Going Beyond the Gratitude List to Weave in Thanks Throughout Your Day I have a complicated relationship with Thanksgiving. When I was young girl growing up in New England, we learned how the Pilgrims welcomed their friends the Indians to the table for a meal of friendship. When I got older, I learned the story [...]
“Every moment only once.” -Thich Nhat Hanh “Every moment only once.” I love these words by Thich Nhat Hanh, a monk, a spiritual leader, poet and peace activist who is renown for his teachings and writings on mindfulness and peace. Some of Thich Nhat Hahn’s key teachings are that the practice of mindfulness helps tether [...]
What I learned from extraordinary women of all ages in an evening. I was recently thinking about a panel I spoke on back in the spring, “Live Well! Be Well!” that was put on by GrapeVine Women, an organization originally started by a small group of women who would get together to discuss subjects that [...]
“Ask not what the world needs of you. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do that. Because what the world needs now is more people to come alive.” - Robert Thurman The concept of ‘aliveness’ is at the core of the therapeutic work I do as a psychologist. In feeling alive—really tapping into [...]
Touch Drawing as a tool for creative self-reflection and connection. In graduate school, although my focus was Clinical Psychology, I had the good fortune of being able to take electives from other departments. Out of all of the electives I took, the one that had the most lasting effect—and still informs my mindful creativity practice—was [...]
I recently wrote an article for the Huffington Post called “Start Looking Up Instead Of Down: Three simple tips to help you unplug and mindfully engage.” The post details how obsessed people have become with their smart phones and other mobile devices and the impact that the overuse and abuse of technology is having on [...]
A Few Simple Mindfulness Exercises Can Alleviate Distress. Christine Clarridge recently interviewed me for her article, Not wild about dogs? How to cope in mutt-mad Seattle, that appeared in the June 9, 2017 issue of the Seattle Times. The premise of the article, which you may have already gathered from the title, was about how [...]
I was recently interviewed by Christine Clarridge of the Seattle Times for a lifestyle article that ran on Mother’s Day. The article, How to improve your relationship with your mom, addressed just that—improving your relationship with mom. Although Mother’s Day has come and passed this year, the article offers some valuable tips on how you [...]
Whether you are coloring in a coloring book, hand-making cards for loved ones or doodling in the margins of your notebook, trying out new tools and techniques can be a great way to revitalize and spice up your mindful creativity practice. I’ve been playing with gel pens recently, which have a water-based gel ink that allows the [...]
Wipe away the clutter with simple mindfulness practices throughout your day In my previous blog, The Rise of Mindfulness and Adult Coloring , I mentioned mindful coloring as being one of my windshield wiper practices, but then realized that these practices are neither well known nor self-explanatory. I created the term “windshield wiper practices” to [...]