Sustaining Circumstances
Recently, I recognized another circumstance in resolving karma. For various reasons, when some karma completes, we may not let it go. Put another way, even though the consequences have completed, there is some aspect that …
Category: Ego
Story Follows State
“Story follows State.” This is a term from polyvagal theory. What it means is the state of our nervous system drives our perception and that drives our narratives. In the most obvious example, when we …
The Quality of What We Believe
Being able to distinguish truth from distortion is a key ability that can develop in our teen years when the prefrontal cortex (forebrain) comes online. However, we may lean more on peers or those we …
Working with Emotional Resistance
In this video, Ben Tannahill of Drunken Buddha discusses how and why we learn to resist experiencing emotions and how to adjust for that so we can resolve them. Ben is a somatic therapy practitioner …
Hidden Structures
Fundamentally, consciousness structures who we are and everything we experience. The physical world has been built up in layers. There are 7 primary layers (koshas) in this process. And there are 7 primary chakras (energy …
Our Psychological Birth
Margaret S. Mahler was a psychiatrist who developed the “separation–individuation theory of child development.” This came to be viewed as the psychological birth of the infant, which takes place over time as a child differentiates …
The Paradox of Change
“Part of the paradox of change is that the more we try to change, the more we stay the same. What you resist persists! What you reject, you become! This is a fundamental tenet of …
Parenting from a Trauma-informed Lens
Two of my teachers I’m studying with at The Centre For Healing did a class on trauma-informed parenting. (They talk for about an hour.) The 5 key steps: 1) Understanding trauma, emotional imprints, and the …
Qualities of the Self
Recently, I listened to a workshop discussing Internal Family Systems (IFS) and Polyvagal Theory. IFS is a psychological model. “Internal Family” is a reference to our system of sub-personalities, what I call the roles we …
The Fall of Self-Esteem
During the 1980s, popular psychology promoted the importance of self-esteem. This was both widely promoted and widely mocked as self-absorption. The issue with self-esteem is when it’s measured by our achievements, expectations, and social norms. …
The Soul
A recent discussion on the soul led to some points I may not have shared here. At a very deep level, qualities of the Divine interact to become self-aware and global consciousness emerges as a …
The Golden Shadow
I’ve talked here before about shadow work, unconscious trauma, stress, and related topics. This is our unfinished business that casts a shadow over our life. When this trauma and the resulting shadow are sustained in …