Posts Tagged ‘mindfulness’
Writing Your Trauma: Why, How, & When || By Rev. Mary Coday Edwards, MA
Why Write About Your Pain? Your stories have healing potential—for yourself and others. However, don’t make yourself miserable telling them and then block or stop the project. How To Write Telling your trauma can be triggering. You’re opening yourself up to being seen—by the public or a critical eye. Some trauma survivors unconsciously associate “being…
Read MoreSecular Spirituality: Why It’s Necessary || By Rev. Mary Coday Edwards MA
Awe: The avalanche’s sharp crack echoed through the valley as it broke off from Pakistan’s Karakorum Mountain Range and slid down the range’s craggy peaks. Ice crystals spun into my hair and brushed my face.Awe: In a blur of stripes, a great herd of African zebras thundered past my tent in Kenya.Awe: I sat mesmerized…
Read MorePLASTICS, PEOPLE, PLANET: We’re All Hitched Together || By Rev. Mary Coday Edwards MA
Pieces of black plastic bags plagued every landscape—including remote mountain areas—that I drove through in Pakistan. Plastic packaging bumped against me as I snorkeled in Indonesia’s seas—always scaring the heebie-jeebies out of me and threatening to pour seawater into my snorkeling tube as I frantically fought off what I perceived as a baby octopus or…
Read MoreHealing Mother Earth || By Rev. Mary Coday Edwards, MA
“The earth is wounded,” I said to my Nepalese translator, guide, and micro-hydropower teacher. I was in Nepal to research renewable electrical power options for Afghanistan. We sat in the bright sun at a small, makeshift outdoor tea shop high in the Himalayan mountains. Electrical wires follow roads, and we’d been discussing the difficulties and…
Read MoreTIME TO TURN TURTLE, Part 3 || By Rev. Mary Coday Edwards, MA
Turn turtle: Flip your way of thinking, as I’ve written in my last two blogs. When I lived in Jakarta, Indonesia, I met a woman who started a cottage industry recycling Jakarta’s vinyl/plastic packaging material. This plastic material encased many products—laundry soap, shampoo, toothpaste, and drink pouches that came with straws. The garbage heaps were…
Read MoreHow to Digest Something When You Didn’t Choose to Eat It || By Stephanie Boulton, MA, LPCC
Of course, I’m not talking about food; I’m alluding to changes that happen to us that we didn’t choose to make, the things that don’t really fall under our control, like the price of eggs, being laid off, or having a family member push our boundaries. This also includes but definitely is not limited to:…
Read MoreThe Power of Uncertainty || by Catherine Dockery, MA, Conscious Aging Facilitator
“We are frequently in error but rarely in doubt.” – Ellen Langer, PhD Certainty and Its Limits First, let’s talk about certainty. We love certainty. It feels good. Certainty is the feeling of confidence when we’ve figured things out. “I’ve got it!” We smile. It feels like life is good and everything fits into place.…
Read MoreHoliday Presence || By Victoria Bresee MA, MAR, CHt.
Does your chest tighten and heart race, just thinking about the next few days? Do you wonder how you’re going to get everything done? Are you already dreading having to spend time with certain people? Are you worried about your finances? No matter what our religious beliefs, December in America can run us through the…
Read MoreAssumptions, Negativity Bias, & Staying Mentally Healthy During Election Season || By Lora Cheadle, JD CHt
You’ve may have heard the old adage that when you assume things, you make an ass out of both u and me, (ass-u-me, get it?) and if you’re anything like me, you try not to make assumptions. But if you are human, you also have what’s known as a negativity bias. A negativity bias is…
Read MoreHow do we know, what we know to be true? Critical realism as a guide to the real || By Rev. Mary Coday Edwards, MA
My reality includes an interconnected universe, full of potentialities and one where my efforts matter. How do I justify these claims of knowledge of what I believe to be true about reality? “I would rather have questions that can’t be answered than answers that can’t be questioned.” Physicist Richard Feynman, Nobel Prize Winner I am…
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