It is common that people describe the experience of what I will call, The Snowball Effect. One thing leads to another, which leads to another, which leads to another with the result being an exponential enlarging of a phenomenon, sometimes undesired, such as an enlarged state of anxiety or exhaustion, an ever enlarging array of mess and clutter, or a growing backlog of work/schoolwork. 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 ›
Read my blog post about Avenstone and the wonderful work Peter and Jane Good are doing to support local Hospice organizations and raise awareness about hospice palliative care. Read more ›
Background: I wrote this letter last evening after watching a semi-final game in the FIFA World Cup, Team Germany playing against Team Brazil. On the one hand, it feels like a strange thing to post in this blog. On the other hand, it could be viewed as an example of connecting to the compassionate self Read more ›
In a very interesting preliminary study, researchers, Jill M. Hooley and Sarah A. St. Germain (Department of Psychology, Harvard University) explored the question, does changing beliefs about the self change pain endurance in people who self-injure (Hooley & St. Germain, 2014)? In a nutshell, the results of this study suggested the answer can be yes.