Blog
Live Far Away from Your Loved One? Use Technology and Local Services to Assist
This blog post is by Claire Wentz, creator of Caring From Afar and author of the upcoming book, Caring from Afar: A Comprehensive Guide for Long-Distance Senior Caregivers. Claire is a former home health nurse and recognizes that our aging population means many more...
The Call
So here’s the deal. The question all of us need to be asking ourselves right now is do we want to be a help or a hindrance during this global crisis. I mean, we should have been asking ourselves this question all along, but especially now it has become essential....
Making Friends With Your Emotions Part 1
I like to think about emotions and feelings as our internal weather. We tend to love a clear, sunny day but after too many of them in a row, I know I start longing for rain, especially here in New Mexico. But how many of us feel that way if we haven’t cried for...
For book lovers only: A Gift of Inspiration
With all the difficulties going on in the world, it’s easy to lose sight of hope and slide into grief and despair. And while it’s important to acknowledge and process these feelings, a steady diet of them is indigestible. We need equal parts of inspiration and genuine...
Building Bridges to What You Want
Happy New Year! As we move out of the holidays and into the beginning of another year, it is traditional to set goals and intentions, or what’s commonly known as New Year’s resolutions. I’d like to suggest a slight variation on that theme. I spent New Years’ Eve day...
On Letting Go
Halloween is a time of the year when we make fun of our fears. The haunted house. Goblins and ghosts. Black cats and ravens. Death is in the air. We don’t often contemplate our mortality until it’s foisted on us by tragedy. And even now it masquerades as children’s...
Outing Your Anger
For some people anger comes easily, but for some of us it lays low beneath the surface. This is especially true for many women who have learned early in life to be good little girls, you know, sugar and spice and all that. But being good and “nice” has its...
What does it mean to be wholehearted?
Lately I’ve been contemplating what it means to be wholehearted. It’s a word I’ve thrown around at times in the past, but I don’t think I ever stopped to consider what it really means. It gave me pause for thought. Have I ever lived wholeheartedly? Have you? It’s...
Are you truly connected?
In this digital age, where connectivity is measured by how many friends one has on Facebook, it is easy to get confused about what real intimacy is and how to create the close emotional connections that truly nourish our hearts. It is sad to see how our hand-held...
Maintaining Hope in These Tulmultous Times
There’s no doubt about it. These are times that try our souls. Remaining compassionate and open, conscious and present, in the face of what’s happening here at home as well as globally, is a daily challenge. And yet it is what we are being called to do just by nature...
A Rite of Passage
Two weeks ago I received a phone call from one of my sisters. She was in tears. My 94 year-old father was dying. I found myself crying, too, and made arrangements to leave to be with him and my family. I wasn’t surprised by the phone call. In fact, I had been...
How to Stay Sane in These Crazy Times
There’s no doubt about it. No matter which side of the political divide you’re on, we are living in very stressful times. Self-care is essential in times like these. So I decided to share three helpful tips or reminders this month for how to remain sane and healthy in...
What does it mean to live “on purpose?”
Last night in my meditation group we had a discussion about purpose that made me want to clarify what I mean when I use that word. It might be easier to start by saying what I don’t mean. I don’t mean that you are born with one purpose in this life and it’s your job...
Setting Intentions for the New Year
As we step into the New Year it has become a traditional practice to set New Year’s resolutions. But I would like to suggest instead setting intentions. Resolutions are too often broken, creating a sense of failure. Intentions are more like an arrow pointing a general...
Making Friends with Your Mind
What I hear most often from people who have tried to meditate and find it difficult is that they can’t stop their internal mental chatter. They set themselves up for failure by making this their litmus test of whether they are meditating or not. I find this so sad and...
The Art of Change
Are you contemplating making a change in your life? The thing about change is that often we both want it and don’t want it. There’s always some sacrifice involved in cutting ourselves loose from whatever it is we would like to be different. The cost of staying where...
Living With Not Knowing
Have you ever found yourself in a state of change or transition when everything you thought you knew, and depended on, suddenly no longer seems so self-evident? It’s like the very ground under your feet has dropped away. Even your sense of identity is in question. You...
Keep on Paddling!
My partner and I have been kayaking up the Rio Grande from Cochiti Lake every summer for the last 15 years. The river has been progressively taking back the lake as water levels decline. Places we used to be able to get to by boat are no longer accessible. There's one...
The Path of Freedom
As the Fourth of July approaches, I find myself contemplating the concept of freedom. Like most Americans, I place a high value on feeling and being free. We live, after all, in “the land of the free.” As a psychotherapist and meditation teacher, I am interested in...
Life From Death
Last weekend while hiking in the nature preserve near where I live, I noticed hundreds of young piñon trees sprouting up in the forest. They were growing in the vicinity of the decaying remains of the piñons that died about a decade ago from the drought and bark...
The Art of Time Traveling
Everywhere you look, you'll find people coaching you to be more present. It's the catch phrase in psycho-spiritual circles. The reason for that is the mind has a propensity to travel through time. It doesn't recognize the boundaries we place on experience. If you...
The Gift in Slowing Down
It's so easy in the fast pace of modern life to get going at such a pace that we forget to look around and notice where we are. This is especially true when we're focused on a specific goal or destination. We lose sight of the journey itself and all the sights along...
The Magic of Rosen
I recently began trading Rosen Method Bodywork sessions with a colleague. It's been a while since I received this work and I am feeling grateful for the opportunity. I had forgotten how powerful it is, and how profound it is to be touched in this way. There's...
Anxiety as Gatekeeper II
I wrote before about anxiety as the gatekeeper, and specifically addressed how it can be safeguarding other emotions that you've learned from your family are dangerous or taboo. But anxiety can also be the guardian of the threshold as you venture forth into life and...
Anxiety as Gatekeeper I
I've come to think of anxiety as a gatekeeper. It lets you know when you're getting too close to some internal or external experience that's off bounds. This can take a variety of forms. For example, internally it can mean you're getting close to some emotion or...
Post-Perú Musings III
When I was in Perú, communing with the plants in the jungle, I was told by one of the facilitators there, that all the shamans in the jungle came to the decision to make the plant medicine available to the wider world at the same time. The plants told them that it was...
Post-Perú Musings II
As I mentioned previously, after living in the Amazon jungle of Perú for a month with a group of people, exploring plant medicine with native Shipibo healers, I've come away with a lot to ponder and integrate. It will probably be some time for the experiences I had in...
Post-Perú Musings I
I just came back from a month-long immersion retreat in the Amazon jungle of Perú where I drank plant medicine in ceremony with native Shipibo healers. It has given me a lot to ponder and integrate. We started each day with a yoga class and finished with a silent...
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