Winter Clouds, Winter Clarity, Winter Healing
Whether cloudy or clear, wintertime can deepen meditation and heal the heart.
Me-First Commitment to Transformation
In this era of blatant narcissism, it may be a very outrageous thing to say. But when we recognize that growth, healing, love, and change start with us, we need to be “me-first”. I was having a conversation with a friend yesterday, and she shared with me...Healing the Divide – Two Keys to Repairing Our Polarized Culture
We’re challenged with our differences these days – they have caused a great divide in our world. Polarization appears to be intensifying, and it’s difficult to have conversations with people of opposing views. Here are two keys to turning things around so that...The World Needs HSPs
Highly Sensitive Persons (HSPs) are known to be easily overwhelmed by the pressures of our fast-paced society, agitated by intense sensory experiences, and disturbed by violence and horror films. Maybe we are actually the sane ones, and the planet needs us.
Transcending the Victim-Tyrant Polarity
In this current crisis of George Floyd’s wrongful death and the re-igniting of the Black Lives Matter movement, we’re seeing the polarity of Victim-Tyrant playing out through racism.
It isn’t a new polarity – it has been perpetuated over and over through millenia with people of different races, religions, cultures, genders, and sexual orientations. It shows up even within abusive families. It also plays out through the plight of the planet at the hands of the tyrant of the human race. Every one of us can relate, in some way, to being victimized and, if we’re honest, occasionally being tyrannical.
Nothing and the Freedom of Being
It’s in nothing, not in doing something, that we find true freedom. The freedom of Being.
As I write this blog, I’m ending week 7. You may think I’m referring to the corona virus shelter-in-place, but I’m actually referring to something else: my journey through hyperthyroidism, which has incidentally overlapped, for better or worse, with the global pandemic.
Healing the Judgmental God Within
Whether it’s a Judeo-Christian form of the Divine or some other perception of “God,” many of us struggle with feeling that we don’t live up to Divine expectations of us. It’s time to change that perception.
My Journey Out of Depression
Two celebrity suicides prompt me to share my own story of depression, and how I journeyed from being suicidal to wholeness and happiness within.
I have struggled this week with what to write in this month’s blog. I can’t say that this is a unique experience; I often have challenges with the looming question of “what to write?”
But this week it was a bit different. The recent suicides in the news – Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain – made me stop to reflect on things.
I hardly knew who Kate Spade was, other than seeing her name on merchandise in local department stores. Anthony Bourdain, however, I was very familiar with. Our family enjoyed watching Parts Unknown as a bit of education about other cultures around the world – how they lived, ate, celebrated, and even mourned the tragedies that their nations had been through. It felt important for us to know these foreign lands and peoples who lived very differently than we do.
Though I have no idea why they ended their lives, one thing was very clear to me: fame and fortune didn’t make them happy. At least not in a lasting, sustainable way. Although I can’t say I have had fame and fortune, I have had many lessons in the pain of depression, and in discovering what made me truly happy, or at least content with my life. It didn’t come from making money or appearing successful, or even from a wonderful relationship. I had to find it inside myself.
Heal or Cure?
I’ve been on a path of personal healing for a long time (probably like you). Physically, I have had acid reflux for over 3 years now, which has launched me into new and unprecedented explorations of healing. Mentally and emotionally, my healing journey has been much longer, dating back to my days of depression in my teens and 20’s.
I’ve come a long way, but often I find myself hopeful of a cure. We all look for the quickest, easiest way to feel better, on any level. Of course we would prefer instant well-being – who wouldn’t?
But I have also reflected on the difference between what it is to heal vs. what it is to cure. It’s a big difference, and worth considering as you follow your own path of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being.
