Posts

What Will You Choose?

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“Never fear shadows. They simply mean there’s a light shining somewhere nearby.” -   Ruth E. Renkel The Shadow Side shows up in many areas of our lives.   And if we are what we eat, then talking about practical things like food, nutrition and lifestyle choices is critical. How many of us eat the way we really, ideally want to eat? What does it mean when we consistently eat unhealthy foods or we eat for reasons other than hunger or nutrition? I watched a young boy that I know “dealing with food” at only ten years old. We were sitting at a breakfast meal the other week and he was talking about wanting to be a super hero. I asked him if he did have super powers, which one or ones would he like? He answered that he wished to have the power to bring everything he wanted into his life. As he was speaking of this, I was noticing his eating habits. He ordered two orders of fried potatoes with his eggs and a root beer float. Afterwards he was asking for an order of French frie

What is the Opposite of Fear?

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“When you face your demons in the deep dark forest they tend to become your friends.”                                                                                               -Tara I love harvesting apples off of the trees, but I have such mixed feelings with the coming of October. On the one hand, the weather is usually still beautiful, the leaves are colorful, and the air has a slightly crisp quality. On the other hand, the days are becoming shorter, the nights are longer, and I have to stay inside more when what I really love is being outside, walking my doges, watching the birds, and sitting under the trees.   But as we mature in life, we learn how to look at both hands, not just the one we prefer. Fear comes in many tones and shades.   If I am honest, there is something about October that brings out a bit of fear in me and in others I love and work with.   Perhaps it is the shortening of the days, the premonition of a cold winter, too much time in doors

The Tenth Key: The Power of Our Shadow Side

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“I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me, and what can be the use of him is more than I can see.” -   Robert Louis Stevenson October is upon us. This is a beautiful time of the year in which the leaves have turned golden, yellow, and red as the weather turns cooler and fires begin to burn in the hearth once again. For some, October culminates in a celebration called All Hallows Eve, or Halloween, which I look at as a symbol of our shadow sides.   Once could say it is a celebration of our dark sides. Think about it.   During the month of October, we become enveloped in . beautiful colors as the leaves change from green to orange, red, then to brown.    I like to think of late autumn as a time to celebrate the beauty found within our dark sides which is why I have dedicated an entire month to exploring the power of doing ‘shadow work’ and why I have identified this process as one of the secret keys to health, wholeness, and vitality. Ironically it can

A Time to Rest

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"Rest when you are weary. Refresh and renew yourself, your body, your mind, your spirit. Then get back to work” - Ralph Marston Have you ever had the experience that you needed some spaciousness and some time in between the moments, events, or people in your life? Have you longed for time to recover, recuperate, or to process a challenging situation or relationship? I am sure we have all experienced these situations, but the real question is have we allowed ourselves time to rest, recuperate, process, and integrate? This needed time is a time of rest and of fallowness which actually serves to inspire and to motivate and to re-vitalize ourselves. There is a client I work with who is aware of this need intimately. At present, she is dealing with her aging parents.   She wants to care for them and yet she also realizes that she needs to take time off in order to rest and integrate her experiences with them in this new phase of life. Recently her fathe

A Time To Heal

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“Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day  is the rest we take between two deep breaths.” -   Etty Hillesum                                                                                        Life is what happens as we are busy living it. Everything has a time and we never know what life has in store for us for us to learn. Sometimes after a difficult event in our lives, it takes a lot of rest and apparent fallow time before we can go back and look at the trauma. There are certain events in our lives that require tremendous rest in order to heal. When we push ourselves to fast and too much we can actually back slide. Rest and fallow times are very important for our health and healing as well as for the restoration of our vitality. I have a client who had a major life event about two years ago. She was in the shower and was stepping out while she “slipped” and hit her head and eye on a bathroom fixture and subsequently lost her eye. While she was at