Happy Mother’s Day
As in the image of the goddess Durga, women everywhere need to celebrate their strengths and gifts. Mother’s day, like any other holiday, means commitment, gratitude and obligation. For those blessed with a good enough mother, say thank you. For people who survived without one, say thank you to yourself and to others who made it possible for you to survive and thrive- your friends, relatives, therapists, lovers, especially your children. For children missing mothers, mothers missing children- I wish the world’s heart.
Yoga: It’s Never too Late to Reap the Benefits.
http://gu.com/p/378c9 The practice of yoga is shown to benefit people with osteoporosis- even adding bone density in some cases.
Starting therapy- and ending it too.
By Lynn Somerstein, PhD, RYT, Object Relations Topic Expert Contributor
Let’s talk aboutI what it’s like to start therapy. Starting anything new is scary, and therapy even more so. How do you know who you can you trust? To read more, please go to:
http://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/starting-therapy-ending-it-0313124/
When a yoga teacher has a student who is addicted.
Want to know what happens when a yoga teacher notices that a student has an addiction problem? I asked a group of teachers who are also therapists. Although every teacher had a slightly different perspective, each showed a tremendous respect for the yoga student and for the yogic process. I wondered if this group would respond differently than teachers who are not also therapists, but found that these teacher/therapists drew careful boundaries between their two callings; since they were giving yoga classes for the general population, not classes designed to help people with addiction problems, their focus was on teaching yoga, not doing therapy.
Fight like your hair is on fire.
For the last several weeks we’ve been thinking about addictions, especially to drugs and alcohol, but addictive behaviors can include attachments to food, people, ways of doing things. I’ll bet you can think of many more examples, so, if you like, let me know your thoughts, feelings and ideas. 12 step programs, therapy, yoga, these are some avenues that can help. Remember, if you’re fighting with addiction, fight like your hair is on fire.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obdd31Q9PqA]
Admitting wrong doings- the fifth step.
In the fifth of the 12 steps we admit to ourselves, to another human being and to the Universe the exact nature of our wrong doings.
This implies that we are able to know what those wrong doings are- that we are able to see clearly and honestly, no ego. In therapy we say without “transference;” that means we don’t bring our history of nearsightedness, cockeyed self justifying vision, or habitual stories along with us. We see through and beyond them.
Working with others, with a sponsor, with a therapist, meditating, helps clear the sightlines.
Then we have to admit… Continue reading →
Hooking up and the yoga and therapeutics of love.
This week we’ll talk about yoga and love- but I couldn’t decide to start off with sex or with romance. Then I realized that’s an issue in itself, and thought about hooking up- quick sexy encounters that may or may not involve intercourse and might or might not lead to love and romance, or at least a longer term involvement.
Hooking up feeds the appetite for sex, and protects what can feel like the more painful need for connection. Depersonalized sexual enounters can feel less personal and threatening than love and romance. That doesn’t mean they are ultimately more satisfying.… Continue reading →
See how therapists change in the new book, Defining Moments for Therapists. edited by Serge Prengel and Lynn Somerstein. Order a copy now in soft cover or ebook format, or learn more about the book and download it for free in PDF format.
