Posts

Removing Blinders

Image
Do you ever feel like a horse with its blinders on, to keep it from panicking? I think we all have at some time or another. I love the horse analogy because I think that analogy is one most of us can relate to and also because we can see what the blinders do for the horse. They actively keep the horse's attention straight in front of him/her so that he won't get distracted or panicked by something going on around him. That is what we do to ourselves. We put blinders on so that we won't see something that we are unconsciously afraid of. The blind fear here is that if I see this it will upset me or panic me or embarrass me or disappoint me. It is better not to see. If we were aware we were doing this, then the blinders would be taken off. This is another example of how we protect ourselves from hurt or perceived hurt. I love how these protective mechanisms work for us. And I also love how when we become aware of what we are doing, often we are able, even with the fe

Waiting Poem

Image
Waiting. Waiting. Staying centered and knowing I am being lied to. Feeling my anticipation in my breath and the quickening. Concentrating on breathing slowly and deeply. Listening to the music around me. Feeling the breath of the air on my skin and in my hair.  Watching the trees move and breath with the touch of mother nature's energy. Enjoying the trees expression of life Quieting my mind consciously Opening me to the unknown and feeling my own movements and breath And taking a cue from nature around me, enjoying my expression of life I hope on this holiday you can find the time and place and space to enjoy your own expression of life. Life is a vital force and one that becomes the gift that keeps on giving. Love to you all and I hope this next year finds you in good health, with a joyful expression of who you are that you can bring to you and to the world.

Happy Talk

Image
I love the sound of that phrase; happy talk. How do you talk with yourself? That is a funny question. It makes me think of how I talk to myself. I honestly can't say I have a lot of self-happy talks. How about you? I do find I catch myself with negative self-talk in terms of what I should be doing, or how I would like to feel and what I would like to do, and also sometimes even not thinking I am good enough for something or even wondering why someone isn't speaking with me or wondering what I did wrong when maybe it wasn't even about me. I think if we are honest with us we would find we don't do a lot of self-happy talks. Can you imagine how life would be and how we would feel if we did? I was speaking with a patient by Skype the other week and I was listening to the language she was using. I heard phrases like, the other women in my family have people to live for and I don't, and I don't have anything I feel passionate about, and I don't do well

We Are Family

Image
Families can be our biggest source of joy and our biggest source of pain and our biggest source of learning. We are brought up to believe that families take care of each other. This can mean many things. It can mean take we care about each other when we are sick or we need assistance. It can mean we raise our families as a village. It can mean we take physical care of each other as we age. It can mean we support each other financially. The meanings go on. But how often do we really care for each other in terms of caring for what is best for each other and caring for our souls? I know so many individuals who feel that their biological family is not their family in terms of caring for who they are as people. They may be blood relatives and love each other in some ways, but do they really feel seen and cared for? This begs the question; who are family to us? I work with many patients who don't feel seen, understood or appreciated by members of their family. I was even speaki

Tears Are Coming

Image
' Tears Are Coming ' Thanksgiving Poem: Tears are coming. Tears of joy and sadness Looking outside into the cloudy, bleak terrain Seeing the riot of color still on the trees Amidst the gray, dark, pre-thanksgiving day Wondering what it is like to enter a new land And yet, knowing as we, our world enters a new terrain Unknown, scary, filled with feeling; maybe all the feelings: Sad, mad, glad, hopeful, scared, lonely, full, unsure... Becoming one with my surroundings as our world, the nature around us Shows us how it feels and how to feel Tears of sadness, tears of joy Life goes on

Loving Kindness

Image
It seems easy to have what we call loving kindness. If we asked individuals I bet many would say they do and they practice loving kindness. Can we really know what that is when we can't and don't love ourselves and practice loving kindness on us? It is one thing to give love to our children, and it is important. It is one thing to buy someone a coffee and pay it forward. It is one thing to love your family or friends or group or community or country. In all these instances, there is good and nothing wrong. It does well for us and for our world. Any love is good love. How many of us can say we actively practice loving ourselves? How many of us gift ourselves on a regular basis, even if the gift is by appreciating us? How many of us judge ourselves regularly and find us giving us hateful messages about us and have negative thought lines going through us? I think if we are honest with us, most or all of us do to varying degrees.  The problem is that all of us because we

There Is So Much We Don't Understand

Image
There are so many things in life and that happen in life that we just don't understand. Things happen, people say things that don't make sense to us, we hear things the way we can and through our unconscious lens, and even synchronicities and intangible things happen that we can't explain. Can you think of such an example that happened in your life this past week or so that fits into this category? I have a friend who calls unexplainable phenomenon by a term, imaginal. I like this term as it embodies what could be interpreted as being imagined, but gives it validity through making it a noun. I guess some folks call a phenomenon like this by the word miracle. However, it is described, trying to understand the un-understandable is an ongoing aspect of our lives. This is also true through helping others to learn about, understand, and put together pieces of their selves. In my work, I often help my patients to heal and to put their pieces of the puzzle together so th