Dear Sugar, WTF, WTF, WTF? I’m asking this question as it applies to everything every day. Best, WTF This is the letter that launched the “Dear Sugar” advice column on TheRumpus.net as something new and different. In an uncharacteristic style for an advice column, Sugar begins with deep personal sharing and “radical empathy.” She walks …Read More
Category: Books
Kelly McGonigal: Getting Good at Stress
With so much of the country facing the stress of natural disasters, we see communities coming together and neighbors helping neighbors. However, in the face of tragedy there is also the other side of humanity. Stress brings out both the best and the worst in all of us. For years, health professionals have been telling …Read More
The Velveteen Rabbit on Being Real
What does it mean to be Real? to be seen? to belong? to connect? to be loved? to be Wholehearted? Here’s an inspiring passage from The Velveteen Rabbit, the 1992 children’s classic by Margery Williams. I recently came across the quote in Brene Brown’s book, Daring Greatly. The Skin Horse tells the Velveteen Rabbit what …Read More
The four universal healing salves
In many shamanic societies, if you came to a shaman or medicine person complaining of being disheartened, dispirited, or depressed, they would ask one of four questions. When did you stop dancing? When did you stop singing? When did you stop being enchanted by stories? When did you stop finding comfort in the sweet territory of silence? Where we …Read More
Love is not an emotion
“When an emotion is healthy, it arises only when it’s needed, it shifts and changes in response to its environment, and it recedes willingly once it has addressed an issue. When love is healthy, it does none of those things…. Love is not an emotion; it doesn’t behave the way emotions do. Real love is …Read More
C. S. Lewis: The Four Loves
“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up …Read More
Elizabeth Gilbert – On Creativity
In a prior blog, I talked about flow states. One of the states where we feel like we are “in the flow” is when creativity “flows through us.” In her TED talk below, Elizabeth Gilbert (author of the book Eat, Pray, Love) discusses the myths of creativity, and how changing our mindset can improve access to our …Read More
Jill Bolte Taylor – My Stroke of Insight
Seeking nirvana? enlightenment? Struggling to escape control of the mind chatter? Trapped in the baggage of the past? Stuck in the anxiety of the future? Disconnected from the world? Jill Bolte Taylor, a neuroanatomist, describes how a stroke and near-death experience turned off her LEFT BRAIN and gave her an insight into the RIGHT BRAIN …Read More
Richard Rohr “The Naked Now”
“The Naked Now” describes the mystical experience as a place of deep presence. Standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon for the first time, I was struck by the intersection of the past and the future in a single moment of eternal now. I sensed the immense forces that carved this gorge in the …Read More
In Pursuit of Flow
“Flow is the peak performance state where you feel your best and you perform your best.” —Flow Genome Project (www.flowgenomeproject.com) Have you ever felt like you were “in the flow?” The artist that is connected to their “muse” with the “creative juices flowing.” The athlete that is “in the zone.” Part of a team where …Read More