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Video Summary: I want to contrast true compassion with what I call misguided compassion. Misguided compassion has been called other things, including codependency, caretaking, and enabling. But I'm going to use the term misguided compassion because it's specific and contrasts nicely with true compassion. So let's start with true compassion. True compassion occurs when we empathetically sense and feel what another human being is experiencing and offer acceptance, support, and

Video Summary: When we're not consciously choosing what we do and how we move through life, we act from our old patterns, belief systems, and conditioning. So if we're not conscious and aware of something, chances are we're on automatic pilot and being governed by our old belief system. And even when we are aware of something, but not making a conscious choice to act on that awareness, we're going to be controlled by that old belief system to some extent. So there's huge valu

Video Summary: I encourage people to walk with their hearts open. It's a big ask as it can be emotionally painful. We’re living in a world that can break your heart. Just following the news and working in a hospital, my heart gets broken on a daily basis. So how do you walk with your heart open in a world that breaks your heart? When we stop intellectualizing, medicating, and distracting ourselves from feeling, we begin to feel things at a deep level. The upside is we get to

Video Summary: I did a video blog four weeks ago that I called Two Intentions. The idea of the two intentions is that even though we're in a new space and have a new intention for our lives, we may still have a residual old intention as well. We may have an old and a new intention, both creating doorways. Our old intention is sometimes generated unconsciously by our old patterns and issues. And so, even though we're in a new space, we could be experiencing old doorways. And y

Video Summary: When I speak about intention, I like to refer to it as a partnership with life. In other words, I offer this intention and then life, and I am collaborating to unfold that intention into my life. I used the word life when I wrote my book, but it can be Spirit, the universe, God, Jesus, your Buddha nature, or your higher self. This relationship with spirit is perhaps one of the most fundamental relationships that we have. When we go to risk or step out of our co

Video Summary: The summer solstice, also known as the first day of summer, happens this Wednesday, June 21st. The summer solstice is a big deal in earth-based, aboriginal cultures. It marks the time that the dynamic energy of summertime and long days hits their peak. I like to talk about the summer solstice in terms of the Medicine Wheel from my tradition. In my earlier spirituality, I used to look to the Medicine Wheel to tune into the energy of nature and the earth. As I al

Video Summary: When we go through a significant change in our lives, our spiritual orientation changes. What I mean by spiritual orientation is where we see the world from and what part of our mind and being we are using to navigate the world. An example includes moving from an intellectual, perceptive, and upper chakra orientation, where you see things as they are. You see your truth, your connection to life, and the illusions of who you thought you were. You may realize, “O

Video Summary: There's this phase of creating something new in our lives when we are actually drawing from two intentions- an old intention with our old patterns and old way of being, and a new intention with our new way of being. Even though you may have worked hard to let go of the old patterns and old way of being, sometimes it takes a little while to shake it out of your system. So what happens is when you put out an intention, or in this case, two different intentions, t

Video Summary: When people interact with you, they offer you their gift. Granted, sometimes it may not feel like a gift. You could call it their offering if you prefer. It's what they offer you at that moment. My premise for this video is that the gift or offering people make is the best they can do at that moment. So you may say, “Well, geez, he said he was going to show up, and he didn't, so he certainly could have offered better. You're telling me that that was their best?

Video Summary: As we continue around the Medicine Wheel from spring into summer, it's a vitally important time in our cycle of creation. In the spring, we offered an intention for the new things we would like to create in our lives. Now, Life, Spirit, or the universe will begin to provide doorways, possibilities, and opportunities. So the trick of this phase of things is seeing the new doorways when they appear. It's really easy to miss or discount the new doorways because th

Video Summary: There's a tendency in relationships, especially close relationships, for us to insist that people be how we need them to be rather than how they are. We all have stories, scripts, and fantasies about how various relationships should be. We have stories about how our significant others' relationships should be. And we have expectations about how a relationship with our brother, sister, mother, father, best friend, and boss should be. A lot of times, we're expect

Video Summary: We've been trained and educated to prepare, study for tests, and know the right answer. The rather large assumption of this right-answer approach is that there is an objectively right answer for everything. For some things, such as math, grammar, or some sciences, there clearly is an objectively correct answer. However, for some more relational situations, it may be more of a relative answer. It's more like it's the right thing to do or say at this specific mom