Ghost Whisperer

Just in case you have never seen Ghost Whisperer, this is a TV series about a young woman who can see and talk to ghosts, and helps them cross over by getting closure. In each episode, Melinda is approached by a ghost and helps it communicate with loved ones, revisit places and events and find peace. Once the ghost has settled its affairs, it sees a beautiful bright light and happily walks towards it. But why wait until after death? Why not learn how to get closure right now?

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Just the Two of Us

Here is a question I have received from Prudence, one of my readers. I am posting my reply here, because I think that my answer may help other people.

Prudence asked, “We are almost at our 2nd year anniversary. We have two foster children, 14 and 10. Our marriage is happy, fun and exciting, but sometimes I feel we don’t have enough time just the two of us… how do you do it with two kids?”

I guess that becoming a parent to a big kid is not the same as growing together with your kids since they are babies. Kids want all the attention on them all of the time, which we give them at first. Along the way, we gradually learn to use our time better: to complete things a bit better, a bit faster or just to get rid of some time consuming habits.

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Emotional Garage sale

Ask any person who has ever had a garage sale and they will tell you that it takes a long time to prepare for one, and sometimes it is hard to say goodbye to some items that you think are close to your heart. Still, in the end, you meet some wonderful people, you make some money and you feel hugely relieved afterwards. You feel fresh, clean, light and free.

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60 Tips for a Stress-Free Lifestyle (printable)

This post contains a downloadable and printable list of the 60 tips for a stress-free lifestyle to make it easy for you to follow them and share them.

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Parents of Teenagers: This is How to Destroy Your Relationship

As you know, teenagers are very close to my heart. At the age of 16, I decided it was time for people to change their attitude towards teens if they want them to change their attitude towards their life and the adults in their life. Especially parents of teenagers.

I was a bit shocked to realize that the relationship I had with my parents from an early age had led us into constant conflict during my teen years.

Until that point, I thought all teens hated their parents. I thought all parents of teenagers lost their kids’ respect and trust during adolescence. I knew that having these thoughts did not help teenagers or their parents.

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Relax: Let Go of Your Glass

People carry all sorts of “glasses”. Some are heavier than others, but over time, even the lightest ones create stress. If we want to live a happy life, we need to find ways to put them down, even for a short time or better.

To understand the need to let go or at least put down some of your glasses, look at kids. Sometimes, their hands are full and when you hand them something else, they become confused.

Grown ups are just like kids. Their hands are full with so many things to do, think and feel that they are afraid to let go of some of these and to clear their minds for new ones. Remember, you have only two hands.

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20 Things Teens Say to Set Parents Off

Last week, I wrote about the things that parents say that turn off communication between them and their teens. Today, I would like to talk about the buttons teens push to set their parents off and “make” them lose their minds.

From their early years, kids have an inherent sense of their parents’ weaknesses. They learn it by themselves – they do not need to go to school to study what works and what does not work. They are so sophisticated, they can tell you what works on Daddy and what works on Mommy, even if they are very different.

It is amazing sometimes to see a young baby, stepping as much as possible on the toes of his parents and making them behave in funny ways. This thing works both ways. Our children know us so well, they can make us do silly things out of joy or out of anger or guilt.

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Tips for a Stress-Free Lifestyle (6)

This is the 6th and final part of the series “60 Tips for a Stress-Free Lifestyle”, bringing you another set of 10 tips to reduce stress and enjoy life. Keep your eye out for the tips you can use right away and every day for maximum effect, and be a peaceful role model to your kids.

Tip #51: Listen to music you love

Music is made up of different vibrations that relax the brain. People use music for meditation and for therapy. When you listen to music you love, your body calms down. If you want to help your kids relax, find music they love and ask them to listen to it.

Research has found that cows produced more milk when they listened to Mozart. Listening to Bach was found to increase children’s performance.

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While You Were Sleeping

Whether we like it or not, parents are human beings. What can we do?

So sometimes, we have bad days. Sometimes, we need something to be proud of, because otherwise, we would feel pretty bad about ourselves. Sometimes, we just need reassurance that things will get better, preferably thanks to us. This is why we have kids.

If you are working a full time job, fostering aspirations of promotion and glory, you may be spending much of your time at work, or at least being preoccupied with it. When you come home, you are not in the best of moods, your head is filled with things that still need to be done, by you, for which the due date has not moved, despite the sad fact you have not done them today.

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