Three years ago, I was thrilled to accept a four-week contract with a Toronto-based non-profit. As a former volunteer, I was excited to use my expertise to help an organization whose mission I supported and believed in. It also paid the bills! What should have been a month of tireless, passionate work turned into four-weeks of absolute hell. During my short stint as a contract employee, I was subjected... 

It was 11 years ago this past January. My best-friend lay dying in a bed at a hospice and I, along with a few close friends, sat and waited. We knew the time was soon. A week before Tom, who was living with full-blown AIDS, had checked himself into the Wellesley hospital. He was worried about his continuous fevers and his inability to eat. Over the last few months he was a regular at the now defunct... 

Annabelle is a 53-year-old perimenopausal woman who was just offered an early retirement package from the corporation she worked at for almost 30 years. Slightly apprehensive, she is opting for the package, as she is close to retirement, and figures a year, or two (or five) won’t make that much difference in her lifestyle. This positive approach to a stressful situation is probably because four years... 

What we all need to develop powerful patterns in everyday life Science advocates them; religious leaders abide by them; we live and breathe based on them. They are rituals. Rituals dictate how we sleep, eat, work, and play. While often associated with schedules and patterns, rituals are also expressive ways we interact with ourselves, our family and our communities and, given the right opportunity,...