Purpose Survives Being Boring
As a holistic counselor and Dance/Movement Therapist, safety plays a large role in my work with people. We all need a safe harbor to come home to. When we don’t have that, we are never able to fully rest. But…
Six Surgeries, a Dying Friend, and a Divorce: What Gratitude Actually Did
We are biologically predisposed to notice what’s wrong, to look for the negative as a means of preparing for it. It’s an ingrained survival skill which has become overdeveloped, particularly in the Western culture in which we live. I mean,…
Why We Swallow Our Kind Words
Often in my work with adults, I help them to reclaim some of the characteristics that were lost from childhood: the capacity to play with abandon, to be completely engaged in the present moment, to not care what others think…
Don’t Take Life Too Seriously
The phrase “Don’t Take Life Too Seriously. Nobody Gets Out Alive Anyway” is a funny little adage that speaks to an important practical and spiritual lesson. It belongs to Elbert Hubbard, who put it better in 1900: “Please do not…
Resting Into Paradox
Part of the difficulty with humans is that we just don’t know how to be okay with paradox. We have an impulse towards linear, black or white thinking and can’t seem to wrap our heads around two coexisting and opposite…
Though We May Be Left Behind, We Are Never Alone
We have all had people who have walked away from us. Sometimes the leaving was painful, sometimes it was a relief, and sometimes it was both. How we digest that Outer World experience into our Inner World experience can be…
Yoga Is About Self-Acceptance, Not Self-Improvement
I have been practicing yoga for about 20 years, some years with more consistency than others. And I have been a yoga teacher for over ten years, again, some years teaching more than others. The way I practice at 48…
Even A Box of Darkness Can Be A Gift
When Mary Oliver writes, “Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness,” she is not suggesting that we not rage against the darkness, that we do not own our suffering, that we stand by and passively say,…
Your Mind Is A Garden: Tend It Well
In order for a body to be at its best, it needs healthy food full of vital nutrients. When we feed our bodies unhealthful food, they will function, but not as well, and the long-term harm begins to pile up.…
It Is Becoming Real
now that you have seen the first shadow,
when grief ungrounded and left skin too tender
for lighthearted banter.
…
Comparing Ourselves To Others – part II
The flip side of comparing ourselves to others and finding ourselves ‘less than’ is comparing ourselves to others so we can feel superior. Here too, the way to work with our comparing states is not through judgement but compassion. It…
Comparing Ourselves To Others Sets Us Up For Failure
I woke up this morning, got online, and discovered a peer of mine was running a workshop well-received enough that people are flying in to take it. I could have been joyful for her success. Instead, in about five seconds,…