May 11, 2025
“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” George Bernard Shaw It’s getting difficult not to bump into the word mindfulness these days. While mindfulness is mostly associated with meditation, I like to think of it as a way of being in the world. Mindfulness meditation “practice” is valuable – and it will likely have multiple ripple […]
March 11, 2025
Every blog has its “hits” – this article is one of those often clicked. At times I wonder though – should I be pleased about this – or concerned? Granted, envy, jealousy and resentment are three very powerful feelings. Even the Bible mentions them. Envy and jealousy are two of the Seven Deadly Sins, aren’t they? Even animals display behaviors […]
September 24, 2024
Developing more patience has been a long-time personal pursuit. There’s no formula I can recommend. It takes diligence. It takes commitment. It takes attention. Mostly it takes remembering. Lately, I noticed I’ve been sliding back into some old habits of impatience. On closer examination, they’re predictable.I’ve often written about the power of patience because I have experienced that impatience is […]
June 27, 2024
Continuing the conversation started in Part 1 of this article – several key questions keep surfacing. One is the often unspoken tension between EI (Emotional Intelligence) and what is typically thought of as “therapy.” For anyone who has been involved in a therapeutic process, it’s immediately clear that learning and applying EI principles is very different from being “in therapy.” […]
June 17, 2024
Ask me what is most important. And I will reply, It is people, It is people, It is people Maori Proverb You read a lot these days about the need for new workplace models. There is a growing consensus that decades of rigid, bottom line management structures kill the culture necessary for real collaborative relationships. The old models are broken: […]
March 26, 2024
This article was inspired by the work of Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hahn’s book, Work: How to Find Joy and Meaning Each Hour of the Day. For those of you unfamiliar with the work of Thich Nhat Hanh, the Zen master, poet, peace and human rights activist was exiled from his homeland of Vietnam in 1966. His work, based on […]
September 19, 2023
“Anger can be a wonderful wake up call to help you to understand what you need and what you value.” Thich Nhat Hahn For seven years I regularly facilitated seminars on conflict resolution throughout the US. Most of the group participants wanted answers to problems they saw as the source of their conflict. Usually this had to do with fixing […]
May 2, 2023
Most people don’t respond positively to feedback (a.k.a criticism). The expanding knowledge we have about how the brain works is helping us to understand why. Even under the BEST of circumstances, many of us find ourselves recoiling in response to hearing what others think about us. Our receptivity depends on context, relationships and circumstances – but the greatest factor is […]