Have you ever wondered why your plans to lose weight, set better boundaries, or spend more quality time with friends often fail? Have you ever been troubled by the fact that despite your best intentions, your inspired aims to make a change become, at best, distant reminders of yet another botched attempt to achieve goals that you know would be…
I have an outdoorsy husband and two children between the ages of 9 and 12. I want to be as cool as possible, of course, so I try to engage in lots of outdoor sports with them. But I come from the concrete jungle of Manhattan and, although I love spending time in nature, I wouldn’t consider myself the daring…
“You were late because you got stuck on the D train? That’s odd, because the D train was closed for track work last night. I know that because I had to switch to the Q.” “Did I say the D? I meant the Q!” “But I thought you said you met your friend Bob at his office. How did you…
A couple of months ago a blogger called me “a self-taught hate-ologist, a journalist who tracks and reports on the various hermetically sealed world views that pollute public discourse (at their best) and spin out crazy people with grudges and weapons (at their worst).” She was right about what I do, but not so much about what I am. It’s…
Brené Brown, an academic researcher, was going to spend a year “deconstructing” shame, fear, and vulnerability. It turned into six years and a life-changing revelation. She interviewed thousands of people and found they could be divided into those with a sense of love and belonging and those who wished they felt that sense. The former group held certain surprising things…
Learning to become independent, in thought and action, is one of the hallmarks of growing up. But independence for some is elusive. About one million American adults may suffer from Dependent Personality Disorder (DPD), a condition that compels them to continually seek out and defer to the authority of others. The need for direction and approval is pervasive in DPD,…
