August 1, 2021
“The beliefs we have about anger and the interpretation we give to the experience are as important to its understanding as anything intrinsic to the emotion itself.” Carol Tavris Anger: The Misunderstood Emotion Anger has been called the “misunderstood emotion.” Why is that? Seems like we know everything there is to know about anger, don’t we? While there still is […]
September 23, 2020
“Freedom is the ability to pause between the stimulus and the response.” Rollo May Beware of quick fix formulas! The E + R = O (EVENT + RESPONSE = OUTCOME) formula, which we picked up on from Jack Canfield’s – The Success Principles How to Get From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be, is an effective, practical and […]
September 1, 2019
“Cynicism is an unproductive reaction to disappointment. It springs from the helplessness people feel when they are disappointed by others and allow themselves to become detached observers rather than active participants.” Jamie & Maren Showkeir Have you become a cynic? If so, you’ve got plenty of company. Some might call this the era of cynicism. Some might even say, that’s […]
July 19, 2019
The habit of looking to the future and thinking that the whole meaning of the present lies in what it will bring forth is a pernicious one. There can be no value in the whole unless there is value in the parts. BERTRAND RUSSELL, Conquest of Happiness Way…back in 2012 Tim Kreiders’ New York Times article, The Busy Trap, generated a lot […]
July 8, 2019
“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat. “I don’t much care where -” said Alice. “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat Working with clients we often find the question – what do you really […]
January 13, 2018
What role does the language we use to describe our work play in our emotional life and behavior? Words are not experience, but words shape experience. The language we use is a reflection of our dominant thinking patterns, as individuals and as a culture. Language frames our structure for experience. How much of the language we […]
January 1, 2018
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. […]
December 1, 2016
“People who are in touch with their needs do not make good slaves.” Marshall Rosenberg, Ph.D Needs are basic to life. Everything we feel and do is in service to our needs. In the moment to moment biological imperative to meet our needs we make choices – thousands of choices. Every choice we make is an attempt to satisfy […]
November 21, 2016
We seem to get the “gratitude spirit” during the end of year holiday season. We hear the heart-felt stories about kindness and giving start to appear. Tis’ the season, so to speak. It’s a time when even the busiest and most cynical among us pause (even if only for a short time) and reflect. But too often, the feelings of […]