“Okay,” She said, her blue eyes offsetting her light hair, “What I want to do is try some distancing. I want to take you back there in that room, where you are . . .” she paused delicately, “In that situation. And remember last time where you flew above and fast-forwarded away, farther and farther?” “Yep.” “I want you to do that. Float away. And this time, tell me how you feel.” She flipped the EMDR machine on and I [...]
I’m in a crowded room and my family’s there, waiting, and I’m holding my breath. I see my brother. He’ carrying this biological terror inside him, this virus that he’s going to unleash on the world, so I take a deep breath and slip out the back door. I end up in a bathroom, and there’s no toilet paper on any of the dispensers, so I dig under the sink and grab a handful of rolls, which I’m handing to [...]
Last week, as part of my ongoing spiritual journey, I embarked on a systematic rereading of the New Testament. I took a break from reading Mark and read Deb Bryan’s post about learning compassion from a woman who massaged the head of an old lady whose skull was covered with lesions. I mentioned to Deb that this reminded me of Jesus touching lepers in books Matthew and Mark and that I’d struggled with the same sort of aversion to illness [...]
I used to be my worst enemy. In word or in deed I sabotaged myself. I have written in here of self-hurting; of my inner-editor-hater; of suicidal ideation; of self-abnegation and even self-hatred. Rather than repeat the sad refrains that used to replay over and over again in my mind like a bad pop lyric, I am here to tell you today how I stopped these self-destructive behaviors and became a Rebel Thriver. I tell this story in the hopes [...]
***TRIGGER ALERT*** If you’ve been reading my blog, you’ve come to expect the raw honest truth. I hesitated to talk about this with anyone. I was afraid that the subscribers that have signed up for my blog and who follow my Facebook Page would run for the exit, but something more important is at stake here than popularity. Those of you who have been kind enough to follow me for a while know that I walked a difficult road to [...]