Tag: calm in chaos
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MAKING MY PEACE … with the lights off
MAKING MY PEACE … with the lights off … Lights on or lights off? … How lightness and darkness shape our moods and mental health … Balancing the amount and intensity of lightness and darkness in your life is deeply personal. Everyone has a preference. My mother, for example, loved to sit in near darkness, a…
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MAKING MY PEACE … with the interpretation of dreams
MAKING MY PEACE … with the interpretation of dreams … poets have long recognized the significance of daydreams … Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud wrote The Interpretation of Dreams in 1899 exploring the realms of both dreams and daydreams. I have just read Angelo Zammit’s re-translated edition which brings renewed accessibility to Freud’s psychoanalysis, particularly the idea that…
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MAKING MY PEACE … with being fully at the table
MAKING MY PEACE … with being fully at the table … who’s at the table? A creativity exercise for inner healing … To kick-start my summer-time spark of creativity, I attended a workshop. At Kari van Tine’s workshop The Joy of Creativity, she conducted an activity called “Who’s at the table?” It was deceptively simple: write…
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MAKING MY PEACE … with beating burnout
MAKING MY PEACE … with beating burnout … back to joy by re-balancing work and life … Burnout isn’t just tiredness or exhaustion. It’s a slow erosion of personal spark, clarity, and joy. Kamal Pathak’s Beat the Burnout Trap (2024) reminds us that healing doesn’t begin with massive changes, but with small, kind ones. He provides quick and practical tips to beat burnout, such as…
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MAKING MY PEACE … with the labyrinth of contemplation
MAKING MY PEACE … with the labyrinth of contemplation … finding stillness on the spiral Labyrinth Hill … Labyrinths have existed for thousands of years across many cultures, from stone pathways in ancient Crete to the medieval floor maze at Chartres Cathedral in France, about 80 kms (50 miles) southwest of Paris. Unlike mazes, which…
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MAKING MY PEACE … with therapeutic jigsaw puzzles
MAKING MY PEACE … with therapeutic jigsaw puzzles … calming, emotionally satisfying … restoring focus … Jigsaw puzzles can be surprisingly healing. They calm the nervous system, improve memory and focus, bring emotional satisfaction, and offer structure in a fragmented environment. The act of sorting and assembling pieces engages both the left and right brain,…
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MAKING MY PEACE … with walking in rural France
MAKING MY PEACE … with walking in rural France … walking into stillness … There are journeys we take not to arrive quickly, but to slow down. My trip to Romilly in Normandy, France, was one of those journeys. On a recent trip north of Paris, I boarded a regional train and rode out toward Romilly for 90 minutes,…
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MAKING MY PEACE … with photographing flowers
MAKING MY PEACE … with photographing flowers … sensory immersion in bloom … Flowers soothe the soul, don’t they? Whether it’s wandering through the grand displays of the Chelsea Flower Show or simply spending time in Aunt Jeanne’s flower-filled country garden in France, I’m reminded again and again of the mental health benefits flowers give to me. Being among…
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MAKING MY PEACE … with nature as the antidote
MAKING MY PEACE … with nature as the antidote … feeling overwhelmed? … this poem gets it … In a world where noise is constant and truth is blurry, the poem “For Sanity Press Pause” by Kathryn von Bergen, offers a rare thing: a poetic exhale. The poem questions modern contradictions — where good is mocked, effort goes unrewarded, and digital noise drowns our intuition. Instead of…