It seems to me that in our society, shame is rampant. Shame is practically running the show! We feel ashamed when we do something wrong, we tell ourselves that we’re stupid or useless or that we’ll never learn, we try to shame our children away from being bad and scare them into being good. We…

Note: In this article, I talk about the difficulties of having celiac disease, but the gratitude exercises are effective for all kinds of difficulty, not just celiac issues. It’s easy to see what not to like about being a celiac – I don’t like packing all my own food in case the available food is…

Note: This article talks about celiac disease, but the ideas apply to any kind of disease that your child might have. Having a child with celiac disease can be difficult for parents. As parents, we don’t want our children to have a disease… we feel our children’s pain, we want everything to be perfect for…

Years ago, when I was first diagnosed with celiac disease and was making a lot of mistakes with the gluten-free diet, I used to hide my digestive distress from everyone at work. The work scene, I thought, required me to be perfect. Being sick wasn’t perfect! I was a teacher of adult international students, and…

As a celiac, I find it frightening to go on trips. Will I be able to find safe food? Will I have to go hungry? Will I get glutened and have to deal with the illness away from the comfort and privacy of home? These fears were with me as I prepared to go on…

Trauma comes in many forms: it can be ongoing abuse that we experienced as a child, it can be a single horrible incident like an accident or a disaster, it can be a surgery, and so on. There’s even a thing called trans-generational trauma, in which we kind of ‘inherit’ the unresolved issues of our…

Note: I am writing through the celiac disease lens, but the principles apply to every area of our lives, whether we have celiac disease or not. As celiacs, many of our social and emotional issues arise from wanting to say “Yes,” but needing to say “No.” We need to learn how to feel comfortable saying…