Let me start off with a little story. It's about a young man who never spoke. Not a word in his entire life. One day he was having breakfast with his family, and to the amazement of all, he said, "Hey Ma, this oatmeal's got lumps in it." After the initial excitement subsided, his mother composed herself and asked him, "John, you never spoke before in all these years; why now?" And John said, "Up until now, everything was ok".

Ridiculous? Of course; that's why it’s a joke. We all know that life doesn't work that way. There's always lumps in the oatmeal, and often more serious problems. Author Kurt Vonnegut once described the human condition as people feeling like they were mistakenly put on the wrong planet. Mark Twain once quipped that the reason we're happy at a birth and sad at a funeral is because we're not the ones involved.

There's no shortage of things to worry about: nuclear holocaust, global warming. financial collapse, racial tensions, terrorism, and mutating bacteria. And on a more personal level, there's always tyranical bosses, indifferent spouses and teenagers trying out designer drugs. It is no wonder that many people will seek out ways to reduce stress and otherwise improve the emotional quality of their lives through books, seminars, classes, etc. representing an almost infinite variety of technique and perspective. Everthing from Tai-Chi to Gestalt. This site is my personal vehicle for introducing and developing my ideas and perspectivess.

I'm feeling much better about things these days. It took quite a long time. It took several years just to find out that it was something learnable.

The noted author, lecturer and sales expert, Zig Zigler, once drew a comparison between the human mind and a field which has just been plowed. Ideas are like "seeds". Plant good seed and you harvest a good crop. Plant bad ones and your field is a bunch of troublesome weeds. This certainly applies to the "feel better" ideas which I've collected. I'm still getting value from "seeds" I planted quite a while ago. I guess some ideas are "perrenials".

Most of my "feel better" ideas seem to be related to one central idea:

It's an idea which stated by itself seems simple and easy to accept yet it's so general that it's not very useful by itself. To feel better, we need ideas which will help us to change the way we think.

To help with this process I've set up a Yahoo group where you can post messages, ask questions, and in general share ideas that have made you feel better. Maybe you have some "seeds" you'd like to plant.