Estimated reading time: 13 minutes — [This essay includes excerpts from This Fresh Existence: Heart Teachings from Bhikkhuni Dhammananda (Windhorse Publications, April, 2024)] I have always been a spiritual seeker. At age four, I asked my brother, w

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes — I am a two-time breast cancer survivor, but my story is not really about cancer and its trials. It’s about how cancer taught me that humor, nature, exercise and relationships with both family and “found family” h

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes — Allowance is a tool which can quite literally change all aspects of life including relationships, finances, career and more. Although allowance is a powerful and pragmatic way of improving one’s life, it is not so

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes My journey from an average SAT scorer to achieving a perfect score and eventually founding Prep Expert has been both challenging and enlightening. Along this path, one of the most significant hurdles I faced was tes

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes — 1970 in pre-Choice America. The lonely only child of a high-ranking naval officer and a socially ambitious mother, after our eighth move in thirteen years, I longed for a normal adolescence — to have lasting frien

Estimated reading time: 9 minutes — In this Q&A, Bill Miles, Co-Founder and Creative Director of Best Self Magazine, puts forth questions for Dr. Sweta Vikram, inspired by her new book, The Loss that Binds Us: 108 Tips on Coping with Grief and Loss.

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes — Many people think of trauma solely as an incident that happened to us or someone else that is intense, violent, or life-threatening; however, trauma can also be a suffering from emotional or psychological pain tha

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes — My grandmother was fourteen when a man in her Southern Italian village asked to marry her. He was twenty-eight, a stranger to Gramma. She said, No! But her mother told her, “Marry him. He’ll take you to America.”

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes — It started with a simple question: “Mommy, can I give you a goal this year?” At the time I was working long stressful hours leading a large client relationship for an advertising agency while balancing having two

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes — It’s an unfortunate reality that our planet’s biodiversity is under threat, with numerous species facing the risk of extinction. The state of endangered species today is a complex tapestry of challenges, opportuni

Estimated reading time: 13 minutes — At Best Self, we’re always questioning: How can we live more fully? Are we living with purpose? Is there meaning to our journey beyond our physical existence? So when we learned of Susan Grau’s work as an intuiti

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes — Most of us strive to be happy loving people. Our tendency to look outside ourselves to find acceptance, safety, love, and completion can misdirect our energies, and have us searching for the pathway to meaning in

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes — In Hyderabad, India, from December 29, 2023 to January 13, 2024, a historic and unprecedented event unfolded. Ten thousand people from across the globe participated in an experiment to create peace in the world th

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes — When my wife passed away in 2017, I needed to downsize from a house to an apartment. I was too overwhelmed by grief and the complications of life to think clearly about much of anything. So I filled three storage

— Although the tinsel, the fairy lights, and the fa-la-la of the holiday season are meant to uplift, December is actually a tough time for many people. One survey found that more than half of Americans in 2022 felt sad and lonely during the holidays,

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes — We live in a world where war coverage is live, social media keyboard warriors are loud and fierce, and racism and “anti-thisism” and “anti-thatism” ring loudly in our ears. Every day, we are bombarded with negativ

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes — I have thought a lot about how I went from low self-esteem at age 15 to…well, low self-esteem at age 78. This admittedly does not make the kind of narrative arc that publishers respond to. But however little progr

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes — In today’s fast-paced world, the concept of self-care is often touted as essential for adults. However, what many might overlook is the importance of this practice for the younger generation. Just as we, as adults

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes — Mental health and wellbeing in the work environment is being discussed around the world in new ways. In these turbulent times, many people suffer from depression and anxiety, which makes the conversation of mental

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes — A dark cloud of shame hovered over me for many years. As thunder roared and rain poured down, I imagined God was angry with me. He threw things in Heaven and cried for everything I did wrong. Because I lost my vir

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes — The other day a friendly person at the store said, “Hello there, young man.” He was just being friendly, but I thanked him and said what I believe to be true: I am getting old. Online, all the time, I see comments

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes — The disastrous climactic conditions prevailing on earth are signs of Nature’s distress. These effects have been caused mainly by human activities such as harmful decisions and selfish aims. The worldwide shifts in

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes — Change is one of the most challenging aspects of life — whether it’s moving, losing a job, ending a relationship, coping with illness, or facing the loss of a loved one. Most of us have a really hard time with it.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes — Walking along the ocean’s edge on a cool, sunny morning, I saw the sweetest thing. A little girl, about four years old, in a ruffly pink swimsuit with a matching pink bucket and shovel, was drawing on the sand. Sh

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes — Martin was soft-spoken and had touched a soft spot in my heart. I didn’t know much about him, but I knew he was mourning the recent death of his mother. I also knew that a physical injury, the reason he sought my

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes — “I would not be where I am today had it not been for who I was before.” Just over 20 years ago, I walked into the Chairman’s office, told him I was an alcoholic, and resigned as CEO of the Nasdaq-listed company I’d

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes — We cannot control all that happens to us, but we can choose how we react to those struggles. I’m inspired to share with others how we can look at life, the glass half-empty or half-full, and find peace in the effo

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes — Do you remember when you first stepped foot in the kitchen as a kid? The yummy smells, the sizzle of the food, and the excitement of making something yourself. Those moments were pure magic, and they can ignite a

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes — Have you ever found fulfillment in any solution outside of yourself? Think back to when you felt angry. Did throwing or yelling help solve the problem? The answer is probably not. It may feel good at the time, bu

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes — My story of teenage seduction by a teacher is all too common – and no doubt far more than we realize. Whether it is a teacher, coach, family member, priest, or someone else in a position of power, this kind of bet