Union
Grief is rarely talked about or admired as a useful emotion to get to know what we deeply care about. We are encouraged to pretend we simply don’t experience grief. It is bred out of us, generation after generation. When we are faced with disappointment in our lives,...
Transitions…
We are a series of beginnings and endings, openings and closures; an unfolding collaborative of shrinking and expanding. Much like the two wings of a bird operate through flapping, by contracting and expanding, we are also propelled along through these cycles....
Having What You Want
Feeling permission is one of the main ingredients in the realization of our desires. Often we are fooled into believing that what we want is out there – an achievement, an event, a quality, a relationship or whatever it is we want. It may feel out of reach to us,...
Transforming Shame
When we perceive we have done something wrong we often don’t simply feel guilt that we did something wrong, but that something inherent to us IS wrong, or that we are irrevocably bad. As Francis Weller tells his readers, this is the insidious quality to shame:...
What Is EMDR? How Can It Help Me?
Have you ever found yourself acting in a way that sincerely surprised you? Have you felt unaware of why an experience bothered you so much? It could be baffling to try to understand it and so we quite naturally discard it or explain it away as being about the other...
It’s In Our Nature
By practicing taking in life through my senses in this way: seeing the green, hearing the owl, smelling the sage, and touching the pine needles nearby, I’m engaging with more than simply the thinking mind, which cultivates a quality of feeling available, and actually present for the experience.
Nervous System Regulation, take two.
We are living in a fast-paced, competitive environment that preferences speed, efficiency and profit. How do we take time to rest? I believe in understanding our nervous system, as well as the effect of past trauma on our nervous systems, we can begin to take back the...
Energy and Patterns
We are patterned humans with a proclivity to stay in comfortable boxes, similar ruts, and walk well-worn paths, as this feels good to our system. It is reliable. We can count on it. And often times, others can count on us to be this way too, and they like the...
The Value of Grief-Informed Therapy
When we are met with grief that suddenly emerges within us, and we have not experienced this before, it is useful to find a therapist who not only knows the path of grief but who also knows of its incredible intelligence and life force. Allowing the deeper...
JESSICA BAKER
TENDING THE GROUND, LLC