In the past few years, how many times would you say you've been hurt by someone you care deeply about? Too many to count, right? Maybe you were cheated on, lied to, or ignored outright. Perhaps the incident came about at work, school, or home.  As unsettling as the pain can be, you must remind yourself that such feelings won't linger forever. However, you have to do your part to get the wheels rolling.  What I've observed that holds so many people back from conquering the hurt is that they fail to acknowledge it in the first place.  And men are especially prone to this form of denial. Indeed, it's tempting for us to sweep the feelings under the rug as if nothing happened, or to carry on believing they'll fade away on their own. On the contrary, this wrong-headed approach causes those feelings to fester. Denial provides the very fuel for intensification, like warm water powering a hurricane ever more. This, in turn, produces doubt and blame, which can snowball into a...

Why is it that we close our eyes when we do certain things -- like hug, kiss, pray, and cry? That's easy: It's because the most beautiful and exciting things in life are not seen, but felt with the heart . In other words, we find little need to see anything or anyone, for the intense emotions we experience come from deep within. Consider people who ride rollercoasters. At some point, they've closed their eyes just before a sharp turn or steep drop. Why? Because they become so consumed by their emotions -- fear and excitement among them -- that visuals seemingly take a back seat. In fact, many people find rollercoaster rides far more exciting when they close their eyes than when they keep them open throughout. I'm sure you've also noticed that many people -- perhaps including you -- close their eyes while eating scrumptious food, whether a cheese pizza or juicy steak. And there's no denying that a kiss on the lips doesn't feel as passionate i...

When you look back on the best times of your life, vacations are likely to come to mind -- whether family trips to Walt Disney World as a child, scuba diving adventures with friends, or romantic Caribbean escapes with your spouse. But why is it that vacations hold so much meaning? Why do we have a tendency to say "I need a vacation" in the first place? It's simple: vacations help us escape reality. They offer welcome respite from the daily grind, which, for most people, starts with getting up for work and ends with going to sleep to get up for work. In other words, vacations break a pattern of mundaneness in our life, even if only for a couple of days. Beyond that, vacations create memories, some of which remain etched in our minds and hearts for the rest of our lives. Like eating something new for the first time or entering into a new relationship, visiting a new destination can be very exciting. For example, to behold the Grand Canyon or Statue of Liberty fo...

Have you noticed that our gut hardly -- if ever -- fails us? It's when I have opted to go against my better instincts that I've ended up regretting decisions. That's not to say our gut will never lead us astray, but that seldom happens. The reason why we should listen to our gut feelings is simply because no one knows us better than we know ourselves. Whenever I am prodded by other people to do something that goes against my very nature -- take a different route to the mall, drink a different kind of beer, try my hand at a new game -- something goes wrong. That's partly the reason I am resistant to change -- and to others' efforts to get me to do something I may not feel comfortable with. I have an acute sense of what I like and don't like, and it's only become sharper with age. I'm sure many of you feel the same way. I'm in no way insinuating that you should always object to trying out new things and experiences. But human beings are g...