What if

Last time, I wrote about the conflict between the two minds – the conscious mind and the subconscious mind. Confusion is a big sign of the war between the two minds and getting to know ourselves is a good way to find balance, self esteem and happiness.

The “if” part of the interview with myself deals with our most precious desires to love, to be loved, to have control, power, stability, success and self esteem. It is very important for us to be honest with ourselves and discover what we want in life.

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My Psychic Mom

I suspected that my mom was psychic when I visited my late grandparents’ house and saw a photo of an old man, with a long gray beard and a special turban on his head. It was a black and white photo that stood proudly on top of my grandparents’ TV.

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Welcome to Teenhood

It is days before your 13th birthday and you are approaching the line. 12 sleeps from now, you will enter the scary age of being a teenager. For years, you have been a kid, a child. You have liked most of it and thought there would be magic when you celebrated your first teen birthday.

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Irrational Rules of Living – Avoidance

Most, if not all the people in the world want to be happy. Happiness is also what parents want to give to their kids most of all – more than money, health and many other things. Yet, many people believe that in order to get the most happiness, they must avoid unpleasantness and hardship as much as they can.

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The Magic Money Jar

Sabrina did not believe it when she overheard the school librarian talking about the days her grandfather had been so poor he used to walk 45 minutes to work to save the money required for a bus ticket. “He made all his money from the jar”, said the librarian to her friend. Sabrina thought he had made his money from building houses and was very surprised.

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How to Measure Your Life

If you are like me and like many other people I know, you sometimes ask yourself just how successful you are. Birthdays and New Years are typical opportunities to do this, but there are many other soft moments, when we find ourselves sitting quietly and thinking, “How is my life going?”

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The World Bank: Claim Your Money

I hope that by now you are convinced it is better for you to be a happy, wealthy parent and all you need is some knowledge about the way to get there. As strange as this seems, not all people want to be wealthy and, sure enough, they are not.

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When the Children Cry

I met Amir this year when we both worked for the “together for humanity” organization in Australia. He had black skin and spoke broken English. In the presentation we did together, he told the kids he was from Africa. It is amazing, but most of us in the organization are either educators or social workers. Amir was only in his first year of study for his Social Work degree. As part of the program, he talked to the kids about being “black” and suffering for it. I did not know quite what he meant when he said “suffering”.

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The Art of Misery

For many years, I have been writing about the quest for happiness and, as you may now, I believe that focusing on good is the best way to make it expand. However, there are (many) people who find negative examples more effective, so I am going to try some humor (taking a cue from my kids, who flattered me this month when I bought a funny birthday card and said I was developing my sense of humor) and talk a little bit about the dark side of life.

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Rich Thoughts, Poor Thoughts

Many people, when I talk to them about making money and being rich, come up with good “reasons” why they do not need to be rich. They tell themselves that rich people are sad, miserable, stingy and, most commonly, corrupt, and they do not want to be rich to avoid fitting these descriptions.

These beliefs were made up by poor people looking for ways to feel good about not having enough money or the skills to get it.

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