Response Flexibility – Shifting Perspectives
Re-couping from the Revving Up and the Shutting Down of a Hard, Hard Year
This weekend is the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere. On Sunday, June 20, at 8:31pm Pacific Time, the earth will reverse the tilt of its axis and begins its remarkably long journey toward winter. For many of us, this seasonal turning into official summer issues in warm sunny days, school vacations, and a time […]
Pandemic Paradoxes Continue: Control v. Choice
Paradoxes of the pandemic seem as unending as the pandemic itself. The other day my thinking meandered into control v choice. One of our most natural biological and psychological tactics for dealing with uncertainty and the unknown is to try to nail things down. Anything to create stability and predictability. And to shape the outcomes […]
Accept Difficulty
A client forwarded me this post from Rick Hanson earlier this week. Timely enough to pass on; generous of Rick to allow me to do so. May it be useful to you and yours. ******************************* ACCEPT DIFFICULTY WHY? Sometimes things are difficult. Your legs are tired and you still have to stay on your feet […]
Pushing the Envelope, Shifting the Paradigms
This post is pushing the envelope at bit on how I teach Resources for Recovering Resilience. I never would have predicted any of this, especially in these times when the world is still reeling from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic (deaths in the United States passed the 500,000 mark last week) and so many of the […]
This Will Put Things in Perspective in a Hurry
My friend Terri sent me this rather astonishing litany of statistics that certainly put the privilege and miraculousness of my life in perspective. I couldn’t find any source for this “Lightning in a Jar.” We know how things can go viral these days and I can’t vouch for the facts, but the perspective is enlightening […]
Loading Bricks, Feeding the Family, Building a Cathedral
There’s a wonderful teaching story of three men all working on the same construction site. A passer-by asks one of the men what he’s doing. He answers somewhat surly, “What does it look like I’m doing? I’m hauling bricks!” The passer-by asks the second man what he’s doing. He answers stands up with tangible pride, […]
Shifting Perspectives – Often a Key Requirement of Resilience
“Triumph over adversity on behalf of a noble cause” has long been my favorite film genre, and I’ve just come through my annual immersion in the Mill Valley Film Festival, 200 films in 11 days for them, 26 films for me, learning so much from the intense, inspiring, illuminating examples of how other people cope […]
Being Confused at a Higher Level
The sign posted over the entrance to the electrical engineering lab at SRI International, a consulting firm for large government and corporate projects: We have not solved your problem. In fact, we have more questions than when we started. But we believe we are confused at a higher level and about more important things. My […]
How You Respond to the Issue….Is the Issue
The smoke alarm in my bedroom went off at 6:30 am this morning. Absolutely nothing was happening in terms of fire or smoke, but when I tried to turn it off or dismantle the battery, a voice message kept saying “Fire! Fire” Carbon monoxide.”Bewildered and annoyed by the constant beeping, I called the fire department. […]
Good Stress v. Bad Stress
I’ve certainly experienced my heart pounding, my breath getting short, my thoughts racing – the human stress response – when a small child darted in front of my car chasing a ball last year or the time I dropped my car keys down a storm drain. (Only once!) You’re probably familiar with similar rushes of […]