When young Halina arrives at a familiar playground, she immediately runs toward her favorite slide. When another family shows up with a large dog, the child runs back to her watching parent for reassurance. Her body moves smoothly between exploration and retreat, activation and settling. Secure home base Someone who has access to a secure… Read More
Articles
Find Your Way to Rest
How often do you come to a full stop and rest? Do you move full-tilt through your days and sleep restlessly through too-short nights? Is your nervous system on high alert even when you have time to pause? A sacred, political act Robyn Posin has encouraged rest for many years. “To rest is a sacred… Read More
Nestle Into Uncertainty
In June 2021, the United States government added a new national holiday: Juneteenth. The holiday commemorates federal troops landing in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865 to enforce Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation issued two and a half years before. The Civil War had ended two and a half months before. We are usually told that the… Read More
Inhabit Your Surface
When we feel threatened, we reflexively pull our essential self away from the surface, hiding it deep inside. If we grew up in an abusive home, our essence might remain locked away indefinitely, lacking a safe place to practice being visible. Pulled in for safety We hide for safety, and at the same time we… Read More
A Harvest of Understanding
Take a couple of slow breaths, and notice where you are right now on the range from calm to anxious, settled to frantic. With kind eyes, look back at this pandemic year. Unevenly distributed In April 2021, the worldwide Covid pandemic continues to be unevenly distributed. India is undergoing a devastating surge with a horrific… Read More
Respect Your Reservoir of Pain
Whether our pain is physical or emotional, chronic or acute, we encounter suspicion that we did something to deserve it or have not done enough to fix it, and if we just corrected our course the pain would disappear. Pain signals a problem Pain is the brain’s way of signaling a problem. The problem could… Read More
Embodying Hope: Introduction
Embodying Hope: Living in Difficult Times with a Difficult Past offers you respite and replenishment, support and affirmation in these hard times. You did all this personal healing work so you could have a happier life, and now look! We have ongoing white supremacy and climate change, manifesting as destructive leaders, militarized police, escalating wildfires,… Read More
Prefer Narratives with Hope, Updated
In her presentation for Write/Speak/Code 2016, Naomi Ceder (@naomiceder) describes how our narrative about a situation controls the options we have. When she was young, the narrative she saw about trans people was one of sickness, wrongness, and absence of hope. The only way to transition was to renounce contact with all current family and… Read More
Within Sight of Relief, Pause
Have you noticed people driving fast out there? Maybe you are one of those fast drivers, in a hurry to get to your destination and away from where you came from. It seems like everyone is vibrating with stress and the need to get out and away. Now that we are past the solstice, longer… Read More
The “Good Person” Badge
Thanks to each of you for pausing for a moment, putting down your struggle, taking a breath, and hearing that you are okay just as you are right now. Thanks to each of you who leaves behind the numbing blanket of denial to explore your individual history of abuse and trauma. Thank you for stepping… Read More