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

On April 25th the New England Patriots have the third choice in the NFL draft. A question in these types of decisions is do you play it safe or not. The player chosen can impact a franchise for a decade in both a positive and negative way. Christopher Gasper is a Boston Globe columnist and…

I was walking by an older, parked car and noticed a sticker on the driver’s door handle that read, “Lights off?” (You can see a photo of it at on-emotions.com) The sticker was clearly a reminder to make sure before locking the car that the owner checked to make sure they had turned the lights…

I left my house keys in a friend’s car that we had borrowed for the day. He was kind enough to mail them back with a note that read, “Sending keys so that you may unlock the mysteries ahead.” It was a lovely sentiment that reminded me often we do need a key to unlock…

In his book Hidden Potential, Adam Grant makes the intriguing point that while critics perceive weaknesses and cheerleaders strengths, in order to become “a better version” of ourselves we need a coach who can discern our “potential.” It’s easy to confuse feelings of pride or hubris with potential. When the occasion arises, we might think…

I am sitting in a Fairfield Inn breakfast room in Framingham, MA. Half the people are normal sized humans eating large servings of eggs, sausages links, and bagels. The other half are clearly runners here for the Boston Marathon that occurs tomorrow. They look five to eight pounds short of being classified as emaciated (you…

“Throughout adulthood,” writes Alexxa Gotthardt, “the artist Mondrian led an itinerant life, moving between Amsterdam, the Dutch countryside, Paris, London, and New York…. [And] on several occasions, moving sparked radical shifts in his work. One such break came in the summer of 1914, when Mondrian returned to Holland after a two-year stint in Paris, where…