The Breathing Spaces Blog

Human Experiences Under Fire

Snowy mountain

I sit here, waiting on news about my boyfriend’s father in the emergency room at Starbucks – hot cocoa in hand. Living through a scenario that began last night, I’ve been through many times before with my parents. A coughing spell led to chest congestion that he swears he didn’t have. When he came close to falling last night, it became clear that at the age of ninety-one, a trip to the doctor would be in order.

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Tough Losses and Emotional Safety Nets

Ice Flower Under Soap Bubble

I have had conversations with many people lately who are going through rough patches with their health while caring for someone else and feeling great uncertainty in the world as a whole.

There is no question that Covid has flipped us around into a new world. The emotional effects are looming underneath like an earthquake tremor here in California, and it erupts without notice. When you add additional emotional trauma, an energetic bomb is waiting to go off.

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Calming Your Inner Critic

I ask you to pause and think about this statement: The weight of responsibility that we place on ourselves and the forgiveness we don’t give. We all fumble at times in our lives. We’ve had words that flew out of our mouths under duress because we’ve exhausted ourselves. We’ve experienced anger, impatience, fear – all big emotions that can overwhelm our sanity – it happens to all of us. Those words/thoughts can be directed toward others as well as us.

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Caregiving and Gratitude

Heart on leaves

As the holidays near, I can’t help but think of the relatives who won’t be with us as we celebrate Thanksgiving next week, and the other holidays that follow soon after: Hanukkah (we’re a multicultural family), Christmas, the New Year. But while my surface thoughts are about the individual people, I find that a deeper dive leads to what I learned from them, and what they taught me about gratitude.

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