customs

17 Sep

Posted at 10:01h in biases, customs, Inspiration, Life Coach, Mindfulness, neuroscience, Positive Psychology, Relationships, Schools, Social-Emotional Leadership, spirituality, Traditions, Uncategorized by

Today is the highest of the Jewish holy days: Yom Kippur (I love saying that with my gentile accent!). My Facebook status and Twit feed read: Am realizing we don't have to be Jewish to seek forgiveness today. Traditions are good, even when we borrow them. Atoning is about clearing psychological and emotional space, a task that I take quite seriously with myself and my clients. Who will you risk having a conversation with to ask for forgiveness? Don’t forget forgiving yourself! We are often our worst critics. Last week, the Jews celebrated Rosh Hashanah symbolizing the start of a new year...

14 Jan

Posted at 20:54h in Coaching, customs, Efficacy, gratitude, Inspiration, Life Coach, Life Coaching, Mindfulness, positive emotion, Positive person, Positive Psychology, Relationships, resilience, resiliency, Thoughts-Action by

Can you believe Albert Einstein said, “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” I’ve been thinking on this lately. Albert Einstein was a smart, smart man. But quotes of his like this make me see his intelligence in different, universal – perhaps even spiritual ways. I’ve been testing my ability to see everything as miracle and boy, does it take work. As a New Yorker, I’ve recently been doing this work in finding ways to enjoy winter. My tendency is...

31 Mar

Posted at 19:58h in customs, positive emotion, Positive Psychology, Social-Emotional Leadership, Traditions, Uncategorized by

Communitas is a ritual-building process that inspires and revitalizes while reaffirming relationships within a community, state University of Virginia psychologist Jonathan Haidt and his colleagues. According to Anthropologist Victor Turner, building communitas is an essential step to activating a community to healthy family functioning, healthy child development, and other dimensions of well-being.  It also creates positive emotion, which according to psychologist Barbara Fredrickson and mathematician Marcial Losada, builds upward spirals for individuals and groups. Here is an example of some of the work I’ve done with my own family as an action researcher to build communitas and expand positive emotion.  As...

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