There is a monster that lives under the bed. Its name is How. It isn’t a scary monster with claws, fangs, or anything out of a horror story. Instead, it’s a muttering, ever-changing creature that whispers worries about how things will work out, especially late at night. How will you do it? How will you get there? How will you make it work? If you’ve ever been a kid who really needed to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, you already get how the How Monster works. You’re perched on...

In the 1964 Disney film  Mary Poppins,  there is a magical moment when Mary and Bert step into a sidewalk painting and find themselves on a merry-go-round. The music plays, the horses circle, and everything feels charming. Suddenly, to add to the whimsy, the horses start to leave the carousel and move across the countryside. I often think about that scene when I get overwhelmed. When fear or pressure builds, our minds can act like a carousel. We go around the same thoughts, worries, and...

When my cat, Vincent, died, I’d come home to an apartment that felt completely bare. I hadn’t decorated—even though I’d lived there for...