The Disappearance of Love
Once upon a time, you were a baby inside a womb. Inside that womb, you were in love with yourself because you did not know there was any other alternative. …
Relationships
How to Take Charge of Your Personal Story
Nike’s tagline of Just Do It has entered our everyday language for a good reason. We can never accomplish anything by only thinking about, by only learning more and more …
Your Baggage is the Gateway to Your Superpower
The Muses have been full of contrarian perspectives lately, but maybe that’s what muses do – shake up our complacency to reveal things hidden in plain sight. Like our ideas …
The Risk You Are Afraid to Take
Fear has been a constant companion for much of my life. It started in childhood with parents caught up in their own struggles. There was a reprieve of sorts in …
Finding the Quiet in the Frenzy of December – A Ritual for Year End
In the frenzy of December is a place of deep quiet if we are willing to go there. In that quiet, filters and shields can be lowered. It is safe …
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All the Versions of You that Have Not Fit – Embracing Imposter Syndrome
There’s a gap between who we want to be and what we want to do. Inside that gap is a thousand versions of ourselves that don’t quite fit. We experience …
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It’s Hard to Hate People Close Up
It’s easy to hate people when we depersonalize them and keep them at arm’s length. But when we get to know them, when their troubles and struggles become real, when …
Holding Hands with Strangers
When we are in crisis… when we are feeling utterly lost and tested… when life feels like it’s crashing all around us… we still have a lifeline – the knowingness …
Speak Truth to Lies (Be Civil)
According to Carl Jung, paradox is essential for understanding. How would we know hot without cold? How would we know up without down? How would we know truth without lies? …
Where Are You Hiding?
Is your sense of belonging dependent upon feeling in control? When her husband offered her the trip she had longed for, instead of getting excited, Cynthia Occelli freaked out and …
True Belonging
True belonging. Those words conjure up a very specific picture for me as a recovering fitting-in person. Striving to fit in had only created a false sense of belonging that …
Are You Showing Up as Your True Self?
Most of my career was spent in a world dominated by men, tough men, primarily engineering types. I’m a smallish woman who danced ballet, played the piano, read everything, and …
Never Underestimate the Power of Being Seen
In Braving the Wilderness, Brené Brown speaks candidly and transparently about using self-destructive behaviors to soothe the lack of belonging she so keenly felt. She quotes Anne Lamott to describe …
Becoming a Memory Guardian
We recently sold our childhood home. As I stood in front of it for the last time that it was still part of our family, memories began flooding in. There …
What Does “Belonging” Mean to You?
What does “belonging” mean to you? The dictionary defines it as being a member or part of a particular group, organization, or class. As children, our first desire is to …
Braving the Wilderness – The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone
I’ve been reading Braving the Wilderness – The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone, the newest book from social scientist Brené Brown, PhD, LMSW, and want …
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My Word of the Year (Watchword) for 2018 is Self-Care. What’s Yours”
My personal word of the Year (Watchword) for 2018 is Self-Care. But not the chocolate and bubble bath variety that seems to pop up everywhere. That is only a teensy …
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5 Tips for Surviving Sandwich Generation Stress
It was September of 2011, and I was planning what was intended to be a quick weekend visit to my parents. A few days before my scheduled arrival, Mom called …
How Do You Ask for Help When You Are the Primary Caregiver for an Elderly Parent?
I have been dreading dealing with this topic – being a caregiver – for days, but it is important. I read an article recently while pursuing answers for myself. The …
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Happy Valentine’s Day to My Own Beloved
Our first official date was on Valentine’s Day. We were meeting for lunch and he arrived first, armed with candy hearts spelling out his future intentions. He stood as I …