runningsteps

Writing about gratitude can sometimes sound trite — too neat, too simple. I hope this reflection does not fall into that trap. I believe gratitude matters. Not because I think a Higher Power distributes good and bad events in our lives, and not because gratitude is something we owe to the supernatural. I don’t hold that belief. But I do believe there is real value in the steady practice of noticing what things we're grateful for, and writing them down - keeping a gratitude journal. Research...

The summer I was twenty-one, I was living in British Columbia with friends, trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. It was an intense few months of meeting new people and trying new things—stretching myself emotionally and trying to get over a very difficult year at university. I learned a lot that has stuck with me. I found myself in many situations that made me think about how much power there is in how we view our stories, and how reframing a situation can affect our...

Because society so often associates grief with death, and because most of us have had a loved one die by the time we reach adulthood, most of us associate grief with death. Many people with no other training in psychology can talk at least basically about Elizabeth Kubler-Ross' five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression acceptance) and know that moving through grief can take a long time. All true. But: Kubler-Ross' work, On Death and Dying, was originally developed to help...