Baby steps and struggly downward dogs
“If your legs aren’t already straight, don’t try adding this in. Don’t ever force yourself. Let your muscles and tissues grow and change over months and years.” This morning’s yoga class felt a little different. It was very slow and mild with an emphasis on finding the edge and then not pushing it. A little…
The problem with being good at running away from lions
Humans are good at running away from lions. (Like, yes, a lion’s gonna catch us, but we’re good at trying.) Danger equals adrenaline equals quick speedy fight or flight. Human bodies are good at this. Some people grow up running away from lions every single day. Lions that sound like dad yelling again or the…
Trapped in your story of you
You and I have similar bodies. And similar brains. Similar minds and hearts, even. Humans are mostly, well, human. Which tells me that if you can do something I can do something. At least mostly. Like I can’t Michael Phelps, but I can pay down my credit cards. I can speak my truth and argue…
Cut yourself some slack, it’s just how brains work
Sights, sounds, smells, and all those senses enter the brain through something called the thalamus. The thalamus passes this mix of sensations in two directions: The amygdala and the frontal cortex. The amygdala keeps you alive by freaking out about stuff. It quickly checks with the hippocampus to see if the new information might remind…
Sad People
“Eeyore, the old grey Donkey, stood by the side of the stream, and looked at himself in the water.’Pathetic,’ he said. ‘That’s what it is. Pathetic.’He turned and walked slowly down the stream for twenty yards, splashed across it, and walked slowly back on the other side. Then he looked at himself in the water…
To a little kid, little hurts are big and real
I want to speak up for a group of people that can’t really speak up for themselves. A group of little people. People who don’t get taken too seriously when they speak up. Because they’re “just” little kids. (Hey you, if you saw this title and clicked on this post because you were excited to…
I’m free now
When I was a kid, I did have happy times. In fact a lot of my childhood memories feel happy. Even some of the stuff that, as an independent-minded adult, I now look back at as creepy or dysfunctional. I wish people understood that just because someone has some happiness, or feels like things are…
I have anxiety and that’s okay
I have anxiety. Some days I am in the zone, killing it. I am a manager and I’m good at it. I am great at sales and customer service. I am great at leading projects. I am the president of a Toastmasters club and I think I’m a good leader. I am a really good…
What is your Christmas like?
Christmas is supposed to be a time for feeling safety and love and togetherness. Right? What is your Christmas like, though? What is it really like? Some of us have had that love and belonging that has made Christmas merry. And some of us have instead had mostly loneliness, rejection, confusion, and hurt. I bet…
You’d be surprised how many of us are broken.
Hey friend, I’m asking you to take a closer look. The world asks us all to put our best foot forward. To be fun, to be chill, to be cool, to be strong, dependable, easy to get along with. Work demands our game face. We’re competing constantly. At all times on display, being assessed, critiqued,…
Happy Thanksgiving 2019!
Happy Thanksgiving 2019! Last year I wrote that I thought that year was the oddest year of my life. I was wrong. This year. 100%. Odd isn’t bad, though. I have a lot to be thankful for. There’s all the usual, but there are some things I’m especially, newly thankful for this year. An odd…
Can you love humans AND cut people off?
How do you feel about these two “truths?” Deep down, everyone is just human, with their insecurities and feelings, needing love and, as a human, no matter how broken, worthy of love.Some people are toxic, narcissistic, cruel, and unloving, and permanently ending your relationship with them is the healthiest choice. I bet most of us…
Say your stuff, no matter how messy
I hope you find these words from Carl Jung as inspiring as I do. They resonate so deeply with me. This is so big. Say your stuff, the stuff that that means the world to you, that you need to say, that you feel deep down, that you have to get off your chest, that…
What we got wrong about love
I don’t remember what game we were playing, or what this little boy was having a tough time with, but I remember like it was yesterday watching his father get more and more frustrated, eventually losing his temper and snapping at his sweet little boy. They were on a team and they were losing and…
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