The Next Day: Transitions, Change, and Moving Forward

“Few of us become everything that we dreamed,” he writes. “One reason is that our dreams often can be shockingly selfish.”

A good enough parent is one who cares for their child and tends to their needs without expecting perfection of either themselves or their child. In fact, Winnicott and others argue that a good enough parent is actually more effective than a “perfect parent” (whatever that means) because perfectionism has no place in a healthy relationship between p

When we lose someone we love, our brains struggle to adjust to their absence. Love is what psychologists call a “bonded relationship”—it relies on our belief that we and the people we love will always be there for each other. And when that’s no longer true, at least in a physical sense, it can feel like part of you is missing. In fact, O’Connor arg

“Sharing Rituals and Traditions.” At the top, Dee Ann wrote, “Rituals and traditions are heart tending!” and went on to explain, “Experts tell us that these kinds of shared experiences have a profound effect on family life. Rituals help bind us together, give everyone a sense of belonging and create memories.”

The little dinnertime routine we adopted became, as the best rituals are, a chance to grow closer and go deeper.

Leaving my marriage was one of the hardest and most important things I’ve ever done. And there is, I am sure, a parallel universe where none of this ever happened. Where I never learned to listen to the voice that whispered inside me. Where I didn’t have the people around me who gave me the courage to do what I needed to do to regain control over m

“Grief,” wrote the psychologist Mary-Frances O’Connor, “is the cost of loving someone.” She wasn’t just waxing poetic; she was making a scientific observation.

His immediate family is allowed to do those things, too, but not to him—only to the people outside their circle.

is that there’s important value in being willing to change your plans as your understanding of the world expands and grows more complex. Sometimes, the best thing you can do for yourself and the people around you is to have the wisdom to know which dreams to let go of in order to make room for something