COVID-19 has brought us inside which can be an invitation to look inside ourselves.  We are literally on a retreat, retreating from the usual everyday business of our lives. 

In a “Super Soul Sunday” interview with Oprah, Jon Kabat-Zinn beautifully articulates his inspiring answer.

How often do you experience being totally in the moment, fully focused on your work, a piece of art, running, an experience that you might describe as in the zone, a moment of bliss, nirvana? Did you know that a regular meditation practice can invite such a state to occur more often?

Neuroscience has shown that neurons that fire together wire together. In other words, repeated thoughts create a pathway in your brain. We get better at what we practice.

I found this inspiring regarding telling and retelling stories and thought you might too. This is a metaphor for the chief modality that informs my practice, namely: Post-modern therapy, which includes Narrative and Brief Solution-focused therapy.

Often, even if well intended, we defend or dismiss. Try empathy when your spouse, child, friend, or colleague expresses feeling like they’re stuck in a hole. Meeting people where they are instead of trying to fix the situation may feel good to you too

Positive posture supports us to create positive states — internally and externally, mentally and physically. For insight and inspiration, enjoy this TED Talk from social psychologist, Amy Cuddy, on how your body language shapes who you are.

Be here now. Take some time throughout the day wherever you are, whatever you are doing. Take a break to awaken your senses. Give yourself the gift of presence.

As a therapist, I am helping people expose problematic wiring. Together we examine the short-circuiting, and rewire in a way that lights you up.

You feel your temperature rising, body tightening, fists clenching, energy building and no release valve. So you scream, hit, shut down, retreat or attack. Anger, here represented by Anger Bot, has taken you over. How to fight back against Anger Bot:

When you hear yourself saying, “I am so stressed”, or you feel literally uptight — that is, parts of your body are tense — first, breathe. Often when I hear or even speak the word “breathe”, I find I am holding my breath. Next, a phrase that might come to mind is: “The heart remains a child”. […]

“I am a beautiful soul.  Everything I do is enough.” In the 70s I was doing a meditation retreat with Ram Dass in the redwoods outside of Santa Cruz.  Five days of silence!  The thought terrified me.  The reality, however, was tremendously freeing.  Over the five days, I felt myself move in to a feeling […]

Lose your mind and come to your senses! Get out of your head and experience the pleasure of smart foods that tickle your taste buds and feel good in your tummy, leaving you feeling light in body, mind and spirit.

The mind/body/food connection is made very clear in this to the point craving eliminator video by hypnotist Jim Katsoulis The goal is to want to eat what supports the body you want.  And YES, you can reverse programming that may have come from family, friends and thousands of ads on a daily basis, which link […]

I really love all of these books.  All of them are guides to the ultimate goal — happiness — and  have helped me in my psychotherapy practice and personal development, which happily blend together.  All quotes are from the book covers. Calm and Compassionate Children, A Handbook Susan Usha Dermond Dermond is a teacher and […]

Chart used with permission of Laura Silva Quesada, daughter of Jose Silva (founder of the Silva Method, in the 60s). I owned and practiced using the Silva Mind Control records, in the 70s.  Yes, real 78, LP (long playing), records.  Within the last year I purchased the Silva Life System and have found it beneficial […]

One of the treasures in my extensive, passionate, daily reading, research and studies is an exercise I found in Simple Abundance: A Day Book of Comfort and Joy by Sarah Ban Breathnach. Compelled by the fact that the book was gift from my loving daughter, I eagerly began doing (you don’t just read you do) […]

How is a photo session like a therapy session? On my way to becoming a psychotherapist I had a photography career.  In 1971 I moved from Woodstock to LA with a band doing the visuals for a mixed media musical and from that was hired at Warner Brothers Records to do the audiovisual presentations, and […]

In A General Theory of Love the authors state: Adults remain social animals: they continue to require a source of stabilization outside themselves.  … Total self-sufficiency turns out to be a daydream whose bubble is burst by the sharp edge of the limbic brain. Stability means finding people who regulate you well and staying near […]

“Creativity is the ability to look at the ordinary and see the extraordinary.” — Dewitt Jones This 22 minute video preview of a creativity program developed by Dewitt Jones — renowned National Geographic photographer — contains many metaphors for life and how to live it.  Focus, perspective, balance, passion, caring, and light, are all within […]

On this site, and possible many others, you have read and watched materials designed to inspire you to transform negative energy in to positive, or manage your anger, grief, stress and other components of your emotional state.  The underlying assumption is that you desire to manage your emotions. Yes or No? Do you struggle with […]

Persuasion is defined as… the act of persuading (or attempting to persuade); communication intended to induce belief or action; inducement to act by argument or reasoning or entreaty; a conviction or belief. Persuasion is generally the subject of marketing and advertising.  However positive use of persuasion could enhance our communications. A masterful positive persuader, Martin […]

We can create what we can imagine. Science recently discovered mirror neurons, which allow us to feel what another person is feeling, or at least provide a biological reference for this feeling. For example if a spider goes up another person’s arm, we react as though it is happening to us. The reaction depends on […]

More Optimism About Our Ability to Change at Any Age On the Sounds True recording of The Biology of Belief by Bruce Lipton the author says that if you want to change your life, you have to change your perceptions.  Lipton discovered that the environment activates cells, and our perceptions and beliefs mediate between the […]