Tag: happiness
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Surviving Christmas: 7 Top Tips For a Calmer Big Day
In my house, Christmas means dragging, kicking and screaming, the young adults in my family who have inherited the Grinch gene from my husband. And though I understand and respect why some people don’t like Christmas, my response to that attitude is not on my watch, and definitely not at my Christmas table. Hence, despite…
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4 Important Life Lessons I Share With My Kids
That crazy decision was terrifying at the time but I do believe it made us stronger, more resilient, and gave us an incredible learning opportunity. It has given me more time to recover in the wake of family crises, more time for self-care and exercise – the best therapy for my brain – and the…
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Life Lessons: Measuring Success Beyond Society’s Standards
At some point during the last few years, I experienced a light bulb moment and finally realised who I want to be during this next stage. I realised when I looked back, that society had indoctinated me to seek its narrow definition of success – where, ultimately, materialism is the most popular measure, in the…
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The True Meaning of “Friends with Benefits”
If your friends don’t make the time to service their relationship with you, let them go to make room for the ones who invest A friend of mine who has an enviably wide circle of friends tells me she has an inner circle of only five special friends. Each represents a finger on her hand,…
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Ageing: Is 10 More GOOD YEARS Too Much To Ask?
The thing about the ageing process is that one minute you’re cruising along feeling relatively young for your years and the next you are using hand cream. And yet, despite my lifelong battle with health anxiety, death scares me somewhat less than the journey there and the “not knowing” exactly how and when my finale…
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Trusting the Journey: The Secret to Happiness in Middle Age
It is only now, in middle age, that I am finally accepting that I don’t possess the superpower (or indeed any superpower) to fix everything – no one does, not even those with the money to buy whatever they want or need. Money may be able to buy rockets, but it can’t buy you back…
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20 Surprising Things I Am Thankful For This Year
Anger was the main topic of conversation during my last visit to my therapist for the year. Anger about stuff I can’t control, mainly, but also anger about the world stuff I talked about here in my last post, as well as some anger issues about the usual personal frustrations. Photo by Howard Riminton on…
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The 7 Best Ways To Find Your Christmas Spirit When You’re A Grinch
In spite of my newfound, VERY mature thoughts about the insignificance of consumerism in my life at this time here, I have launched myself full throttle into Christmas. Living room with full of Christmas decorations. To be honest, I’m a bit of a Christmas tragic. We were fortunate to have a mother who made the…
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There Is No Better Education In Love, Compassion And Empathy Than Having A Child With Special Needs
A few weeks ago we went to a fundraiser. It was a black tie event to raise money for the family of an old colleague of the old man’s whose son broke his neck and damaged his spinal cord in a freak rugby accident recently. Alex Noble is their son’s name, and if anyone feels…
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Managing Anxiety and Depression: The Trick Is To Find Happiness In The Small Things
After the cabin fever brought on by the Armageddon of a dodgy weather cycle in Sydney over the past 24hrs – totally unrelated to climate change, according to our government – it was a relief to get out of the house this morning. After almost a month of holiday excess, I decided that I would…
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Sometimes, A Good Chinwag With People That Really Know You Is All The Therapy You Need
Bonding with someone is ” Like sharing an invisible stream of consciousness with each other.” Those are the powerful words of Zat Rana in his piece The Subtle Art Of Connecting With Anyone on “Medium.” My connection to others has always provided me with the best therapy. I’m needy emotionally. I might even go as far…
LOUISA SIMMONDS 