On my desk is a squeezable stress ball, sporting a wide happy-face grin. I have to admire my stress ball. No matter how hard I squeeze it, no matter how twisted out of shape it becomes, no matter how I try to mangle it…it always returns to its natural shape. And through it all, it […]

“A man who fears suffering is already suffering from what he fears.” Michel de Montaigne reminds us that we suffer more from our fears than from those scary things we are afraid of. Knowing that alone should be enough comfort to reduce the fear. Just a little?

Most of us walk around in denial much of our lives. There are things we know we should do, but we are too lazy. Or they would require us getting out of our comfort zone. Or they might commit us to do more than we want to do. Or we are not sure if we […]

Remember how New York used to be a crime-ridden place where people feared to go out at night? Then, a few years ago, the authorities cracked down on crime. But what was amazing was the kind of crime they cracked down on: vandalism and littering. The result was greatly reduced violence. Why? Because a neglected […]