Recently I got into a disagreement with another that quickly degenerated into a heated exchange -- primarily on his end. It began over a trivial but untrue statement that he made. Unwisely, I responded bluntly with the proven (and verifiably accurate) facts. Instead of conceding his error, he became enraged and the dialogue migrated into a personal attack on me which left me feeling a bit shaken, not because I internalized or believed any of the attack but because I was stunned just how quickly things turned ugly.

Upon reflection, it was equally my fault. Though my initial response to him was factual correct, it wasn't "true" in the sense that it didn't  take into account his emotional needs, mental makeup, and personality. Instead of helping him see more clearly, his ego engaged and he locked…

I'd delighted to be informed that The Bliss Experiment: 28 Days to Personal Transformation has won the Nautilus Silver Award for Best Personal Growth / Self-Help / Psychology book for the 2013 award year. Thank you to everyone for you support and appreciation.

The award is explained thusly:

The Nautilus Book Awards is a unique awards program that recognizes books that promote spiritual growth, conscious living and positive social change. We also value books that stimulate the imagination and offer the reader new possibilities for a better life and a better world. Awards are given to books of exceptional merit that make a literary and heartfelt contribution to the fields of high-level wellness, green values and responsible leadership, as well as to the worlds of art, creativity and inspiration.

 

The Nautilus Book Awards are named for the mollusk whose beautiful, pearl-lined shell contains chambers of increasing size which the sea creature…

Recently, as I was driving across town to volunteer at a homeless shelter (and running late), I realized traffic was moving even slower than usual for LA. It turns out that streets were blocked and cops out in full force because there was a protest going on outside the Turkish Consulate. I was driving right into and through the middle of it.

Around the Turkish Consulate were hundreds of Armenian protestors, demonstrating against the Ottoman Empire whom they blame for the Armenian genocide that happened between 1915-1918. Yes, you read that correctly, this is something that happened nearly a 100 years ago and was perpetrated by an entity (The…

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is one of the biggest problems we face today. With hundreds of thousands of soldiers returning home from two brutal wars (not to mention all the covert/secret wars going on) -- plus the unceasing number of school shootings, terrorist attacks, sexual assaults, violent crimes, accidents, and all the plain awful things that happen to individuals on a daily basis -- learning how to treat people with PTSD is more important than ever.



In The Bliss Experiment, I wrote about this in the chapter "Releasing the Past" and elsewhere in the book. One of the things I discuss in the book is why these techniques can be helpful in overcoming PTSD and how we can learn and practice them.



This week, …