Exercises
Gaining Perspective When the World Goes Off-Kilter
Right after 9/11, I got some sage advice from my meditation teacher James Baraz about how to cope with the sudden shock of so much loss and devastation in a world gone crazy with hatred and fear. Just as wise and timely today for coping with the ongoing disasters in our world, natural and unnatural. […]
How to Build Resilience in Midlife
(My good friend Kathryn Collier forwarded this article by Tara Parker-Pope in the July 25, 2017 New York Times. Excellent suggestions. Everything I teach validated by stellar sources. Choose one or two practices and dive in.) Much of the scientific research on resilience – our ability to bounce back from adversity – has focused on how […]
Can Persecutors Give Up Power-Over?
This post is the third in a series following up on the July 2017 newsletter The Triangle of Victim, Rescuer, Persecutor. The mindset of someone playing the archetypal role of persecutor is perhaps the hardest to challenge and shift, either by others or by one’s self. The sense of power-over can be quite intoxicating and […]
Resigning from Rescuer; Signing On for Resonant Relating
This post is the second in a series following up on the June 2017 newsletter The Triangle of Victim, Rescuer and Persecutor. The archetypal role of rescuer is also a mindset learned in our families of origin or similar early relational conditioning. Someone who identifies as a rescuer gets to feel good about themselves because […]
Shifting Out of Victim Identity into Empowerment
The July 2017 newsletter The Triangle of Victim, Rescuer, Persecutor explored those three archetypal mindsets and offered preliminary suggestions for how to shift out of the dance of those roles. All three of these mindsets are “learned” as “rules” in our families of origin or similar early relational conditioning. All three mindsets served a protective […]
Cats Missing – Panic, Poignancy, Patterns of Coping Re-Surfaced
My two beloved indoor-only cats, Heidi and Kaela, are safe at home now. But when I was teaching back east at the Cape Cod Institute the last week in June, perhaps playing rambunctiously safe at home, they pushed out the screen of the dining room window and escaped into the outdoors. Panic on the part […]
I’m Not Weird…I’m a Limited Edition
I saw the slogan “I’m Not Weird…I’m a Limited Edition” on a tote bag carried by someone at 1440 Multiversity when I taught there last weekend. I loved the chutzpah of claiming/celebrating one’s own divergence from the culture, part of the vision and practice of celebrating difference and diversity at 1440 Multiversity itself. (Small analogous […]
Yoga and the Brain: What Neuroscience Can Tell Us
“Yoga teaches us to cure the things that need not be endured, and to endure the things that cannot be cured.” – B.K.S. Iyengar I wrote the article below in conjunction with teaching for the 2017 Yoga Service Conference at Omega Institute in May 2017. The article will be published as the June 2017 Community […]
A Path for Couples – Ten Practices for Love and Joy
My friend and colleague, George Taylor, just released his A Path for Couples. Based on his 25 years as a couples therapist, and 36 years in a happy, loving marriage, Geo’s Ten Practices for Love and Joy really are full of very practical, doable wisdom. The ten practices are: 1. Being Present – Here I […]
Cultivating Response Flexibility: Neuroscience in Psychotherapy
My recent interview with Tami Simon on Sounds True’s Insights at the Edge – Cultivating Response Flexibility – Neuroscience in Psychotherapy – is now available online for a free download. Truly a valuable resource for recovering resilience with teachings that are “diverse, in-depth, and life-changing.” The interview (65 minutes) is not just for clinicians and covers these […]