The Inspiring Connections Blog

What does your heart want to explore? Listen. Follow.

Poem For A Longest Night (and For Any Other Moment)

I wrote a poem this week after a monthly meeting with a group a cherished colleagues. I described the poem as a kind of collage of things. Later today (with the help of some feedback), I thought that perhaps it could be a nice poem for this longest night—this year’s winter solstice—as well as being a fine poem for any other moment. I’m sharing it here in two photographs.  Read more ›

in Articles,Compassion,Expressive Arts,Self-Compassion,Working with Emotion

BounceBack: A Free Guided Self-Help Program Available to Ontario Residents

BounceBack is a free guided self-help program grounded in cognitive-behavioural therapy that is currently available for individuals living in Ontario who are ages 15 and older, have a valid health card number, and who are experiencing mild to moderate levels of depression, with or without anxiety. The program offers two forms of help: (1) online videos a participant can watch at any time, (2) telephone coaching and workbooks. Clients can self-refer or be referred by their primary care provider.

To learn more about the program, please visit the BounceBack website at bouncebackontario.caRead more ›

in Announcements and Reminders,External Resources,Working with Emotion

Where does your attention go and what goes with it?

In any given moment, we can ask ourselves questions about our attention: “What is my attention focused on right now? Where is my attention going? Is my attention focused broadly or narrowly? Is it moving around or is it stuck on one thing?” In any given moment, we can also bring curiosity to what emotional tone is going with our attention. Read more ›

in Articles,Compassion,External Resources,Mindfulness,Self-Compassion,Working with Emotion

Travel hopefully

Travel hopefully. I am told a local psychiatrist who has passed away used to share this phrase often. The first time I heard the phrase, I never wanted to forget it. Isn’t it beautiful?

Read more ›

in Articles

Book, “A Handful of Quiet,” by Thich Nhat Hanh

In the sweet little book written by Thich Nhat Hanh, A Handful of Quiet: Happiness in Four Pebbles (2012), Thich teaches a meditation in which we imagine ourselves being something such as a flower, and we imagine feeling a quality of that that thing within ourselves. (For example, in the case of the flower, he invites us to image feeling freshness.) Read more ›

in Articles,Working with Emotion

Healing as a Process. Inviting Spaciousness.

For today, first, a quote: Healing is an on-going, organic process, not a single ‘big bang’ moment (Pat Ogden & Janina Fisher, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: Interventions for Trauma and Treatment, 2015, p. 73).

Aware that sometimes there can be overt, covert, external, internal, intentional, and/or completely unintentional and inadvertent messages that may lead one to wonder if there is something wrong with them Read more ›

in Articles,Compassion,General,Self-Compassion,Working with Emotion

On Being Cheered and Cheering

I came across an email today that was sent to me on Thursday, April 5, 2001. It was from a dear friend and concluded, “YOU CAN DO IT, CHAMP!”. From what I can tell, it appears I was about a day away from handing in my undergraduate thesis. Read more ›

in Articles,General