I have written a few times about my neighbor and the inconvenience of the smoke that comes from his house. Over the years I had made a few attempts to let them know there was a problem. My first attempt was to my neighbor’s girlfriend who had absolutely no interest or desire in improving anyone […]
The last few years have been a struggle to understand why everyone is losing their shit. Ok, maybe that is not stated correctly. Obviously, there appear to be valid reasons for people to be on edge – a pandemic, global climate change, and misuse of power. But the reason we are all on edge, the […]
We all have our favorite Greek philosophers, right? Mine is Epictetus. He never wrote any of his philosophies down, but his students would scribe his talks. As I wrote my book, From Type-A to Type-Me: How to Stop “Doing” Life and Start Living It, again and again I ran across quotes from Epictetus which were […]
Cubs versus White Sox. Thin crust versus deep-dish pizza. Growing up in Chicago the debates were fun and fairly innocuous. These days the debates have become much more polarizing and contentious. More issues are black-and-white with no room for gray. Our opinions have become facts. Our beliefs are the only truth. The lack of open-mindedness […]
In last week’s post, I provided a teaser about the “feeling economy.” During a Right Management meeting, the term was mentioned as a side note but not really explained. But the term intrigued me, so I did some research. Just as machines brought us into the Industrial Age, machines, specifically computers, are setting the foundation […]
Lately I have been gifted with some terrific teachers in my life. The cat that used to sneak into our house, who I had found a home for, is back – and has commenced sneaking into our house. She is teaching me boundaries with compassion (instead of compassion with no boundaries). The other prominent teacher […]
Another powerful concept Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor provided in her TEDx Talk is the concept that we are feeling creatures who think. We are not thinking people who feel, yet this is what our society believes and values – which is at the heart of many of our issues. Here is the science and biology […]
When we can step out of our point of view, our emotions, and our expectations to see a situation from another’s point of view it is powerful. We now have a clearer idea of intent. We have an idea about what the other person is looking for or fearing might happen. We have the objective understanding of another’s pain and issues. And we now have the ability to work through the true issue, not the story we are making up about the issue. We become empowered by seeing and addressing the true issue and not our imagined scenario. The next time there is an issue at home or work try using compassionate objectivity and notice the difference in your experience and the results.