Mindfulness
Crazy Making Thoughts and Rewiring the Patterns That Create Them
I’ve come to realize I’m a great catastrophizer. I can go from a sneeze means “uh, oh, I’m catching a cold” to I’m going to get sick and have to cancel clients to I’m going to lose clients to I’m going to lose my business…all in less than three seconds flat. Catastrophizing may have a […]
Noticing Shifts in Patterns of Response
I like to be liked. I appreciate being noticed in pleasant, positive ways, as most of us do. I can notice a quick cascade of very unpleasant feelings and thoughts if I feel dissed or feel unsure if I’ve been dissed. Our deepening mindful awareness allows us to notice those inner unsettling reactions with less […]
What Story Am I Believing Now?
I’ve watched my own opinions shift over time – someone I initially judged to be disastrously self-focused I quickly learned was a single mom raising an autistic son and she had to over-focus on herself and him to stay upright. (Then I had to work with my own judgment of myself for being – always! […]
Tracking Shifts in Experience
When I stepped off a dock last winter, missed the boat, and plunged right into the ocean with my computer in my backpack on my back, (see How You Respond to the Issue…Is the Issue post) I had amply opportunity to watch my own reactions shift second by split-second: “Oh, no!” “But I’m alive!” “The […]
Steadying Awareness
We practice steadying our awareness so we can perceive that the events of our lives, and our responses to them, are ever-flowing and ever-changing. The knowledge that “this, too, shall pass” is a form of response flexibility built into life itself. It applies even to the self. You shift, change, grow, and evolve all of […]
Reflective Intelligence – Clear Seeing, Wise Choices
Reflective Intelligence hones your perceptions and responses to any event, any issue. You can uncover and examine complex patterns of “thinking” that could derail your resilience and rewire them if you wish to. This week’s Resources post, Noticing What You’re Experiencing While You’re Experiencing It, introduced basic steps of mindfulness practice that are the foundation […]
Noticing What You’re Experiencing While You’re Experiencing It
“Noticing what you’re experiencing while you’re experiencing it” is senior meditation teacher Guy Armstrong’s very useful description of mindfulness, the foundation of the reflective intelligence we’ll explore in this month’s posts. Conscious awareness of what we’re experiencing – and our reactions to what we’re experiencing – is essential if we are to even notice that […]
Gratitude Goulash
[apropos of the sustenance offered by gratitude in a time of loss and uncertainty, from Gratitude Goulash that figured prominently in the coping with the mis-adventures of two weeks ago [see Thanksgiving Day post: Giving Thanks – for Losses and Lessons] :] TRUE NORTH That other compass you bought in the city is no good […]
Hope While Rebuilding
[apropos of last week’s Resourcing, Reframing, and Rebuilding post, this poem arrived in my inbox within moments of completing that post. Such synchronicity!] The Gates of Hope Our mission is to plant ourselves at the gates of Hope— Not the prudent gates of Optimism, Which are somewhat narrower Not the stalwart, boring gates of Common […]
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. […]