Sometimes, metaphors have power. Here’s one I came up with to help empower clients who put themselves in harm’s way, again and again: Why would anyone get in the ring with Mike Tyson, knowing the inevitable result—being knocked out? If you question that, by the way, there are lots of videos that will convince you. […]
“Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose,” wrote songwriters Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster in the late 1960’s. The song was entitled “Me and Bobby McGee.” Janis Joplin’s version is the most famous. I’ve been thinking about that line over the past weeks, as Coronavirus has made a dent in the usual […]
It’s 8:00 a.m. Saturday morning, as I write this blog. The streets here, outside Boston, are eerily quiet. People have started to wear masks, given data suggesting that Coronavirus might be spread through normal breathing, not just when an infected person coughs or when viral particles are transmitted by touching a contaminated surface, then touching […]
Life is busy. Life is often difficult. Right now, life presents unprecedented challenges related to Coronavirus. Yet, as the pandemic recedes (and it will recede), people will still need to decide whether they are proceeding at a pace and in a direction and with habits that are serving them best, or whether they need help […]
“We are all broken. That’s how the light gets in.” These powerful words turn out to be a combination of quotes from Ernest Hemingway and Leonard Cohen. Cohen, the less well-known of the two men, was a Canadian singer, songwriter, poet and novelist. I share the words here because my experience working with clients for […]
It’s one thing to want to be “more successful” or to “have better relationships,” but achieving true personal power is a much more specific goal. It means that the goals you seek and the successes you achieve are derived from your core self—that part of you that is the reservoir for your most heartfelt dreams […]
We’re being deluged with information about Coronavirus through television and the Internet, by text and by email and by phone. The media, friends and family are, of course, distributing and exchanging news, facts, rumors and advice all day, every day, while most Americans observe social distancing, working from home or having been laid off from […]
One theme that comes up repeatedly as I work with Pain-2-Power clients is how to understand those who caused them emotional pain. Not infrequently, those are the people who were closest to my clients in earlier chapters of their life stories—their parents, for instance, or older siblings, or close friends. For so many people, their […]
The notion of the “last straw that broke the camel’s back” seems to date to a theological debate between the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes and the Christian theologian John Bramhall. It has survived through the centuries as a metaphor for the notion that a small additional burden or trauma can cause a sudden and complete collapse. […]
Can We Really Increase One Another’s Self-Esteem? One of the most beautiful ways we can build self-esteem is by recognizing the good we do for others. This is something we often take for granted, but it is a miraculous outgrowth of human empathy. We feel better about ourselves when we reduce suffering and increase contentment […]