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When has a good practice gone sour?

I didn’t journal today. I’ve journaled regularly, often daily, for 15 years. The practice has helped me clear my mind, understand life, discover creativity. I’ve suggested this practice to clients and friends.

Yet, today I didn’t write. Yesterday, my husband suggested that, just maybe, all that inner reflection was a cause – rather than a cure – for morning feelings of depression.

“But, no! It helps! I can’t stop. This practice has been so good for me over the years. Besides, I’ve suggested it to others. I can’t back away without looking or feeling out of integrity.” Continue reading “When has a good practice gone sour?”

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Are you a control freak?

Before you answer that, call to mind someone who fits your definition of “control freak” to a tee. Got it? Are you imagining someone who:

  • always has to get their way?
  • bosses everyone around because they know the “right way to do it”?
  • is uber-organized with everything always in its place?

If so, it is possible you don’t spend lots of time with this person if you can help it.

In my personal experience, however, as both controller and controlled, I’ve found much subtler methods of control. Imagine: Continue reading “Are you a control freak?”

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Flexibility

Flexibility, bending and stretching without breaking, is a valuable asset. In order to create the changes we desire in life, we must try new things, step outside our comfort zone, reach for something different. Imagine the rubber band. If not stretched enough, it isn’t very useful. If left unused, never stretched, it hardens and loses its “stretchability”. If we stretch it too far, it snaps. Somewhere in the middle, the stretching gives the rubber band its value.

What about you? In what areas of life have you flexed to the breaking point? In what areas are you afraid to stretch? Where have you become inflexible and rigid, hardened and ready to crumble?

What shift in flexibility is called for?

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The Gift of Acceptance

In the first chapter of The Zen Leader, Ginny Whitelaw suggests that acceptance is a huge part of the first step a leader must take when the situation gets challenging. Only when we observe what is and accept that it really is happening can we actually have impact which transforms. Without acceptance, we likely head down the path of negative energies which, she suggests, often look like tolerance, rationalization, resistance, anger or rage, denial. With acceptance, we have the possibility of coming to understand what is and, from there, channel our energy in positive directions which can lead to joy and enthusiasm.

In my own life recently, I was faced with Continue reading “The Gift of Acceptance”