It's easy to feel defeated and sorry for yourself when challenges in life arise, however, you can take another approach. While you may not be able to always control what happens in life, you can always choose how to react to it.

Telling the truth comes with a sense of freedom because you have nothing to hide. There is a saying: "Oh what a tangled web we weave when we practice to deceive."

While stress definitely can be contagious, it's also true that how our parents or great-grandparents responded to stressful situations may in part determine how we handle ourselves today. My mother was a perfect example.

If you know you are susceptible to certain pitfalls like drinking, overeating, isolating yourself or ruminating, now is the time for those "prepare or risk despair' interventions that may enable you to preempt those unhealthy habits.

In truth, I'm happy in the face of what I write because I have an outlet for all my feelings. My upbeat attitude has been shaped by creating a new and different conversation about loss, and the relationship I have with my readers.

We need to learn skills for coping with our feelings of sadness, anger and terror evoked by tragedies like those in Fukushima, Katrina and Haiti, so that we rise to these occasions rather than collapse into them.

The reason the Seven Steps to Recovery works is that in essence it reconnects the thinking, feeling and acting parts of your personality. More than that, it enables you to adapt to the reality of what is, as opposed what no longer is.

Very few of us escape adversity in our lives, so take a moment and do an inventory to see if you are prepared for the journey.

In the face of disaster in Japan, can we stop our fearful thoughts? Can we even go a step further and maintain a calm state of mind that breeds more calm?

While it is tempting to perseverate with questions of "why" and "unfairness," this tendency can delay you from saving what still has life. We must not tarry in our heads when there is ground to clear, rescues to handle.

Earthquakes and other natural disasters are not easy for anyone to comprehend or accept. Understandably, many young children feel frightened and confused.

By Meghan O'Rourke The New Yorker My mother died on Christmas Day, at home, around three in the afternoon. In the first months afterward, I felt an i...

Dealing with the passing of a well-loved pet is usually a small child's first experience with death. It is a harsh reality because it is permanent and children can't fathom permanent.

Even when you can't control what happens or happened, you can control how you react. When you are in pain, you don't want to hear this kind of advice because it seems to minimize your distress, but it is simply the truth.

There are many reasons why you may overeat. Whether it's emotional or stress related, you are using food as a coping mechanism. Before you grab the bag of chips read these helpful tips.

Narrative is a connective tissue made of memories and events, facts and fantasy, and a set of beliefs, which we use to form identity.

Doorways as a symbol carry quite a bit of meaning. They are a promise, a beckoning, an invitation. Just as opening a physical door leads us across a threshold and into a new space.

It's hard to know how to counsel friends when they are in the midst of a severe crisis. But here are a few things that I've learned along the way.

We need to learn, model, and teach whatever practice restores the Spirit of who we are, nipping self-criticism in the bud. We need to call back our own Greater Self, on a daily basis.