The part of us that lives in the unconscious is hard to sense yet easy to find. Jung coined the evocative image of “the Shadow:”…
What is the Unconscious?
Western culture has internalized enough psychological language and insight as to give even the most uninterested person a casual understanding of concepts like the unconscious,…
Softening
Take a breath and imagine yourself becoming soft. Imagine the hard shell of resentment starting to ease and bend. Imagine the ice of rejection melting…
What You Avoid Might Help You
The imagination is powerful and often undisciplined. Our minds fill in empty space with images and stories of what might be, and our bodies react as though those…
Apologizing With Self-Respect
I have been a person who says “I’m sorry” a lot. Recently, I have noticed apologizing when I’ve done nothing wrong — someone bumped into my…
Feeling Stuck
What can we learn from feeling stuck? If every experience offers the possibility to help us life more free, more meaningful lives, then stuckness might have its…
Blessing Following a Crisis
May you turn toward this fresh moment, lungs filling with the purpose of living. May this misstep, this stumble, be the step on the path you…
Starting Fresh Takes Its Own Courage
I missed my weekly posting last week, and nearly allowed myself to miss this week’s. I am in a major transition between one phase of…
Sense of Life
What is your sense of the life that you long to live? Is there within you some image, some feeling, some idea, some sensation that…
Movement, Stillness
Author Brian Bouldrey once told me that in adulthood, every victory is conditional. That has stuck with me throughout my twenties and now early thirties,…