“Oh, you’re my best friend…” The lyrics of that song by Queen have been running through my mind lately. Which is a much better choice than what usually cycles and recycles through my monkey mind at times. I heard the song a few days ago, and it caused me to ponder: what if we truly were a best friend to …
Change, change, change…..
“Why is change so hard?!” This plaintive statement I’ve heard from clients (and muttered myself once or twice with added emphasis). Change is difficult because of two very important “laws” of nature. One from the world of physics and another from neuroscience. If you don’t remember Newton’s first law of motion, it’s okay. To paraphrase Newton, an object endeavors to …
Images of a Trout
While reflecting on an experience a few days ago, a vision of a trout thrashing on a shiny metal hook popped into my head. I imagined she had been swimming along peacefully, when she spied something that looked familiar and reacted by snapping at it. She was hooked! What caused me to imagine a hooked trout? I was that trout. I …
The Importance of Self-Gratitude
I’ve been reading about self-compassion lately, and wondering why it is so much easier to feel compassion for others and not ourselves. Why is it easier to forgive others for their missteps, but so hard to give ourselves grace? Those questions led me to ponder the nature of gratitude. Why is it difficult to recognize all the things in the …
Who Do You Want To Be?
This week I’ve been struggling with doubt. Self-doubt. I was sitting in a meeting a few days ago and I wondered, “am I really contributing here?” “Am I the right person with the right skills to help? There is so much this organization needs and I feel so inadequate to help it move forward. Am I the right person? …
Self-Compassion
I used to think that I had most things figured out. It took a serious health event a few years ago to quickly convince me that I didn’t. I hadn’t realized until that experience how important self-compassion is to resilience and recovery. Basically, self-compassion is a critical factor in well-being. In the initial stages of my recovery I was, fearful, …
How Resilient Are You?
How often do you grit your teeth in silence and/or tell yourself to “just hang on a little longer?” Perhaps you allow friends or family members to invade your physical or emotional boundaries and say to yourself “never again!” What do you say to yourself when you fail? Do you berate yourself, blame someone else, or think “well that was …