by Carol O’Dowd | Aug 23, 2022 | Uncategorized
Accepting – A Practice for Managing Anxiety How often have you listened to someone tell you, “Just accept ‘it.’ It is what it is.” If the ‘it’ is something painful or even horrible to you, how helpful is such advice? No wonder the result from such information often...
by Carol O’Dowd | Aug 23, 2022 | Uncategorized
Healthy Friendliness during this pandemic amidst so much angst, worry and anxiety, we are told to practice ‘social distancing’. Reflecting upon what the term means, I asked, Is the United States socially distant from Iran? My immediate response was, Of course!” Then I...
by Carol O’Dowd | Aug 23, 2022 | Uncategorized
Sitting on the deck of a small cabin in Vermont, I watched the setting sun on my last evening helping conduct a Naikan retreat at the ToDo Institute. Listening to the crickets begin to sing, I contemplated how the self-reflections participants had shared changed them...
by Carol O’Dowd | Aug 23, 2022 | Uncategorized
CREATE A NEW MESSAGE FOR YOURSELF My therapy clients struggling with abuse, whether sexual or emotional, initially seem to listen to external voices. It is not uncommon for women and men sexually abused as children to think it was their fault. Society, communities,...
by Carol O’Dowd | Aug 23, 2022 | Uncategorized
Fear Can Be An Obstacle or A Resource Fear can be a destructive emotion when it causes us to freeze or get so flustered we feel lost. As Takehisa Kora explains it in his How to Live Well: Secrets of Using Neurosis, “If we do not accept things as they are, and if we...
by Carol O’Dowd | Aug 23, 2022 | Uncategorized
Self Healing Healing from challenges such as anxiety, trauma, and grief can be enhanced with the practice of attention. Often times we just react to our emotions instead of taking a moment to decide how we want to react, or if it is worth our time to react. During...
