Our thoughts —some 60,000 to 80,000 per day, as studies suggest—are like bumper-to-bumper traffic with vehicles tailgating one another and getting nowhere. At least not anytime soon. Rush-hour traffic, day in and day out, leaves us stressed and traps us in a mental gridlock. We find ourselves stuck, unable to move forward or backward. As it is on the road, so it is in the mind. While we can do little about traffic jams, we can, however, control our tailgating thoughts by slow

Consider this scenario. A middle-aged couple is planning a holiday. Their two children won’t be joining them. Although they are both old...

American psychologist Albert Ellis has been quoted as saying, “Strong feelings are fine. It’s the overreactions that mess us up.” I...