It's an act of rebellion to show up as someone trying to be whole and I would add, as someone who believes that there is a hidden wholeness beneath the very evident brokenness of our world. … [click on title for the rest of the post]
Mutiny of the Soul || Charles Eisenstein
By Charles Eisenstein -- Depression, anxiety, and fatigue are an essential part of a process of metamorphosis that is unfolding on the planet today, and highly significant for the light they shed on the transition from an old world to a new. … [click on title for the rest of the post]
Addiction: it ain’t what you think
Professor Alexander argues this discovery is a profound challenge both to the right-wing view that addiction is a moral failing caused by too much hedonistic partying, and the liberal view that addiction is a disease taking place in a chemically hijacked brain. In fact, he argues, addiction is an adaptation. It's not you. It's your cage. ...
“I Cannot Decorate This Pain For You”: A Poem on #BlackLivesMatter
If we can't recognize the oppression of others I have to say we've not learned much from the oppressive forces of psychiatry. I keep letting these sorts of messages from those harmed by racism to penetrate my being that I might learn to eradicate oppression everywhere I see it. As long as abuse is happening anywhere in our human family we are all harmed. … [click on title for the rest of the post]
Be here now
I remember the first time I encountered Ram Dass' book Be Here Now. I actually found it at a garage sale when I was in college. I had never heard of it and had no idea it was famous. It was truly an AHA moment for me. All these years later, remembering those three words as mantra continues to inspire. BE HERE NOW. It might be considered cliche in some circles but given I remember the first time I heard it and it was long before it became so colloquial, I still like it and it brings me to mindfulness. I'm sure it's important for people to find their own way of coming to mindfulness. … [click on title for the rest of the post]
Somatic Wisdom Technique Part 2
In the first part of the discussion about developing “Somatic Wisdom”, we used a technique that involved scanning the body for any distress and then using a four part process to describe it and name it. In this post, I will discuss how we can access the body’s innate wisdom to learn ways to transform any stuck energy and release it for better health and emotional well being. Again, the point of this practice is to engage the wisdom of the body to discover areas of distress. Physical distress in the body has an emotional component that often lays dormant without our conscious knowledge. These charged emotional states are essentially messages from our body. When we take the time to tune in and really listen the messages become clearer and more apparent. The simple process of scanning and listening often gives us strong insight into the emotional and spiritual reasons we are feeling uncomfortable. … [click on title for the rest of the post]
Newsweek covers the Hearing Voices Movement
Newsweek did an article on the Hearing Voices Movement. I missed it a few days ago. It's a very positive report. This is big. How wonderful that such a mainstream magazine took this predominantly positive stance. … [click on title for the rest of the post]
The soft animal of the body
By Will Meecham Bessel van der Kolk’s 2014 book, The Body Keeps the Score, reminds me of how strongly both my physical and mental condition have been shaped by trauma. Spinal arthritis, abdominal pain, chronic muscle aches, fatigue, depression, anxiety, and many other problems combine to form an inner ledger of the abuse, bereavement, and neglect of my childhood and the uproar, frustration, and terror of my adult experience. Why should this be? Why should trauma have such profound effects on body and mind? It’s useful to remember what it means to live as a human organism. There are many ways to explore this, but let’s try an outside-in approach. … [click on title for the rest of the post]
Learned behavior (in the family) matters for mental health
We pass on our dysfunction to our children. We got our dysfunction from our parents. We're all in this together. We, now, can choose to break the chain as we become conscious and change our own behavior. We need not blame ourselves for how we find ourselves. We really need not blame anyone. We can, however, by recognizing it, start to change the pattern and free future generations. … [click on title for the rest of the post]
Contrary to popular opinion “major depression” can respond to non-drug options!
YES, thank you...don't believe the hype about how essential drugs are in severe cases. It's possible to make healthy choices and avoid neurotoxic and dangerous drugs most of the time. People need to be offered options as a very real possibility. As it stands now people are often misled to believe they need drugs when another method of care may actually be more appropriate for long-term positive outcomes. "Alternative" care needs to become mainstream so that people might become truly and deeply healthy. … [click on title for the rest of the post]
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