Cinda

It is hard, hearing and seeing all the news of violence and tragedy from a distance. We often feel helpless hopeless anger and fear; wishing that someone had been able to prevent it. After an event there is a desperate need to seek and understand causes and reasons so solutions can be built to minimize the probability of a repeat. We want to feel safer, and communicating from this stance of fear often devolves to blaming, and fault-finding language that incites more anger and fear. What is... Read Full Story

Many people make new year's resolutions. I suggest you make new moment resolutions. They come about much more often, so there are far more opportunities! Each moment you catch yourself on autopilot, you can add awareness. Each moment you get triggered to react with old conditioned behavior, you can sit with the impulse a bit longer. Each moment you forget you live in an interdependent world, you can pause and look around you at all the elements that are influencing each other. So you forgot... Read Full Story

When we believe a situation requires some sort of defensive reaction, our nervous system's "fight/flight/freeze/faint" impulse is triggered. This appraisal that there is a potential danger leads to an impulse to a defensive action. Although this may seem like an instantaneous reaction, we can consciously and significantly impact this process. But first, we have to be aware it is happening! There are two places in our defensive reactions where we can train ourselves to use breathing and... Read Full Story

Hi Friends, Yes it has been some time since I have blogged and the hiatus has been good. I was blogging carefully and semi-regularly, but it was because I should. Because I was told that it was smart to have a blog, to get and keep my name out there in cyberspace, to market, to network, to make a splash. All those reasons are good, but they aren't what motivates me to write. When I was putting myself on a schedule, it was just another thing I "should" do and felt obligated to do. Really, I... Read Full Story

Do we want health care regardless of ability to pay to be our right as Americans, or do we think it is a benefit to be earned? This is a core issue being debated all over the country. Should everyone visiting the US be able to receive urgent or emergent care? Should children or the elderly have special consideration and coverage? No matter our opinion on these issues, we are freaked out about how we are paying for care now and how we might pay for it in the future. Right now costs are high... Read Full Story

Hurt feelings, physical pain, suffering, anxiety, fear. These experiences are pervasive and compelling. Ignoring them is foolish, as is indulging them. Pretending there is no pain and suffering is willful ignorance, while focusing only on the power of pain and suffering places you in slavery to it. How does your ignoring or indulging the pain of the world help it be a better place? It doesn’t. So what does? Life wants to live! Every organism, down to the smallest component is programmed to... Read Full Story

I have found the best way to stay stressed on a family vacation or outing - treat it like a job or duty and think it is all up to you to make it good for everyone. Take all complaints to heart and try to fix them immediately. Remember in order to make it nice and stressful, have an inflexible check list of things to do. Hurry to see all the sights (or relatives) that you can, and get through as many as possible each day with a big fake smile on your face and wonder why no one is... Read Full Story

Meditation is the practice of training yourself in constant observation of your mind. You practice being aware of your emotions, sensations, and thoughts without jumping into judging, ignoring, or indulging them. Increased self-knowledge is the goal of meditation. With self-knowledge, you are better able to be fully conscious and present in all aspects of your life. One of the best benefits of increased self-awareness is the ability to work with your conditioned reactions to stressful stimuli... Read Full Story

When you get hit, physically or emotionally, it hurts. The weapon can be words, fists, or body language - they all hurt when you receive them. And, they hurt even more when they are attached to thoughts that diminish and victimize you. Most people don't want to admit it hurt, or get entirely wrapped up in how much it hurts so we inadvertently make the blow even harder by thinking there is something wrong with us - that we should have seen it coming and avoided it, that it shouldn't hurt so... Read Full Story

There is truth that feels good and truth that feels bad. Today we are going to focus on the “hard” truths, the ones that are difficult to give or receive. We have all heard the sayings “The Truth Will Set You Free” and “Truth Hurts,” and depending on the delivery and the circumstances, both statements are indeed…true! Giving or receiving hard truth is both liberating and painful. When illusions are stripped, a void is left where a new foundation needs to be built, but at the same time there... Read Full Story