Guest Post

On the plane to Baja, Mexico, I learned about shame triggers. I won’t tell you what they are, that’s Brené Brown’s job in Atlas of the Heart. But what I will tell you is I had a huge AHA moment. An AHA on my way to Baja.

I approached turning 70 with mixed emotions. On the one hand, sadness. On the other, curiosity.

Chip’s February 24th Wisdom Well post “How Wise Are You?” about the work of Dilip Jeste triggered this response from me:

The word mindfulness is profoundly contradictory. I suffer from mind-fullness. Apparently that will get better if I practice mindfulness.

I see sleeplessness and worry; she is, by her admission, weary under the weight of questions and fear around her decision to close down her business.

At different life stages, we have opportunities to make new friends while also valuing and retaining long-term friends.

My transition into retirement started gradually, then was instantaneous. On March 13, 2020 I stopped going into the office—forever. Mind you, it’s not just “the office”, it’s the company I founded from a spare bedroom, leading since 2006. This leadership and success defined me, creating my personal brand.

As Americans become more and more drawn to traditional and integrative methods of healing as well as to altered states of consciousness, I believe we are poised to embrace a variety of dreamwork practices as methods for growth and healing.

As I look at my tattered, 1969 copy of “Man’s Search for Meaning,” I am reminded of Dr. Viktor Frankl’s influence on my life these past fifty plus years.

Growing up in Lubbock, Texas - some might say a small town - my childhood memories were overall good ones. I had a father who was in a MASH unit in Vietnam and became a nurse anesthetist in private practice and this brought my family to Texas from Washington DC when I was 5 years old.