It was almost exactly seven days ago when I stood by the fence, watching the four members of the herd, even the timid rescue Holly who is probably close to my heart mare's age, express their grief and I would argue even anger at the loss of my heart mare, the oldest horse in the…
What does the Tower tarot card, the wild, and our current poly-crisis situation have in common? Dogma. The unwavering belief that some humans have that things should not and could not be changed because that is how they were always done.
And yet, dogma is a very human construction like a lot of other things.…
I did an earlier episode about the spiritual care buffet, but lately I've been thinking about just how the different things I do go together and why I offer all these different things. So today, I want to speak a little bit about that and why having so many options can be beneficial to those…
Radical acceptance is a powerful tool that can help ease anxiety and stress. Drawing upon the Buddhist belief that attachment/desire causes suffering, radical acceptance allows us to see things as they truly are and then work from there to make any desired changes.
This episode references Tara Brach's work including her book Radical Acceptance.
Want…
CW: This blog post will talk about anticipating euthanasia. As of this writing, the mare is still with us, but I am expecting her passing before the end of the month.
Note: There may not be a blogcast/audio for this post because I'm not sure I can read through it without breaking down. However as…
There's wisdom in cultures that learned how to adapt to their environment rather than force their culture to ignore or control their environment. In hot locations there is time for an afternoon rest, a siesta. Many countries including Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, most of Latin America, and the Middle East and rural parts of China…
This is a topic I hope to talk more about in the coming weeks and months, because how we perceive others’ experiences says a lot about how we view our own.
- Quote from last week's blog post.
I've been thinking a lot about how as humans, both collectively and sometimes individually, we state what…
We're continuing our journey through grief by talking about three types of grief that aren't really discussed by most grief coaches or even therapists. These types of grief are very common among those who are neurodivergent, queer, chronically ill, or disabled. Listen to find out what they are and how changing the conversation around grief…
The work I do is spiritual care. Make no mistake about it. Though I talk about grief, the wild, our stories, nature, our planet, yoga, meditation, and talk less frequently about spirituality (which as a reminder, I'm referring to a connection to something larger than ourselves), I am talking about spirituality when I talk about…
We're in the middle of the dog days of summer, and I tell you, I suspect if someone asked the dogs they wouldn't like this either. We've been in an "excessive heat warning" since Wednesday, and it's due to expire tomorrow evening. We're almost through it. My job is to keep the water troughs filled…
CW: This episode talks about disordered eating, food intolerance, weight loss, and restrictive diets.
Now that I'm starting to feel better, I've been thinking a lot about my relationship with food and how it's completely tangled with my neurodivergent brain. That's led me to restrict my food intake, follow rigid rules, and have a lot…
There's been a lot of talk on social media pages devoted to neurodivergent individuals about being told that you're "too much", which is something that often happens for those who eventually end up diagnosed as neurodivergent. It especially affects those of us with AuDHD (Autism + ADHD). The problem is for a lot of people,…
The show has been on a hiatus the last couple of weeks because I've been dealing with some health issues mainly stemming from an Alpha Gal diagnosis and learning how to manage the symptoms and what triggers them. Since talking about the diagnosis with some individuals, one of the questions that comes up is: What…
A newsletter came into my inbox that talked about why the main reason people couldn't manifest was that their nervous system was dysregulated, and then they started to sell their yoga and breathing exercises to help regulate your nervous system. Now, I love yoga, pranayama (yogic breathing) and yoga nidra for regulating my nervous system,…
In the Arrow Sutra, the Buddha talked about two arrows. The first arrow which pierces you contains any number of the unavoidable difficulties in life. This could be chronic pain, which I'll be talking about today, or stress, or grief. Life is suffering, the Buddha tells us, and what causes suffering is attachment, which brings…
For our final episode of pride month, I'm talking abut how we can take up space and claim membership in communities even when we don't feel welcome, and how self-abandonment relates to that. Without getting technical or into psychology jargon, the first step is to stop abandoning ourselves.
I begin by defining and talking about…