February 6, 2024

Events Don’t Have to Control You: Using the E+R=O Formula

“You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn how to surf.” Jon Kabat-Zinn   Beware of quick fix formulas! But, there are tools that can help us to manage our reactions to external events that can shift our emotional and behavioral responses. The E + R = O (EVENT + RESPONSE = OUTCOME) formula, which we picked up on […]
January 1, 2024

The 8 Enablers of JOY

When was the last time you experienced joy? To answer the question it helps to remember what joy feels like in your body. Like all other emotions, joy has its own unique biological signature. We memorize emotions in our bodies. With those emotions we experience less often, we may have to work a little harder to recall how they felt. […]
October 17, 2023

Switching on Compassion: News from Neuroscience

There’s lots of compelling information that has emerged from neuroscience about compassion. That’s good news because, frankly, we need it. You see, the really good news is that we’re hard-wired for compassion. Speaking at a conference in Telluride, Colorado, The Science of Compassion: Origins, Measures and Interventions, sponsored by Stanford University Medical School’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research, Stephen Porges, Ph.D. presented […]
August 11, 2022

Stop Driving Yourself to Distraction: Reclaim Your Sanity

“We live in a moment of history where change is so speeded up that we begin to see the present only when it is already disappearing.”   ~ R.D Laing The Scottish psychologist, R.D Laing wrote these prescient words in 1970.  In our work we see an alarming increase of the effects of overwork and overwhelm on our clients.  Many of the […]
March 14, 2022

Why Do We Continue to Think Self-Compassion is Self-Indulgent?

Writing in The New York Times, Tara Parker-Pope wrote in (Go Easy on Yourself, a New Wave of Research Suggests) “Do you treat yourself as well as you treat your friends and family? That simple question is the basis for a burgeoning new area of psychological research called self-compassion – how kindly people view themselves.  The research suggests that giving […]
October 18, 2021

A Deeper Look into our Mental Narratives

No one can harm you , not even your own worst enemy, as much as your own mind untrained. And no one can help you, not even your most loving mother and father, as much as your own mind well-trained. The Buddha Before we begin, let me ask you an important question – what makes your world? I know it’s a […]
August 18, 2021

Anxiety & the Quest for Certainty

 “ “The quest for certainty blocks the search for meaning. Uncertainty is the very condition that impels us to unfold our powers.” Erich Fromm, The Search for Meaning Most of us would agree that whatever we do, we cannot predict the future. Yet, many of us spend an inordinate amount of time trying to control the uncontrollable.  This is a […]
May 5, 2021

Self-Compassion is Just the Beginning

Every so often something I read goes right to the heart of what I need. I came across the following questions that continues to resonate deeply. “Have I loved my life enough?” Have I love myself enough? These questions ask us to reflect on every precious moment of life without evaluation, judgment and more demands. This was the time to “greet […]
March 17, 2021

Beliefs Keep Your Emotional Baggage Packed

Ever wonder what’s in that bag? By now the term emotional baggage is familiar – but what do we think is in the bag? Surely it’s packed with old hurts, resentments and fears, but unless we go in there and pay some attention to those unwanted feelings – the bag stays full. If we’re not the type that likes or […]