“Rush hour. No need to rush. Slow down. Stop. See ….” — Sharon Salzberg
This quote is from a beautiful video that Sharon Salzberberg recently released to honour the 20th anniversary of the publication of her heartfelt book, Lovingkindess. The video is of a short loving kindness meditation, “Street Lovingkindness”.Read more ›
Recently, inspired by a blog post of Modern Parents Messy Kids, I enjoyed creating many egg-shapes out of paper. While tracing and cutting and stringing and gluing, a word that came to my mind often was the word, potential.Read more ›
From time to time, I invite clients in both individual therapy and group therapy to write a letter of understanding and encouragement to themselves. This letter can be long or it can be short. Read more ›
Recently, someone said to me an approximation of, “I have breathed in the kindness you have offered me.” In response, I thought, “Wow, what a beautiful, honouring, and powerful thing to do Read more ›
Compassion can be understood as having two components: (1) a sensitivity to suffering in yourself and others, and (2) a commitment to try to alleviate and prevent this suffering. This means that compassion also involves two different sets of skills, processes, and orientations. Read more ›
I wrote a poem today. (More apt, I mostly jotted down words on a scrap piece of paper and called them a poem.) I decided to share the poem because to me it feels relevant to many people’s journeys toward self-acceptance and compassion, relevant also to a significant part of the work so many people do to support this journey in themselves and others.
I am currently reading the biography, God’s Hotel: A Doctor, A Hospital, and a Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine by Victoria Sweet (copyright 2012). From this reading, I have learned many things not limited to but including
the word, viriditas
that viriditas comes from the Latin word for green, and
that one meaning of viriditas that was used by Hildegard during a period of premodern medicine is “the analogous power of human beings to grow, to give birth, and to heal” (p. 86).
In light of Amy Cuddy’s research in the previous post on the effect in her studies of posture on certain outcome variables such as hormone levels, what do you think might be the hormone levels (and other variables) for this little guy? Read more ›
Just as there exists in writing a literal truth and a poetic truth, there also exists in a human being a literal anatomy and a poetic anatomy. One, you can see; one, you cannot. One is made of bones and teeth and flesh; the other is made of energy and memory and faith. But they are both equally true.
—Elizabeth Gilbert, quoting her friend, Bob, in “Eat, Pray, Love,” p. 144
Avenstone is a residential property located not far from Kingston, just north of Camden East, owned and cared for by Jane and Peter Good. Read more ›