The Stories In Our Heads

Group dynamics are fascinating to me.  Just a few days ago I was having a conversation about various friends and their experiences with organized religion.  I know a few who entered what could be considered a monastic life, moving into a community geared towards a specific kind of spirituality, removing themselves from a mainstream lifestyle,…

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Road Blocks

Road blocks aren’t just something that makes traffic jams and makes us wonder about the wisdom of our city planners and how our tax dollars are being spent.  Road blocks happen in life as well and only some of them are external.  Spring is a time for new beginnings.  For things changing and becoming and…

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Seeking Yourself Is an Act of Courage

The mind is an amazing thing.  We can work to ‘not know’ things about ourselves and achieve this in so many ways.  We can medicate ourselves through food, alcohol, recreational drugs, overwork, gaming, media intake, etc etc.  We can also ‘not know’ things about ourselves by ignoring them, judging them in others, or telling ourselves…

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It’s All Perception

Continuing to enjoy Brene Brown.  From I Thought It Was Just Me (but it isn’t) From page 111: Critical awareness also requires us to question this notion of blaming the victim. In particular, some pop psychologists preach that “There is no such thing as reality, just perception.”  Not only is this inaccurate, it’s dangerous.  Racism…

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Passover

Thank you, Kathryn for creating a wonderful Passover Seder.  It was an amazing blend of sacred and contemporary, fulfilled all the requirements of an ordered dinner and brought so much laughter that my cheeks hurt at the end of the night.  28 people sitting at three tables changed the dining and living rooms of her…

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Social Grenades

I’m still digging Brene Brown and her work with Shame.  Here’s a good one from I Thought It Was Just Me (But It Isn’t) Page 88: “I came up with the term shame screen after analyzing data from the first hundred interviews.  As women explained the unpredictable and sometimes unconscious ways they reacted in response…

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Full Body Project

Leonard Nimoy is a photographer.  Who knew?  He has been since he was a young man and has exhibited worldwide. He has published two books of his work, the most recent of which is The Full Body Project.  I recommend it not only for its beauty and his respectful portrayal of women, but for the…

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What Is Shame?

I really digging Brene Brown in I Thought It Was Just Me (But It Isn’t) Shame is the intensely painful feeling or experience of believing we are flawed and therefore unworthy of acceptance and belonging. Women often experience shame when they are entangled in a web of layered, conflicting and competing social-community expectations. Shame creates…

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Just One Thing

What’s the one thing that you’ve always wanted to do or be and that you’ve never achieved?  There’s always something.  Something your heart desires and that would bring you great joy but, for whatever reason, you have never done/had/been.  So here’s a challenge: Today find some way to do say or be that one thing.…

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Live Your Life

For years the signature on my personal email has been: “Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, champagne in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming…

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