Think Happy!

My background, spiritually speaking, is in Christianity. (I was an “anabaptist” Christian, which is similar to being a Quaker – not really the Bible-bashing type.) I no longer call myself a Christian, which is a topic I may get into sometime, but I still have a great deal of respect for the teachings of Jesus.
One [...]

Meditation may be more effective than drug treatments for preventing relapses into depression.
Mike Reeves-McMillan points to an interesting find on the BBC News website, which reports that Group meditation is as effective as drug treatments for stopping people slipping back into depression. The study, published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, found [...]

“Daddy, teach me something!”
My kids have a great thirst for knowledge. The only problem is that I’m fairly sure they’ll discover the limits of my own knowledge pretty soon! (My 11-year old daughter is getting close with some of the Maths homework she brings home.)
Recently, my children and I were talking about the things that [...]

As you know, I’ve been thinking about Byron Katie lately. Although that post discussed some concerns, I’m actually pretty positive about The Work and more than happy to recommend it. In fact, it is my positivity towards it, that makes me want to spend few posts assessing it as objectively as possible, warts and all.
(It [...]

Sorry about the silence, folks, I’ve been enjoying the sights and sounds of Colorado Springs. What a place!
Anyway, while catching up on emails and such, I came across a George Bernard Shaw quote that I thought was too good not to pass on:
If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange [...]

G. K. Chesterton, the famous Catholic journalist once wrote:
‘There are two ways to get enough: one is to continue to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less.’
This strikes me as incredibly profound.
How much misery enters our lives through the desire for things – or circumstances – that we don’t have. Even if [...]

Over at my anabaptist spirituality blog, Leaving Münster, I wrote a birthday reflection on what lessons I encountered last year. It was an act of self-discipline, as much as anything, because I tend to get fairly melancholy around my birthday. So, I thought it would do me be good to intentionally – and publicly – [...]

A French Buddhist monk is, according to Scientists, the world’s happiest man. And the good news is that he is sharing his secrets to make the world a happier place.
The trick, he reckons, is to put some effort into it. In essence, happiness is a “skill” to be learned.
Matthieu Ricard, 60, abandoned his [...]