Stepping Stones

By Ellen Brown
Several years ago, when I was writing an article about heart disease in women, each of the women I interviewed pleaded with me at the end of our conversation. “If you ever notice symptoms like these, please don’t wait like I did,” they begged. “Get it checked out.”
After promising to do as they [...]

By Ellen Brown
They say that grieving is a lonely process, and if you’re grieving the death of a loved one, you may feel all alone with your feelings. But it doesn’t have to be that way. There are support groups in your community and online that you can join, and people there who will understand [...]

By Ellen Brown
In our culture, we’re taught – subtly or not so subtly – that certain emotions are better than others. Joy is “good.” Anger and sadness are “bad.” Guilt is pointless. And shame is, well, shameful, and best swept under the bed.
Often, these emotional dos and don’ts are reinforced by our families, when we’re [...]

By Ellen Brown
Lately, I’ve been hankering to try something new. To experiment. To explore. To get out more. This all makes perfect sense since I haven’t had much time or energy to play in the past year, a year that began with the slow decline and death of my father-in-law last August and ended with [...]

By Ellen Brown
If you’ve been laid-off in the past couple years, do you feel like your self -confidence has slowly eroded? Many of my coaching clients who lost their jobs in the Recession certainly felt that way at a certain point.
But the good news is that there’s hope. Do yourself a favor, though. Start rebuilding [...]

By Ellen Brown
When you’re dealing with a difficult life transition, such as divorce or job loss, do you sometimes beat yourself up because you can’t seem to  “get over it and move on?” Many of my clients fall into that familiar pattern, and I’ve certainly done the same from time to time. The problem is [...]

By Ellen Brown
When we’re dealing with difficult life transitions like job loss or the death of a loved one, it’s not uncommon for us to focus a little too much on the past and the future. We may ruminate about the day our supervisor delivered the bad news. Or we may obsess about how we’re [...]

By Ellen Brown
There’s no doubt about it: losing your job can crumble your self-confidence. While that’s not always the case, it’s often true whether you were fired or laid off, due to company downsizing.
But the problem is this: if you need to search for a new job, having a crisis of confidence can get in [...]

By Ellen Brown
After writing my last blog post on the benefits of joining a job club, a number of people reminded me of how important it is to choose your club carefully. Why? Because there are no one-size fits all clubs. And at some clubs, there’s a little too much negativity permeating the air. And [...]

By Ellen Brown
I work with a client named “Sarah,”* whose friend thinks she’s “crazy” for joining a job club. “Why would you want to hang out with a bunch of unemployed people?” she asked Sarah one day. “Isn’t it depressing?”
“Actually, the people in my group are great,” Sarah told her friend. “They encourage me and [...]