I'm a therapist, and I always tell clients it's okay to live a 'good enough' life — here are my 5 top tips

It's important to remember that sometimes life is out of your control, but how you handle life's challenges isn't.
Taking care of your mind and body will pay off in the long run.
Focus on the moment rather than the past.
Create a life that means something or leaves something behind.


There's no such thing as a free exit.

A young woman I'd worked with for three years was ready to leave therapy. She was calm, happy and about to step out of the room into the Rest of Her Life. I was excited for her, but I'd miss her. That's the thing about being a psychologist: just because you want people to live happily without you doesn't mean you enjoy it.

"So it's over," she said. "This is where you say something wise and illuminating that will sustain me all the rest of my days."

"What if what I say is not Good Enough?"

She grinned at the reference to her perfectionist standards, something we'd worked hard on. But she wasn't finished with me. "If you say goodbye and good luck, I'll slap you. I've spent a lot of time and money here and I expect the best you've got."

She hugged me then which some psychologists frown on but I let clients create their own ending: if they want to hug, I do too. And I promised when I got home that night I would write her some parting words, tips for life, boiled all the way down.

So here it is, my version of all that really matters.

Anthony Joshua lights up Christmas for children as world champion takes time out of training to make surprise visit

Anthony Joshua has made plenty of people happy with his fighting exploits this year - but the world heavyweight champion showed his softer side in the build-up to Christmas.

Joshua and Jaguar teamed up with the NSPCC to promoter their ‘Light up Christmas for Children’ campaign and to encourage the public to share their #LightsOn selfie and make a donation to the charity.

The 2012 Olympic champion's festively-wrapped prototype Jaguar was packed with gifts as he surprised children at Boole House in Coventry with a unique lights switch-on.

A Russian billionaire's £360 million superyacht 'Sailing Yacht A' has been spotted docked at the Port of Gibraltar

Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko's £360 million ($480 million) "Sailing Yacht A," one of the largest private sailing yachts in the world, has been spotted docked at the Port of Gibraltar. The yacht underwent final tests at the port in May before it was handed over to its owner.
The 142.8-metre vessel boasts 300 ft masts that are taller than Big Ben, and counts eight decks (connected by a series of lifts), a free-floating spiral staircase, a huge swimming pool on the top deck, and an underwater observation pod among its stunning features. France's Philippe Starck is behind the design.

Colombia's main gang declares unilateral ceasefire

Colombia's biggest criminal gang has declared a unilateral ceasefire to help "bring about peace".
The gang, known as the Gulf Clan or Los Urabeños, said it would stop "offensive military actions from 13 December".
The truce comes three months after the gang's leader said it would surrender and he would hand himself in. A framework is still being worked on.
Police have warned that criminal gangs such as the Gulf Clan are the biggest risk to security in Colombia.
Battle for control
The Gulf Clan is estimated to have about 1,500 active members. It controls many of the routes used to smuggle drugs from Colombia to the US and as far away as Russia.

World's largest passenger plane in Christmas stunt over Germany

skilled pilot embraced the Christmas spirit with a festive stunt while flying over Germany and Denmark.

Flying the world’s largest passenger plane, the Airbus A380, the pilot drew the outline of a Christmas tree - complete with decorations - in the sky on 13 December.

An outline of the flight path at 40,000ft was shared by Flightradar24, a site which tracks air traffic in real time, after the plane took off from Hamburg for the five-hour flight.

A spokesperson for Airbus explained it was a normal internal test flight before the delivery of a new aircraft, adding: “There are hundreds of these flights every year.

Eggs’ versatility – Christmas season eggy fries

The egg is synonymous with potential. But let’s not get bogged down in symbolism.

Even for the most practical-minded cook, the egg is a marvel of possibility: Scramble it. Poach it. Boil it. Fry it. Beat a couple into an omelet. Whip several into a soufflé. The choices nearly overwhelm.

But for my time and money, which is to say scant, I prefer the binder approach: Take whatever you’ve got on hand, and throw it in a pan with some eggs – which bring the ingredients together into something greater than the sum of its parts. For something savory, grab leftover vegetables and cheese. For a sweet take, stale bread and fruit. Or skirt the boundary with bread, apples, brie and pancetta. Master the basic concepts involved in making a frittata and baked French toast (aka strata), and you’ll have a potent strategy for dealing with both the time crunch of weeknight meals and making leftovers palatable.


These dishes became a regular part of our family’s weeknight dinner rotation many years ago when I was looking for a way to make use of care packages sent by my grandfather-in-law. He was a masterful and prolific Italian American cook, and so he would periodically ship us boxes lined with ice packs and filled with freezer bags of sausage ground by a neighborhood butcher according to my grandpa-in-law’s specifications; jars of stuffed peppers mummified in bubble wrap; zip-close bags packed full of spicy broccoli rabe; and, just in case it wasn’t sold in the Midwest, Special K cereal.

My first attempts at making a frittata were born of rabe-induced guilt – the sheer quantity of it required something more than a simple reheat – and these first attempts were disasters: burned on the bottom, runny in the middle. Or, worse, scattered all over the kitchen floor after a failed flip. I had not yet learned two essential lessons.

Ky. lawmaker accused of assault dies in apparent suicide

Dan Johnson, a Republican state lawmaker in Kentucky who defiantly denied allegations that he sexually assaulted a teenage girl in the basement of his home, died in an apparent suicide Wednesday night, the county coroner said. He was 57.
Bullitt County Coroner Dave Billings said Johnson died of a single gunshot wound on Greenwell Ford Road in Mount Washington, Kentucky. Billings said Johnson stopped his car at the end of a bridge in a secluded area, then got out and walked to the front of the car. He said an autopsy is scheduled for Thursday morning.
"I would say it is probably suicide," he said.
Johnson was elected to the state legislature in 2016, part of a wave of Republican victories that gave the GOP control of the Kentucky House of Representatives for the first time in nearly 100 years. He won his election despite Republican leaders urging him to drop out of the race after local media reported on some of his Facebook posts comparing Barack and Michelle Obama to monkeys.