Practices for Recovering Resilience
Resilience Is More than Coping – It’s Learning from Our Mistakes
The final full week of my August sabbatical-sort of. For many years I have taught that an essential element of resilience is learning from our AFGO’s – another frickin’ growth opportunity. For much of this month I’ve done a deep dive into learning about the massive AFGO’s we face right now: * the mis-handling of […]
When You Find You’re Weary
Most everyone is getting a bit weary these days, at least in moments. Long moments of enduring staying at home for fear of the coronavirus; tense moments of scrambling to sort out – safe to send kids to school? Safe to meet face-to-face with colleagues at work? Safe to walk on the beach? Or jog […]
My Grandmother’s Hands
In the very last Q&A of the very last day of my Resilience 2.0 course, a participant held up to the Zoom camera her copy of My Grandmother’s Hands, saying it was the best book ever on healing trauma. I had already heard good things about it from other colleagues, and it went on my […]
I’m Hiding, Please See Me: Unmasking Shame
Now in week #3 of my August 2020 Sabbatical-Sort Of, I’m still meeting with clients, and last week one very hard-working client sent me the article I’m Hiding, Please See Me: Unmasking Shame by Dr. Nikki Rollo. It’s excellent. I’ve written and taught passionately for more than a decade about the power of shame to […]
One Brilliant Way to Cross the Racial Divide and Help People Meet/Listen to Each Other
Week #2 of my Sabbatical-Sort Of; surfing through the www.karunavirus.org website. Karuna is the Sanskrit word for compassion; the founders of the website aim to make karuna/compassion even more contagious than the coronavirus. “We aim to amplify the voice of our collective compassion — by featuring news articles of everyday people choosing love over fear. […]
Racism Is Terrible. Blackness Is Not
One week into my Sabbatical – Sort Of and two books into the “light” reading I promised myself, two hours a day. Learning from/listening to experts who can help me connect the dots in the rapidly shifting realities of our country right now, better than I could on my own, learning new ways to be […]
Poems that Stir the Heart and Shake Up the Soul
Ten of us in my Gourmet Poets Society met by Zoom last weekend; the gentle inauguration of my August sabbatical. Clearly, I’m not fully immersed in that sabbatical yet. Here are three of the poems shared that evening, illustrating the depth and range of poetry shared with each other for 20 years now. David Whyte’s Self-Portrait, a […]
Human Psyche as Cat Litter Box
I won’t out the client who came up with this metaphor last week – of the human psyche as a cat litter box. But I’ve been a psychotherapist for a quarter of a century now, and an owner of several generations of cats for almost as long, and I can fully appreciate the complexity and […]
Sabbatical – Sort of…
Wayne Muller, minister, therapist, community organizer, published Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives 20 years ago, and the wisdom of creating an oasis of time and space to ponder and reflect is as true today as it was then. And so, after posting these Resources for Recovering Resilience daily since March […]
Do One Thing Every Day that Scares You
By now you’ve seem some of the many tributes honoring the life and work of civil rights activist John Lewis, or perhaps seen the excellent documentary Good Trouble. Calling us all to the intelligence, integrity, and inclusivity that can change – and even save – our world. Perseverance was the word used again and again […]