Posts

Taking Time to Smell the Flowers

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In this world today we are so rushed. We rush our breakfasts, if we eat breakfast, we rush to work, we are always on our phones texting or messaging, we rush our lunch and even eat at our desks, we rush home, and so on. In America, if we are lucky we get two weeks off a year for vacation. We rush to finish things, we want to know how things end and we want to rush to the end. What happened to taking the time to smell the flowers? When I look out at the blooming trees as an example, I love to see and appreciate what they look like now and also remember how they looked just yesterday and appreciate the daily changes. If I were rushing in my mind I wouldn't be able to see these subtle changes. This sounds so simple, but if we really think about it, how often do we not take in the new beauty around us, and just see things as they were or as we want them to be? I know I am guilty of this some times.  Another example of this is that I can remember the negative reactions to t

Being Vulnerable

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We spend a great deal of our time in life protecting ourselves from perceived hurts from life and from others. Some of us take on the role of being a victim and so we go through life over sharing and being over vulnerable with others, bonding over our wounds and almost unconsciously asking to be hurt again. Others of us take on more of a role of everything being ok, and not easily asking for help and not easily sharing our true and vulnerable, underbelly selves. Neither extreme is one which is helpful to us, and yet we developed those ways of coping from our early life experiences. Which way of coping do you find yourself most resonating with? Both ways actually keep us from being truly vulnerable in a life affirming way. They are defenses built to protect us from hurts. Defenses could also be called fences. These fences keep others out from our hurt selves and keep us in, really not allowing our further growth and expansion. We developed these fences as a way of surviving.

Change Is In The Air

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Change is not easy for most of us. Letting go of a thought or an idea or of something or someone in our lives challenges us. This is true even if and when we know they or it no longer serve us. We are creatures of habit. What we hold onto is connected with our early need to belong. This holds true even on a macro level as we see with our government and our political beliefs and we see playing out in the world. Yet what we see playing out in a big way always begins with us individually; with our internal work with ourselves. We hold onto that which served us at one time in our lives. That time period has great meaning to our inner world even if that was in the past. Our inner world knows time very differently than our outer world; the world of defenses and masks we developed to help us to survive in our world.  I remember a conversation I had with a group of friends at Passover this year. We were talking about forgiveness. How do we forgive when someone killed a family

Self Conscious

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Self-conscious is being aware of one's self. How do we do the hard and necessary work of being aware of us and who we are and discern who we think we are and what we want to be from who we truly are? It begins with our self-talk. Listening to how we talk to ourselves and staying awake to us helps guide us to seeing and knowing who we are. I had been working on a woman's astrological birth chart recently. In looking at her chart I saw a pattern which I interpreted a certain way. Our astrological charts can show us our basic nature, the nature of our early wounds, and ways with which we can work with our minds and our wounds to grow and be our potential in this world. Her birth chart looked like she had chosen a difficult life. Her mind was being pulled in many directions and looked like there had been a lot of strife and emotional abuse in her life. When I actually met with her and worked with her, I quickly saw and felt and knew that she had been able to transcend the

Gratitude Poem

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Gratitude Poem With all that is going on in this world, I woke up grateful. Remembering all the sacrifices our founding fathers’ made; for them and for us. The Father’s of our country, so wise and so flawed. We come from them and from so many. We come from peoples all over the world. I am so flawed, and so awed, and so full of love. Grateful for our country. Grateful for both the beauty and squalor around us Grateful for the opportunity to be alive and to feel Seeing the richness and diversity all around us; of nature, of peoples, of feelings, of believings. All has shaped us and shaped me. I can’t remember and can’t forget all my past pains As I go forward in life thankful to be, to think and to express All that I hold dear to my heart. In gratitude.

Spring Blossoms

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Feeling the sunshine on our faces as we gaze out our windows, or sit in our gardens, or eat outside in a café, or walk around our neighborhoods is a glorious feeling. What springs forth in the springtime is often a manifestation of our winter dreams. What dreams did you have that you might experience springing out about now? I work with patients all the time who share with me their hopes and dreams. It is so lovely to see their dreams coming out of them to be expressed in their lives and in the world. We can't express our hopes and dreams if we first don't give us permission to speak them to ourselves. Many of us have been squashed in our lives and haven't felt we had the permission to be who we are much less express our inner thoughts and feelings even to ourselves. There is a gentleman who is engaged in an active process of rebuilding his life based on awareness and possibility instead of blindness and getting by. It is not an easy process in any way. The re

"Listening To The Rain Of Sadness" Poem

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Sitting in my den listening to the rain of sadness The never ending rain, my eyes want to give way to tears I feel sadness in my heart as I begin to welcome the waves of rain into my consciousness Waves of sadness, fear, lack of faith entertain me through the sounds of the rain drops. Will this ever end? And the birdsong and hoot of my resident owl whom I have yet to see join me in my quiet reverie taking up residence in my mind The peels of thunder occasionally making an appearance in a new wave of flash fall add to the murky soup of my consciousness Creating a new song slowly taking shape… The song of a rainy, sometimes stormy, day in nature One with the silent beat of the trees holding fort and taking in the sustenance of nature’s water The call of the birds simultaneously taking shelter and calling out today’s news The drum beat of the skies tumult The wind shushing through the foliage All converge in my awareness creating a new dance in my mind From