same ones I have now. I’m still scrambling for a greater sense of meaning and purpose. I’m still trying to reacquaint myself ...
Top 4 Lessons I Learned from the Past Year
A part of me was somewhat reluctant to look back at the past year—not because it was particularly atrocious, but because it was tinted with a bittersweet note. Looking back at wonderful memories also reminds me of the people I shared them with who are no longer in my life in the same capacity they ...
Ripping the Bandaid Off: A Metaphor for Healing
I threw some bandages over some small cuts I had, because they stung like crazy whenever I showered or whenever they scraped against materials. What I didn't realize was that the bandages would end up irritating my skin even more; apparently I had some kind of allergic reaction to the adhesive. I eventually had no ...
The Space Where Healing Happens
A few weeks ago, something happened that triggered me. By "triggered", I don't mean being overly sensitive or easily offended (as the word seems to suggest these days). I mean that something happened, which was so reminiscent of a traumatic memory from my past, that I literally felt as if I had been transported back ...
A Small New Year’s Reminder
As the new year approaches, we can't help but look back at the past year and consider how far we've come and where we're heading next. For many of us, 2020 has felt like being in quicksand: as much as we've tried to wriggle ourselves free, we can't help but feel somewhat stuck. Many of ...
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20/20 Vision: A Year of Awareness
At the start of 2020, people used the hashtag #2020vision to describe how they would pursue their new year's resolutions with razor sharp focus. That, of course, was drastically put on hold, as we progressed through the very year that would derail everyone's plans. My experience was similar: rather than pursuing my goals with absolute ...
Learning to Tell the Truth, Even If It Hurts
Early childhood experiences led me to believe that my real opinions and feelings didn't matter. I learned that the quickest way to gain approval was through compliance and agreeableness, and that I was responsible for regulating people's emotions for them, even if it meant abandoning myself. Whatever would cause less friction, keep the peace, or ...
Enjoying vs. Enduring Life — Which One Are You Doing?
Last week, Vancouver was hit with its first snowfall of the season. As expected, the rain-accustomed city basically shut down when the snow reached its peak; bridges started to close, buses stopped running, cars got stuck, and classes got cancelled. And, sure enough, my lovely but prone-to-worry mother sent me a flood of texts urging ...
If Growth Feels Like Destruction, Don’t Fret — It’s Normal.
Growth is extremely exciting, admittedly humbling, terribly frightening, yet ultimately necessary. We tend to romanticize growth as an exciting time of flourishing and transformation, of trading our former lives for improved versions of ourselves. And most of the time, that is the case. But we often overlook the fact that growth can also be very ...
Celine Diaz: Real Talk 