April 10, 2023
The concept of “acceptance” is misunderstood. In cultures where progress and improvement are a constant quest, accepting what is seems passive. Those of us who grew up in fix-it, more-is-better cultures still bristle at the idea of “letting go.” For a long time I justified “arguing with reality” because I told myself I was a passionate, strong-willed person who was driven to […]
December 30, 2022
Is there a more resourceful, useful and enabling emotion than patience? The act of being patient is most definitely behavioral – and it requires skill. But patience is also a feeling state – one with very specific (and beneficial) physiological markers. When we are patient, our mind is relatively clear. It is the opposite of a confused, jumbled state of thoughts. […]
October 4, 2022
‘We never live; we are always in the expectation of living.’~ Voltaire Pick an emotion – any emotion that characterizes how you feel during your workday. When you become aware of what you feel while you work, which emotion do you experience most often? Impatience. Frustration. That’s what many people I work with choose. If you were able to select […]
August 11, 2022
“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
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 […]
March 11, 2022
Pulitzer Prize winning poet Mary Oliver’s haunting question should become a mantra for life in the 21st century. Seemingly inured to stress, too many of us speed through each day without taking the time to stop and ask – what have I traded a day of my life for today? Jumping on the mindfulness bandwagon dozens of articles still ask, “Can […]
January 21, 2022
Through the tragic events and natural disasters of past decades we’ve seen extraordinary outpourings of help and compassion for neighbors – and most important, strangers. Tragic events seem to galvanize our empathy and evoke great acts of kindness in response. In the past decade we have also been the beneficiaries of valuable findings from research to better understand the motives […]
November 11, 2021
Looking around it’s common to see the signs of an increasingly weary and anxious world. There appears to be little room left for the joys of wonder. Asked to identify the “malaise of the moment,” a prominent New York psychiatrist declared, “Generalized anxiety. That is by far the most common complaint voiced by my clients.” The antidote? Well, that’s a […]
October 18, 2021
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 […]