Chris Loper has been writing about self-improvement and helping busy adults with habit formation since 2017. He also writes an education blog for parents and students for Northwest Educational Services. Along with Greg Smith, Chris is the cocreator of Parenting for Academic Success, a series of transformative classes that create empowered parents, confident students, and harmonious families. His most recent endeavor combines his academic and habit-formation expertise to help students thrive in college. Visit SmartCollegeHabits.com to learn more. In 2021, Chris published a humorous memoir titled Wood Floats and Other Brilliant Observations, a book that blends crazy stories with practical life lessons. He lives in Issaquah, WA where he is the owner of South Cove Tutoring.
The other day I was chatting with my brother about life in quarantine. As of this writing, we’re now five months into coronavirus-enforced social distancing in the United States. He and his wife live in California with their two young boys. Things were going fine, he said, “but it’s like Groundhog Day around here.” He was referencing the classic Bill Murray film, of course. It has probably been a while… Read More »Life Lessons From Groundhog Day
There are loads of good reasons to meditate. According to Mark Williams, Professor of Clinical Psychology at Oxford, and Mark Pennman, Ph.D. in Biochemistry: “Numerous psychological studies have shown that regular meditators are happier and more contented than average. … Anxiety, depression, and irritability all decrease with regular sessions of meditation. Memory also improves, reaction times become faster and physical stamina increases. Regular meditators enjoy better and more fulfilling relationships.… Read More »The Main Benefit of Meditation
Here’s a powerful idea I learned from Tal Ben-Shahar’s positive psychology course: “You are the co-creator of your reality.”1 This means that you don’t just experience the world – you also help shape it. You’re not merely an observer. You’re a participant. Some people take the view that you have no free will. You’re an animal, acting on instincts. Or you’re a cog in a machine, serving the powers that… Read More »You Co-Create Your Reality
Too often, we engage in self-improvement as a form of self-punishment. In Radical Acceptance, Tara Brach explains what looks like to pursue self-improvement for all the wrong reasons: “We embark on one self-improvement project after another. We strive to meet the media standards for the perfect body and looks by coloring out the gray, lifting our face, being on a perpetual diet. We push ourselves to get a better position… Read More »Self-Improvement For All the Right Reasons