[caption id="attachment_996" align="alignleft" width="300"] Thank you to my dear friend Ruth Marcon to bring these words to my life - alongside so much other richness, depth.[/caption] Life is a train of moods like a string of beads; and as we pass through them they prove to be many-colored lenses which paint the world their own hue, and each shows only what lies in its own focus....
How sweet it is to be in flow to have a sense that it's all working out. How easy it is to forget to fall asleep to what I know: That it's all a choice -- opportunity or threat How I perceive What I believe. How I feel What I feel When I feel If I feel I must feel. It's not in thinking. It's in the feeling behind that thinking The viscerality is sweet....
Crisis! A cell phone conundrum: incoming text messages seem to be “broken.” Very few replies to my messages. “No one loves me,” becomes my belief system. I default into threat mode and my confirmation bias goes into full force. It takes very little for the world to prove what we believe. Have you heard the Pygmalion effect research? Teachers were told: these kids are the top performers to a group that was randomly assigned (mixed ability). That group out-performed the control by nearly 3 times, who were also randomly assigned. I believe that what we expect we experience. I expect that people love...
[caption id="attachment_629" align="alignleft" width="276" caption="Who the hell knows?"][/caption] The story of my life. Yours too, I may presume. But not. So step off. It’s mine. Kidding. Step on. We're all fuck ups. Really, I believe this. Cause what happened to our childhood innocence and love – for ourselves, for others? Yes, I’m a fuck-up. And I’m pretty straight, sort of speak. What I mean is, I’m becoming more and more aware of my own insanity and what I’m realizing is that boy, I’ve been conditioned in a funny way. Wow. And I can’t judge it. I can’t hate it. Cause when I do,...
I'm feeling a whole slew of "threat" response surfacing lately -- fear, anxiety, scarcity. Even with all of this knowledge of positive psychology (that thoughts lead to feelings), I still find myself caught in this whirlwind of frustration. What are the beliefs underscoring (or overwhelming!) my feeling this way? Spending a week as a seminar participants in Jack Canfield's Breakthrough to Success program has been way eye-opening for me. I know I am not showing up to play full out. I feel myself on the fringes and I don't like it here. Why is it happening? There are many variables: I didn't necessarily...
[caption id="attachment_499" align="alignright" width="300" caption="To date, this was the biggest screen to show my slides!"][/caption] Helping people think differently: this is what it's all about. An opportunity, not a threat. I'm not telling you what to think, but merely suggesting that you think about how you think. This takes a slowing up, a mindfulness and consciousness which can be built by learning positive psychology, a movement where eastern tradition is meeting western science. You in?...
My Facebook status update read: “Dreams coming true this week” and really, that’s just as I experienced it. I’m still savoring the best week of my life, which I spent in Cleveland, Ohio, starting on Valentine’s Day and ending six days later as I drove back home to New York last Saturday. A long drive on route 80, indeed, but with a big smile on my face and lots of oxytocin running through my body, it was A-Okay. Better than okay. Great! Dare I say, the best week of my life? I was there working on an intervention project called SOMO Leadership which...
It's all about relationships. All. Perhaps having shared a womb with my twin sister has given me this understanding at a primal, energetic level. Perhaps it's because I lost my brother, Todd, to suicide nearly twenty years ago, a death not unlike Tyler Clemente's at Rutger’s last week. Todd jumped from a building. He was 19; I was 12. What's happening in the world? Bullies and terrorists; they're not much different. Each have a very scarce mindset about the way the world works. That for the bully or terrorist to feel good, we need to feel bad. What does this say about...
“Boy, it went fast,” seems to be the sentiment of summer’s end. But is it really over? According to the calendar, we have 20 more days so my vote is strongly in favor of not seeing it as over, just soon to be in transition. So what should we do? Savor now! [Imagine Mr. Costanza’s Seinfeld voice inserted here.] [caption id="attachment_319" align="alignright" width="224" caption="A view from Block Island, RI"][/caption] I am having (notice present tense) an excellent summer. Spent most of August away from home on a beach tour that started (and will end this weekend) in the Hamptons, included a stay...
[caption id="attachment_283" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="Rocco always has to sniff for just the right spot."][/caption] It’s all about animal instinct. My one-year old dog, Rocco, has been reminding me of this lately. When I hear him bark at a foreign noise in the stairwell – or when he has to pee atop another dog’s urine, as if to signify, “I am here, I am best.” It reminds me of bullies, those who piss on other people. Bullies are animals. Animals are not always bullies (Rocco is sweet, just like his dad). Bullies exist not just on the playgrounds, but in the workplace too....