Can We Ease Loneliness With a Little Gratitude?
The holidays can be a lonely time of year for those who are far from loved ones—or even just longing for closer relationships. They have plenty of company, holidays aside: In a recent Gallup poll, 20% of U.S. adults said they felt lonely “a lot of the day yesterday.” While there might be many steps […]
The Silent Struggle: When Saying “No” Is Not That Simple
“The first step toward change is awareness. The second step is acceptance.” ~Nathaniel Branden I vividly recall a morning when my son was just five years old. My husband wanted to leave the country we were living in again, this time to escape what he believed was the imminent collapse of society due to COVID. […]
The Art of Being Flawed in a Perfectionist World
“Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence.” ~Vince Lombardi Okay, let’s be real for a second. As I sit here trying to write this perfect essay about embracing imperfection, the irony isn’t lost on me. I’ve rewritten this opening paragraph about five times now. Old habits die hard, right? […]
Three Lessons for Bringing Gratitude Into Your School
When asked what it felt like to receive a thank-you note, fourth-grader Leilani* at Sunset Beach Elementary School in Hawaii responded, “I feel good because someone cares about what I did. I feel like people care about me.” When she considered what it felt like to see someone else receive a note from her, she […]
How to Stop Living in Perpetual Guilt and Forgive Yourself
“I have learned that the person I have to ask for forgiveness from the most is myself. You must love yourself. You have to forgive yourself every day. Whenever you remember a shortcoming, a flaw, you have to tell yourself, ‘That’s just fine.’ You have to forgive yourself so much until you don’t even see […]
Quiet Leadership: The Superpower the World Needs Right Now
In a world that often rewards the loudest voices and boldest proclamations, quiet leadership can feel like an anomaly. We’ve been conditioned to equate confidence with volume, decisiveness with domination, and success with center-stage charisma. But as the modern workplace grapples with burnout, disconnection, and overcompetitive environments, the subtle strengths of quiet leaders—and their mastery […]
How 18th Century Racism Affects Your Healthcare
When I lived in Philadelphia, I had an allergist who would often give me lung function tests to assess my asthma-related difficulties. The test always registered as normal, even when I was clearly unwell, and in fact, sometimes it came out above average, which she said was odd for an asthmatic. I have always hated […]
Providing Health Care Across State Lines
Source: hillside7/Pixabay The United States’ licensure process for different health care disciplines is a bewildering hodge-podge of state-specific rules that vary across different disciplines. Exceptions exist and are often the rule, making it incredibly challenging to render any overarching opinions or statements, much less solutions. By and large, health care licensures in the U.S. operate […]
What Harry Styles Fans Taught Me About Happiness
For my daughter’s 15th birthday, I treated her to a Harry Styles concert. There I was, a dad surrounded by 15,000 giddy, elaborately dressed teenage girls in a sports stadium. You may smirk at the vision of a wizened professor in a sea of boas and sequins. But the experience shot through me, a neuroscientist […]
Strategies for Health Care Leaders to Build…
Countries around the world face a health care workforce crisis: The World Health Organization estimates that by 2030, an additional 40 million health care professionals will be needed. Meanwhile, in most countries, health care staff are experiencing high levels of stress and burnout, resulting in ill health and many leaving their professions. The pandemic exacerbated […]