healing

Feel It to Heal It: Building Your “Inside Sense” for Better Mental Health

Feel It to Heal It: Building Your “Inside Sense” for Better Mental Health

I have a memory from my teen years of listening to my younger sisters playing in the next room. By the sound of it, it was an intense game of make believe. The melodrama was abruptly interrupted when my six-year-old sister broke character and let out a frustrated groan, “Ugh, I hate my pee!” I heard a quick succession of feet run to the bathroom, the flip of the toilet seat, a stream, a run back to the dolls, and a seamless reentry to the fantasy world as if she had never left.

(Only now am I realizing there was no sound of a bathroom door closing—or hand washing—but anyway.)

Lessons on Forgiveness: Who Are You Really Hurting?

Lessons on Forgiveness: Who Are You Really Hurting?

My grandma once told me a story, and while she has told me plenty of stories, this is one that I remember often. She said, “When your grandpa and I were first married, we attended an activity for couples. One of the activities was for each of us to write down a list of things we wished we could change about our partner. When they started the timer, my pen started flying across the paper. I probably came up with a good list of 30 things, and I was excited to see what Grandpa had written. When it came time to share, Grandpa flipped his paper over, and on it, he had simply written ‘nothing.’ I was so ashamed of my list of 30. How could he forgive me of all my flaws while I hung onto his?” As I have watched my grandparents’ relationship over the years, my grandpa is still more content in the relationship, and he is quick to love, while my grandma often complains of being trapped.

Healing Through Self-Compassion

Healing Through Self-Compassion

Please join me on a quick imaginative journey. You are enjoying a sunny day on the beach and decide to go for a swim. As you head to the ocean, you don’t quite make it around the piece of driftwood in your path and end up getting cut. Instead of taking the time to clean and put a band-aid on the cut you get angry and rub sand into the cut, making it worse. Now, you may be thinking, “Why would I do that? That is just going to hurt me further? Why not help myself instead?”