Relationships can get complicated. And communication fumbles can further complicate them. I know. I’ve complicated mine more times than I want to admit. But the good news is that effective, even intimate, communication can be learned, broken relationships healed, happiness returned and love restored.

Life is really an accumulation of daily small stuff that adds up to one huge thing called living. It’s also called love … and kindness … and family.

Guest Post by Paul Sanders: Some goals are easier than others. When it comes to meeting and making friends, it can be daunting. This article is designed to help you solve this problem and show you an effective way to draw plans and strategies to improve your social skills, meet new people, make friends, and build a rewarding social circle.

Are you addicted to your smart phone? Do you spend a significant chunk of the day online? Or playing games? Or watching TV? How long can you go without checking status updates or text messages or your twitter feed? The more we rely on electronic media and electronic forms of interaction, ironically, the more disconnected we become. This challenge is to unplug and reconnect.

What is love and how can we grow our own little pot of it? Love is more than some might think. I contacted some of personal development’s blogging superstars to ask them to contribute their two cents on the topic for this Valentine’s Day post. Click on in to read their responses (and a few of my own thoughts).

We are not merely physical. We are emotional and intellectual as well. We are also spiritual. As such, to neglect the spiritual side of our lives is to neglect a foundational part of who we are at the most fundamental level. To build relationships ignoring that vital part of our natures is to create a relationship that hobbles on one leg. Spiritual intimacy adds depth to our most cherished relationships.

There are times when the right thing to do is not the happy thing to do, at least not in the short-run. At such moments, a moral people have to decide what’s most important. More short-term happiness or more long-term decency? To protect the one at the expense of the other is a sacrifice with far reaching consequences.

Friendships are organic things. They live and grow and sometimes wilt and decay. They take something of us to maintain and nourish. Neglect can kill a relationship just as fast as it can a houseplant. At some level, we like to think there is nothing that could end a true friendship. But in the real world, there are many poisons that quickly sink deep into the bloodstream of even our most cherished relationships, infecting them with deadly toxins. Come in and see what those deadly toxins are!

Guest post by David J. Singer: If you stop to think about the number of times a day you interact with other people you’ll probably find it’s more often than you think (at home, the store, the bank, post office, gym, neighborhood, classroom, in line, at the office and even passersby). What are yours like? Are they deep and rewarding or superficial and thoughtless? Mindful interaction may be the answer you’re looking for.

The data is out, but the controversy rages on. A sociologist from the University of Read More.