“Life is simple. Everything happens for you, not to you. Everything happens at exactly the right moment, neither too soon nor too late. You don’t have to like it… it’s just easier if you do.” — Byron Katie What a radical concept! Everything happening for us and things happening exactly as they are meant to. If we were to set
How do you respond to stress? Maybe you feel excessive fatigue or body pain? Maybe you get caught in unpleasant emotional states? Maybe your sleep is disturbed? Our stress responses are activated for good reasons like survival, moving us into action, and preventing excessive optimism. However, when our bodies are in survival mode, the thriving or renewal system is suppressed.
This past Saturday, July 18, 2020, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela would have celebrated his 102nd Birthday. I write this post in honor of his legacy. I grew up in apartheid South Africa. I will never forget that late summer afternoon in February 1990 when Nelson Mandela walked out of Victor Verster prison, a free man. There was a buzz of excitement
I’ve been in the grip of self-doubt many times in my life. On the one hand, it has motivated me to become a skilled professional. On the other, no matter how well I perform, it occasionally manages to convince me that I’m at risk of being exposed as a fraud. Self-doubt can show up as Imposter Syndrome, lack of confidence,
Every morning, I exchange gratitude texts with a good friend. We share 3 things we are grateful for. Recently, one of hers was, “a day filled with possibilities”. This inspired me. How do we fill our day with possibilities? The uncertainty of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic can keep us thinking small about our day and our future. It may feel safer
A few days ago, I woke up with a highly agitated mind. As is my routine, I sat down to meditate, expecting the incessant mental chatter to dominate the entire session. I decided to do a guided lovingkindness (Metta) meditation. In this practice, the meditator cultivates feelings of kindness and friendliness towards others (and themselves) by silently repeating simple phrases
One of the pulmonary attendings I worked with during residency used to say, “The normal body knows how to breathe”. The body adjusts the rate and depth of the breath according to our physiological needs. Nothing for us to do. Fast forward several years and I’m in a meditation class trying to follow the simple instruction to keep my attention
Consider for a moment there’s something the world needs and you are the one to do it. You may already know what that something is and are on your way to making it happen. But if something is holding you back, read on. In previous posts, I wrote about how visioning and values may help you figure out what contribution
“Learning is the difficult work of experiencing incompetence on the way to mastery” –Seth Godin We’ve all been there. The pain of incompetence while learning a new skill. When we start off on the learning journey, it’s relatively easy to adopt a beginner’s mindset. We are enthusiastic and appreciate the freshness of the unknown territory. We don’t expect ourselves to
This has been a troubling week for most of us. As if the global SARS-CoV-2 pandemic wasn’t enough, most of us have now seen the video footage of the brutal death of a black man, George Floyd, by the force of a white police officer in Minneapolis last week. The reaction to this event has been filled with fear, pain,
