Communication is one of the critical areas in our lives that can be a saving grace or a bullet train to disaster. Regardless of which end of the conversation you were on, I’m willing to guess we’ve all had at least one that blew up and that we’ve regretted later. What a difference it would have made if we had only communicated with our eyes and ears wide open!
Communicating With Eyes and Ears Wide Open Read More »
It can be very easy to want to dive in and get everything taken care of so that it’s off our plates, or on the flip side, go into overwhelm and not do any of it. It can be tempting to ignore anything that feels like an obstacle, and just keep sailing on. Starting a project and getting a few things done can start chipping away and inspire you to continue. For example, I grew up in a family where we cleaned the house and did the laundry once a week. The dishes were always done after every meal. Papers were organized, and the garden was maintained to breathtaking beauty.
Pacing Yourself to Achieve More Read More »
We talk so much about caring for our beloved elders, our extremely young family members, and our loved ones who have special needs, that sometimes we forget about one of the most common variations of family caregiver: those who are caring for our partners. I like to think of this kind of care as a different dialect within the language of love.
Intimacy and Caregiving: A Different Dialect Within the Language of Love Read More »
There’s a special kind of joy that happens in groups. We find our greatest times of happiness in moments of collective effervescence. It’s a concept coined by the sociologist Emile Durkheim to describe the sense of energy and harmony people feel when they come together in a group around a shared purpose. Human beings aren’t meant to be alone. Community is critical to our health and well-being.
Why Community Matters Read More »
It seems like there’s an ebb and flow of people I know going through various illnesses or deaths of loved ones. They speak of the difficulty of knowing what to say, or even if to say some things, and that sometimes they feel frozen and unable to talk at all. Many feel like they are drowning, and search for any kind of buoyancy in the sea of grief.
Buoyancy in the Sea of Grief Read More »
