Spiritual
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Expressing Feelings III: Hearing Feelings
Expressing feelings is extremely difficult as we discussed in Expressing Feelings II. It is difficult to wander about in your mind to understand what you feel. It is difficult to find the right words that adequately communicate what you feel in your heart. And it is most difficult to try over and over again to…
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Race and Self Esteem
I just read a wonderful piece in this month’s National Geographic’s Special Issue: Black and White, April 2018. At least one piece, “Skin Deep” by Elizabeth Kolbert, indirectly brings us to the notion of self-esteem and personal development. From a rather simple scientific premise Kolbert hypnotically leads us to a more solid acceptance of ourselves…
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What To Expect
We built a new website. The old one, good, but dated, was begging us to update. “Too many words” it kept saying. The new one is much more streamlined. In one central space, our builder asked us to provide a picture of “what to expect”, suggesting a picture of one of our offices. Okay, that’s…
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Expressing Feelings II: Practice
This is the second in a series of Expressing Feelings, the first installment being on theory, this one on the practice. In brief review, Expressing Feelings I: Theory we discussed: –There are four basic feelings: o Joy, when I have something I love; sadness when I lose it o Fear when I fear losing something…
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Expressing Feelings I: Theory
This is the first of four blogs on expressing feelings. This one is on theory; Expressing Feelings II will be on how practice expressing feelings; Feelings III will be on how to hear other people’s feelings, and Feelings IV will be on when not to express feelings. Let’s get started.
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Liberal’s Moral Dilemma
We liberals are not as moral as we might think. Worse yet, conservative America has just voiced their belief that the Republican Party has the corner on morality. Certainly, most liberal readers of this document will wonder how I could possibly suggest that conservatives are more moral than liberals. Well, it depends on the definition…
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I Don’t Want to Live
I have the opportunity of hearing things from people that they have never told anyone else. This is a tremendous privilege that we therapists have. Close family members, good friends, pastors, doctors, and bartenders often hear private things from people, but there is something almost sacred about the therapy office, especially after trust is established…
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Alive
“I will not let you die”. This is what my inner voice said to me this morning, sweating like an ox in hot yoga. I was holding the tree pose facing the mirrored wall noticing how curly my hair was in full body sweat when I heard the words. It isn’t important for me to…
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Tough Day as a Child
Veteran’s Day a long time ago. It was scary. We were home from school because, back then, the honored were honored with a real holiday. It is funny, in a weird way, how the brain registers such major passage events. I haven’t thought of my mother’s first brain hemorrhage in years and years, and yet…
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Why me? Why NOT?!
September 16, 2013: Why me? Why NOT?! A most wonderful woman returned to my office this week after not seeing her for close to 13 years. Long story short, she was dealing with “how good life is” and what is wrong with that? Funny, I thought, here is a woman who, after having gone through…