Lessons From The Sane Asylum...being human

The Human Soul Speaks...

William Saroyan wrote a great play on this theme, that purity of heart is the one success worth having. “In the time of your life – live!” says Saroyan. That time is short, and it doesn’t return again. It is slipping away while I write this and while you read it, and the monosyllable of the clock is Loss, loss, loss, unless you devote your heart to its opposition. Linda Leinen

Beach Chair Therapy

Well, it was warm enough for the umbrella today...so that means a little beach chair therapy time.

"Your thoughts will kill you...want they?"

You don’t actually have to believe your thoughts. It’s as simple as that. Sort of. No, it is, but let me explain.

Your mind would like you to believe that all of your thoughts are correct. One of the ways it does this is by having you think that you and it are one. The truth is your mind is just one part of you; it isn’t you.

Being able to separate your thoughts from your sense of self is one of the most useful things you can do. 

From The Study...a conversation of possibilities

We call the kind of conversation in which you declare a possibility Conversations for Possibilities. In this type, you declare a domain in which you will invent and fulfill a possibility inside of a “Conversation For Action”.

We are not describing how to go about planning your actions here. Instead, we are referring to the act of making possible something by declaration. Planning becomes simpler when you are clear about the possibilities that you will pursue. Today, some would call these types of conversations “ideation”, but the term ideation does not reveal the phenomenon of honing in on certain possibilities or opportunities through a declaration. Franando Flores

Example: Each person is worthy of love and respect and we share the responsibility to safeguard personal dignity. Just a possibility...Doc

Lessons From Inside The Sane Asylum

"Fear is your brains way of gently reminding you that there is something you need to overcome."

Stopped to Ponder...

As you integrate ignorance and failure into your knowledge and success, do the same with all the alien parts of yourself. Take everything that’s bright and beautiful in you and introduce it to the shadow side of yourself. Let your altruism meet your egotism, let your generosity meet your greed, let your joy meet your grief. Everyone has a shadow… But when you are able to say, “I am all of the above, my shadow as well as my light,” the shadow’s power is put in service of the good. Wholeness is the goal, but wholeness does not mean perfection, it means embracing brokenness as an integral part of your life...

As you welcome whatever you find alien within yourself, extend that same welcome to whatever you find alien in the outer world. I don’t know any virtue more important these days than hospitality to the stranger, to those we perceive as “other” than us...Parker Palmer

A funny thing happened on the way to therapy...

"You have a 2 p.m. and a 2 a.m. personality. I'm more interested in the 2 a.m. monster you become
than the 2 p.m. human being you pretend to be..."

Lessons From The Sea

“He always thought of the sea as ‘la mar’ which is what people call her in Spanish when they love her. Sometimes those who love her say bad things of her but they are always said as though she were a woman. Some of the younger fishermen, those who used buoys as floats for their lines and had motorboats, bought when the shark livers had brought much money, spoke of her as ‘el mar’ which is masculine.They spoke of her as a contestant or a place or even an enemy. But the old man always thought of her as feminine and as something that gave or withheld great favours, and if she did wild or wicked things it was because she could not help them." The Old Man and The Sea...Earnest Hemingway

Lessons From The Sane Asylum- finding meaning

The afternoon of your life should have a significance of its own.
It cannot be an appendage to the sorrows of the morning of your life...

Lessons From The Sane Asylum

Anxiety, tension and worry are all forms of fear and caused by too much future.
Guilt, regret, resentment, and all forms of non-forgiveness are caused by too much past.

So... one could say that a person's negativity is caused by an accumulation of psychological time
and the denial of the present.

From Inside The Sane Asylum

"And when the morning light comes streaming in...
get up and do it again." Jackson Brown

A funny thing happened on the way to therapy...

"Don't play the victim to circumstances you created."

Made Me Grin

This one is for Jes B Rambling

Ecology of The Mind...

The Ecology of the Mind...the edge effect

On my morning walk I noticed the beauty of the the sea meeting the shore. The ecotone, that defined space where two habitats merge. That threshold where water meets the shore, where the forest comes to meadow, or where woodland ends at a cultivated lawn. It is the edge habitat where everything — soil content, vegetation, moisture, humidity, light, pollination — changes. It’s also where species from both sides converge, rendering it a place of complex interaction and diversity. The edge...

Things are always happening there. The small sea birds as they scramble from the edge of the waves, poking their beaks in the sand looking for that bite size crustacean. The Osprey as they break the edge of the water then towers to the sky with their next meal. Life just seems to happen on the edge.

It is a place of constant change and unexpected appearances. Such a distinction can be helpful when you are trying to distill a nebulous idea into a handful of words, or just in reflecting on a memory from our past. It is nothing more than noticing that space where broken sea shells become the sandy shore... just a glance is enough to remind us of the intensity and yet simple complexity in these places of transition, where one thing manages to become another. Edge walking with our mind and bodies.

We are all edge walkers when you really think about it. Always looking at the edge for our inspiration, our thrill our transition. Looking outward at the horizon or inward trying to discern the edge of our soul. That edge between depression and happiness, between control and freedom. The edge between love and hate, compassion and resentment. Life happens on the edge and we all are just edge walkers between life and death...make your distinctions well my friends...Doc