I remember my brother-in-law talking about driving his wife and brand new baby home from the hospital. He said he was nervous. And tentative. And he thought about every turn of the wheel leading to a potential car crash, and he babied the gas pedal like a nervous grandma. Suddenly every car on the road …
A Thought: Just be his best friend
Photo credit: Trinity Western University Trinity Western University Men’s Volleyball team won the national finals this weekend. They are the top university volleyball team in the country this week…and 6 weeks ago they were struggling to make the playoffs. They have a young team–only one athlete was in his final year. They got to a …
Self Compassion: Being loving to your suffering
I’ve had self-compassion on my mind lately. I gave a workshop to a group of foster parents on the topic last week, and have had a couple of profound conversations with colleagues about being compassionate towards ourselves. Self compassion: gives staying power to those in helping professions. It takes a lot of energy to …
Joy and Sadness: Thoughts on the Inside Out Movie
Therapists love Inside Out, the movie that gives a window into folks’ emotions. It may be a cartoon, but there’s some well respected neuroscience in it, and the movie gives voice to the way we often talk to clients about different parts of themselves. So…we will be hearing from a couple of therapists and their …
First Step, Second Step, Third Step…
“I DID IT, I DID IT, I DID IT!!!” Over and over. That’s what I said to my husband when I called him right after the radio show. I’m an introvert. I’ve always been kinda shy. I had a years long standing belief that I could not speak in full sentences in front of a …
The power of “WOW”
I’m a bit of a knowledge geek. Or, maybe, a lot of a knowledge geek. One of the ways I increase my enjoyment factor when I exercise is to listen to podcasts that teach me things…pretty nerdy, huh? But I like to hear about new and interesting things…it’s just quirky interesting learning…and I find I …
Embracing the Internal Discomfort
I went walking with a friend last week at the Forks. There were people skating on the ice in front of the Forks…but nobody was on the ice past the orange pylons and yellow tape. Good thing…because as cold as it was, there was open water on the river. My pal and I walked on …
Self-compassion–A lived experience
I’m still chuckling at myself for what happened before I learned self compassion. Sometimes, the most powerful lessons aren’t learned at the course, but in the course of life. I registered for the workshop hosted by the Compassion Project, Klinik, and the Manitoba Trauma Information and Education Resource Center that featured Dr. Kristin Neff that …
Mindfulness
Join me in a little experiment? Get comfortable. Shake out your arms and legs. Take a couple of deep breaths. Check to see if your shoulders are relaxed. Breath in and out again slowly. And spend a long minute simply noticing this picture, and also notice what you notice about this picture: What did you …
Fear: Breaking Out from the Prison It Creates
Years ago, I was going through a scary time…didn’t know how I would pay the mortgage AND put food on the table. Didn’t know how I was going to get all the regular and the extra things done that needed doing before I ran out of week to do them in. I was scrambling and …