Thoughts-Action

14 Oct

Posted at 15:35h in Action Research, Opportunity/Threat, Positive Psychology, Thoughts-Action, Workshop by

Last Tuesday evening I gave a talk at NYU Langone Medical Center for Faces: a nonprofit center to improve lives of people affected by seizures and epilepsy. The program last week, Caring for the Caretaker, attracted 200 people, many of whom were parents of children with epilepsy, and some were patients themselves. What happened though was quite unlike anything I’ve experienced before as a facilitator: resistance writ large across a crowd of folks up against real stinkin’ conditions. “Who will pay the medical bills?” “Will he ever be able to ever live alone?” “I never know if my son’s next seizure will...

29 Sep

Posted at 21:01h in Action Research, Thoughts-Action by

Reminds me of what I've been experiencing + writing about this month: Evolution/growth/success is not linear (if you do this, then you get that). It's spiral. Requires a full range of emotions, including the ones that don't feel so good. Gotta go through it to get through it. Takes multo amounts of allowing, loving, and being present, without judgment, of oneself. Of others. It's all part of the same cycle and with conscious awareness and emotional intelligence, we can feel that judgment not resonating with our higher selves. It's fear surfacing as a protection mechanism. But really now: how's that workin' for...

25 Feb

Posted at 16:27h in Action Research, change-agent, Cognitive-behavioral, family, Neurobiology, neuroscience, Positive Psychology, social contagion factor, Social-Emotional Leadership, Thoughts-Action by

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...

10 Oct

Posted at 21:35h in Cognitive-behavioral, Love, Thoughts-Action, Uncategorized by

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...

01 Sep

Posted at 23:44h in Cognitive-behavioral, gratitude, Inspiration, Positive Psychology, savoring, Thoughts-Action by

“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...

30 Jul

Posted at 07:13h in Movie Review, Positive Psychology, Thoughts-Action by

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one. –Albert Einstein People are talking about Inception, a new film by Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight, Memento) which Warner Brothers describes as a “contemporary sci-fi actioner set within the architecture of the mind.” I’ve been describing the film as a mind trip, and since seeing it days ago, I’ve wondered for myself the questions that film poses: What’s really real? What’s created as an illusion of my subconscious mind? Or, better yet, what’s co-created in our collective (un)consciousnesses? The film explores the phenomenon of ideas – where do they start? How are they influenced?...

23 Jun

Posted at 18:40h in Cognitive-behavioral, forgiveness, gratitude, Meaning, Mindfulness, Neurobiology, neuroscience, Positive Psychology, Schools, Thoughts-Action, Uncategorized by

[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....

18 Apr

Posted at 11:28h in family, Happiness coach, Life Coach, Life Coaching, positive emotion, Positive Psychology, Social-Emotional Leadership, Thoughts-Action, Vision by

I’ve wanting to order a new Penn sweatshirt for quite sometime. The one (and only) that I own is getting a little ratty, like it may have been washed one too many times. The tassels are worn and even that little, plastic guard has come off. It’s time. But although I’ve been thinking about getting a new Penn sweatshirt for quite sometime, I haven’t done it, even with a strong intuition that it will bring me joy on some level. Every time I grab for the old sweatshirt I remember, “Oh yea, I want to look online at the Penn store...

19 Feb

Posted at 13:17h in Action Research, Happiness coach, Life Coach, Life Coaching, Meaning, Positive Psychology, social contagion factor, Thoughts-Action by

We live in a world of doing, of checklists, of go, go, go. Especially in New York city where I live, people are running all the time: the city that never sleeps. Work, gym, dinner, party, work, sleep. It’s so easy to get caught up by this energy, but is it all so good? As a detective of sorts, I’ve been keeping my eyes open to this frenetic movement and wondering how it serves me, my life. I’ve been watching my clients and friends, too, and have observed some really interesting things about how people operate. The energy that results...

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