Advice on Therapy from Chat GPT
Me: I recently asked you help with a blog post I’m writing for university educated readers that talks about Dr. Aimie Apigian’s idea of Calm Aliveness and compares it to stoic and Buddhist ideas that are similar. Can you give me a more detailed analysis of these concepts and references to the source materials? Chat…
Contentment
The image above is my shirt and sweater, thrown over the back of the chair my grandfather made. He died before I was born. I don’t know how long before he died that he made the chair, perhaps in the 1940s sometime. Probably earlier, but lets say 1943 to make the math work. 80 years…
The Roots of My Anxiety
For most of my life, at least until the age of 50 or so, I would not have said I experienced trauma. It wasn’t until I re-entered therapy after a 7 year absence that I began to wonder if I may have been wrong in that beleif. It started with the idea that I may…
Definitions of Trauma
Understanding trauma is hard and the more time we spend with it, the clearer our understanding gets. Here is what I know today. “Trauma is extreme stress that overwhelms a person’s ability to cope.” – Katherin Aubrey “If danger, perceived or real causes anything that overwhelms our system, we go into an energy conservation state,…
Good Parent Messages
From Body, Self and Soul by Jack Rosenberg (available at ibponline.com) From the Journaling Worksheet at One Legacy: “According to Rosenberg, optimally, all of the messages below, both the good mother and good father messages should have been given by both of your parents early in your life. … According to Rosenberg, there is only…
Falling in a Hole
I used to tell this story as a self-deprecating tale about clumsiness. That was when I believed in self-deprecation1. Now I tell it as a story about bottoms and something deeper than bottom. It starts with a meadow. A meadow which was connected to other meadows. My dad and I first visited it when I…
A New Year and a New Project
2021 was a tough year for me, but I am looking forward to 2022 as I continue my journey to develop a resilient home-base of equanimity. In fact, like I did with the 100 lakes project, I have set myself a lofty new goal which will keep me motivated (I hope) for the next stage…
What I Learned From 100 Lakes
For 7 years, from 2007 to 2014, I paddled 100 lakes on Vancouver Island seeking sabi in the ancient tradition of kanjaku. Kanjaku is a Japanese word that joins leisure or idleness (kan) with loneliness or stillness (jaku). Lonely idling, or leisurely stillness. This was the term that the renowned Japanese poet Basho declared should…
The Ball of Wire
Why This Photo? This photo contains a story about how my schema’s developed. My brother and I appear excited to visit a strange and wonderous forest. My grandparents are less excited. If you look closely, I am not looking at the camera, have a look of anticipation, but I also look distracted. I am imagining…
Distancing Myself from Empaths
Over 3 years ago I described my understanding of empaths and acknowledged that I fit the description. I reluctantly admitted that there was something more to the empath experience than just being a highly sensitive person (HSP). Today I revisit the Empath label, and explain why I can no longer identify with it. Firstly, in…
Pros and Cons of Being Highly Sensitive
Defining Terms Sensory processing sensitivity, SPS, is the accurate term for the trait behind a HSP or highly sensitive person. SPS is my preferred term because it describes the trait, rather than making the trait the defining attribute of the person. Variability in sensitivity is common across organisms and gives rise to at lease two…
Reactive and Proactive
Introverted SPS are reactive where as extroverted non-SPS folks are the adventurers out there exploring the frontiers (proactive).
Truth and Beauty
“Truth and Beauty are fundamentally different. Whereas Truth is a property of statements, beauty reveals itself in the course of an experience with an object.”Howard Gardner Do you know what you value? I value beauty. I say in my profile that I value beauty and excellence, as well as truth and kindness. Beauty is #1.…
The Quality of Light
My father was a master of illusion. Early in his career he was a photoengraver. He etched images in copper plates to run on mechanical presses. Later he worked the large camera in a newspaper’s composing room. He was an expert at creating half-tones, those images newspapers use that are made up of variously spaced…
3 Most Formative Books
3books.co is Neil Pasricha’s ambitious project to uncover and discusses the 3 most formative books of inspiring people so that he can compile a list of the 1000 most formative books in the world. I heard about the project from an interview Neil did with Dr. David Van Nuys on Shrink Rap Radio. I quickly became…
Original Review of The Pagan Temptation
Re-post of a book review I made in 2010 of Thomas Molnar’s classic, Pagan Temptation in preparation for a new review of the book in 2020
Comparing 2 Takumar 55mm Lenses
A comparison of two lenses in the Takumar line of 55mm lenses, shows minimal difference, with the newer SMC version having slightly more accurate, less pink tones.
A Year of Bokeh
It started when I looked at a photo by Eden Bromfield and thought, “woah, how did he get that shot?” I’d been looking at photos for months, deciding what I was most drawn to. What type of photos did I want to take? I liked both the ultra sharp landscapes that I would later come…
Beauty Will Save the World
“Too often, beauty that is thrust upon us is illusory and deceitful, superficial and blinding, leaving the onlooker dazed; instead of bringing him out of himself and opening him up to horizons of true freedom as it draws him aloft, it imprisons him within himself and further enslaves him, depriving him of hope and joy….…
Westholme Tea Farm
Westholme Tea Farm is dedicated to reflecting wabi sabi in their tea and tea utensils.
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Still In The Stream 