Click on the image to be taken to the full Instagram post. “People don’t change.” “Nothing ever changes.” We’ve all heard these assessments of the possibility of change, but the fact is that, in the material realm that we live in, change is the only thing we can count on. In fact, if there’s one …
How to get along over Thanksgiving dinner
Click the image to be taken to the full Instagram post. Thanksgiving is this week, and since there’s no indication that we’ve all become enlightened since last year, it’s probably time to talk about how to navigate those awkward political conversations with your relatives. Here’s my quick guide to how to get along with your …
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Why I’m going to fast in the desert
Click on the image to be taken to the full Instagram post. I’ve been away for a couple of weeks, and though I’m sure that I felt my absence more than anyone else, my guilt is giving rise to a little writer’s block as I sit down to compose this week’s post. My inner perfectionist, …
Mindfulness and talking about white supremacy
Click on the image to be taken to the full Instagram post In this post, I share my thoughts on how mindfulness can help us have more productive and connecting conversations about white supremacy. So, it finally happened. Two personal friends in the last month have indicated that they think I’ve been writing an awful …
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The spiritual lessons of COVID
Click on the image to be taken to the full Instagram post I've been wondering about the true spiritual lessons we are meant to learn from the present sociopolitical context we're living in regarding COVID and vaccines. Here are a few thoughts. Two major concepts from spirituality that carry a lot of meaning for me …
Therapy for white supremacy culture: Either/or thinking
Click on the image to be taken to the full Instagram post. For the past few weeks, I’ve been writing about the characteristics of white supremacy culture, as presented by Tema Okun, and I’ve taken a closer look at fear and perfectionism specifically. Today I’ll continue that examination with a third major characteristic of white …
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Therapy for white supremacy culture: Perfectionism
Click the image to be taken to the full Instagram post Last week I wrote about fear, the foundational characteristic of white supremacy culture, and how Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) can help us overcome the ways that fear prevents us from acting on our values and living a meaningful life. This week I will …
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Therapy, white supremacy culture, and you
Click the image to be taken to the full Instagram post. Can white supremacy be "cured" by therapy? In the 1970s, an attempt was made by a group of Black psychiatrists to classify extreme racism as a mental disorder. The American Psychiatric Association refused to do this, stating as its reason that extreme bigotry is …
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Sustainable activism: 4 key distinctions
Click the image to be taken to the full Instagram post. May is mental health awareness month, and last week I presented six guiding questions for increasing our understanding of the link between mental health and activism. In order to promote the adoption of a more sustainable form of activism for the 21st century, this …
Personal growth for social change: You can’t change people without changing yourself
Photo by Boudewijn Huysmans on Unsplash Last week I wrote about how you can’t change the world without changing people. For those of you who were itching to start proselytizing about your vision for social change, today I’m taking the lesson one step further, into the realm of personal growth. You can’t change people without …