a daily blog on well-being and how to feel better by Mark Barger Elliott…

In our apartment yesterday, I came across one of those small gift books. This one was called the Believe: The Little Guide to Ted Lasso. It offers a series of quotes by cast members about the making of the show, as well as quotes from the show. In the book they quote Ted Lasso as…

Rick Ruben, noted music producer and author of The Creative Act, believes both art and life invite us to apply this wonderful phrase to it, an “experimental faith.” Ruben describes how he’s learned when we attempt to create art, or embark on a new project or endeavor, what is happening is, “we are required to…

Basketball coach John Wooden, considered one of the greatest of all time, once made this observation, “the only person you’re competing against is yourself. The rest is out of your control.” Whenever we compare ourselves to others, it inevitably leads to emotions that are not helpful or productive. Wooden’s insight is what we hope to…

Over the last few days I’ve come across this phrase a few times, stop telling yourself. One version that caught my eye was, stop telling yourself, “it’s too late.” Others include, stop telling yourself, “it can’t be done.” Or, stop telling yourself, “this won’t work out.” It sounds simple, but we often need to decide…

When Lynn and I were on a trip through Europe long ago we became fascinated by doors. We took photo after photo of all the different shapes and colors that appeared, even on a common street. Jhumpa Lahiri is a lovely writer and in her book Translating Myself and Others, she makes this observation about…

In 2016 we began to have the option to save 10 seconds. That was when Netflix invented the ”Skip Into” button. Yesterday I read how on Netflix in a typical day that button is pressed 136 million times, saving members 195 years of time. Which got me to pondering what it means to choose to “skip”…