by guest blogger Neil Lavender, PhD, co-author of The One-Way Relationship Workbook and Toxic Coworkers

You are not the easiest person to get along with. And neither am I. We are all a bit quirky if you ask me. I like to think of us as a bunch of swimmers in one small pool. We’re all kind of fighting for our own swimming space, if you know what I mean.

Unfortunately, there are certain people who take up more space than they’re entitled to. Worse yet, they pull others down in their self-centered efforts.

These are not your average swimmers. Most likely, these are individuals with personality disorders.

So how do you know you’re involved with one? It’s easy if you know the right signs to look for.

by guest blogger Christy Matta MA, author of The Stress Response

Do you find yourself compromising your values to smooth out a conflict? Or do you worry about that someone will judge you harshly if you speak up? Do you lie or gloss over the truth out of fear of rejection?

We all smooth over the truth and bend in our standards from time to time in order to reduce conflict and make relationships work. But when pleasing others becomes a habit you may find yourself resentful, which ultimately damages your relationships.

Smoothing over disagreements and arguments can become more important than your own personal beliefs, eroding your self-respect.

by guest blogger Suzanne Phillips, Psy.D., ABPP, co-author of Healing Together

If you are a mother, you know that there are times when you feel you have been through the war. If you are a military mother…you actually have!

Men and women don’t go to war – families go to war and as a result there are many military mothers. They include mothers who have to leave their children to serve; mothers of the men and women who serve; and military spouses who hold on to their children and the life at home while their partners serve.

A closer look at these military mothers offers a reflection of fear and courage, of sacrifice and maternal resilience, of trauma and triumph.

by guest blogger Sheela Raja, PhD, author of Overcoming Trauma and PTSD

In recent months, there's been growing media attention given to the shocking number of veteran suicides. It is, indeed, a national crisis. Surely we can all agree that our veterans gave us their best, and in return, they deserve the best from each of us. But what can each of us do, as family, friends and concerned citizens to help ease the burden of our returning servicemen and women? Here are some recommendations based on what we know about good, evidence-based treatments for PTSD.

The Naked Foods Cookbook authors Margaret Floyd and James Barry sit down for a fireside chat. Check out their charming and funny interview where they discuss eating and cooking naked, how their relationship grew from professional to personal, and their six-month bun in the oven!

adapted from The Wisdom to Know the Difference

There are certainly many paths to recovery. But you’ll only take one. What’s the best choice for you? We don’t know. And you can never really know. You only get to live life once. However you live it, you won’t know how it would have gone had you lived it differently. Time runs in one direction. Scientific studies often tell us what happened on average to the people who got this or that treatment. We’ll cite some statistics in The Wisdom to Know the Difference. But at the end of the day you won’t have something happen to you on average. Something very particular will happen to you. The best measure—and we’ll emphasize this over and over again—is how your path to recovery is working in your own life. We’ll hold onto this practical theme throughout.

The substance of The Wisdom to Know the Difference is grounded in a model of psychotherapy called acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT from here on, which should be pronounced as a word rather than separate letters.) ACT is an application of a discipline in psychology called behavior analysis. Unless you have an interest in the study of psychology, the only thing we want you to take away from this fact is that we’re concerned here with your behavior, with what you do, far more than we are with what you think or who you “are” in some abstract sense. Rather than explain too much about how ACT works as a model of psychotherapy, we’d rather keep writing to you about the issue of addiction and recovery and let the details of the approach come out in the process, in a commonsense, storytelling way rather than a deliberately professional or scholarly- seeming way. We will offer that the principles of ACT are being evaluated on an ongoing basis in research facilities all over the world, and that, from its earliest days, ACT has been applied to substance-abuse issues with good results. While what follows isn’t science, it is of science.

Have you ever heard that saying "you are what you eat"? Well, it's even more real than you may realize. Here is The Naked Foods Cookbook co-authors Margaret Floyd and James Barry's take on it:

by guest blogger Christy Matta MA, author of The Stress Response

We're often kept from getting what we want in life by the demands we place on ourselves more so than by the demands of others. Pressure, hassles and tension often come when what we want to do conflicts with what we tell ourselves is "right." We see a messy house and believe we "should" clean it, or we long to pursue a career we're passionate about but tell ourselves "I can't do that."

If you are stuck "doing the right thing" while sacrificing what you want, your beliefs about how you "should" act may be holding you back.

Nishanga Bliss M.S.T.C.M., LAc , author of Real Food All Year, discusses changing your diet every four months with the seasons, what foods we should be eating for the spring season, and more. Check it out:

by guest blogger Michelle May, MD, author of Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat with Diabetes

We're at a crossroads with dieting. Diets temporarily treat symptoms, not causes; diets temporarily change behaviors, not the source of those behaviors. The "treatment" paradigm is flawed, yet so pervasive that millions of people are trapped in outdated beliefs and behaviors, despite all of the evidence that it's not moving the majority toward healthier, happier, more vibrant lives.

There's endless, tiresome debate about which diet works better, but none have shown a permanent cure. Some even resort to blaming or subtly shaming dieters (or themselves) when they quit the diet or regain weight, even though that is the known outcome for the vast majority of people.