Integrate!

Do you ever write to yourself?  Of course you do - we all write notes to help us remember things. Some people put affirmations on post-it notes so they'll get a mini-pep talk from their computer screen or bathroom mirror. We write to put an idea outside of us so that it will stop wriggling and let us take a good look. Journals are much longer - all those inviting blank pages (if you're on a computer, the screen is endless). If you fall into one, it can take a long time to climb out. As you begin to tell the story of who you are and what you are feeling, one thing can lead to another. It's hard to be positive and specific and if you're not positive, it's hard to leave the melancholy between the sheets. Longer writing carries the risk that the thoughts we wanted to focus will wriggle free and multiply. Today, I wrote myself a postcard. There's not too much room on a postcard but it's quite a bit roomier than a post-it note. I wrote it as if I were writing...

This is a rant. I am beyond tired by people who believe with all the force of true-believers that they are thinking when what they are doing is selecting "sciency" stuff that reinforces their prejudices and makes them feel superior to everyone else. It discourages me somewhat that so many people are willing to believe that bad reasoning is the same as good science. I'm not a science-hater. I am a lover of good thinking wherever it is found. Some science is wonderfully good thinking. Even some social science is ingenious and reflective and useful. This is not a rant against science. This is a rant about people who quote researchers the way other people quote holy books: as a trump card to prove beyond all doubt that they are smarter than everyone else. These people are rarely the scientists who actually design the research. These are people who have replaced inquiry with hearsay. They begin with the need for "proof that X is effective" and they say it with su...

Last night, on the anniversary of 9/11, we held a program called Purpose and Presence. It sounds like a suitably serious response to serious events. It was also a chance to play. We laughed, a lot. We took seriously the possibly that a dangerous world is nonetheless a world where we might focus on people we admire and qualities we want to have. It was safe, for that time at least, to open ourselves to the possibility that what we need might be available to us.  People met the interesting people in the room and the interesting people they talked about. They thought about what works. And what works is often fun. Fun is inherently practical. By starting with the faith that you already have what you need, you can begin to notice that you have more than you thought. More direction, more support, more motivation. Fun shines the light on the good things that sometimes get pushed into dark corners while we focus on important matters. It's Friday. Maybe you're looking forward to...

I don't believe fear is a motivation. I believe in "fight/flight/freeze." I believe the research (read Drive by Dan Pink or read Change or Die by Alan Deutschman) .  Read between the lines here: if fear was really a motivation, you wouldn't have to push past it. Fear would be pushing you. So what does that leave us to do with our fears? I like to start with respect for them. Fear is a part of you that is trying to do something to protect your physical or emotional or spiritual well being. It's slowing you down so you have time to notice that you are running into a cliff - or off of one.  And, like every person you respect, fear is sometimes wrong. Let me ask you - what do you do when someone you respect is wrong?  If you've started with respect for the part of yourself that is afraid, then you have a pretty good chance to make peace and move on. If you start by pushing around your fear, your fear will continue to push you around. Because your fear is yo...