Category: Growing up
-
Proceed as if Normal
As we approach the two year anniversary of shelter-in-place, I simultaneously feel bewildered and unsurprised by the cluster**** that is society’s response to so much collective worldwide trauma. It will be years before we fully understand the psychological ramifications of the last two years, but it seems unlikely that capitalism’s not-so-gentle pushes to get us…
-
Stanley
In my grandfather’s final days I witnessed many acts of unconditional love. My father, gently shaving my grandfather’s face as he lay in his hospital bed. My sister, wrapping her arms around me as I wept at the dinner table. My nana, holding my sister and I as we both wept after visiting our grandfather…
-
The Best of Times, the Worst of Times, the Quarantimes: Self-Care in the Time of Corona
I’d like to start this post out by acknowledging the privilege of my quarantine. I have no dependents aside from myself, I’m a white, able-bodied, cisgender person in a financial, emotional, physical and mental position that allows me to have what I imagine is quite an uncommon experience of this time. Holy moly. What a…
-
Lowercase grief
When the big, existentially sad thing happened, capital letter emotions came with it. CONFUSION. SADNESS. ANGER. GRIEF. They stuck around for a while, sitting shiva with the heart. The world continued turning, and the limited number of capital letters moved on to fulfill other duties. One day little lowercase grief arrived to stay, quietly setting…
-
On Paying Attention to Intention
In the last few months I’ve felt better overall than I have in a long time. My current combination of self-care practices seem to be working well for the most part, and it feels good when I’m able to maintain a feeling of balance for extended periods of time. My main struggle continues to be…
-
Monday Morning Thoughts on (Urban) Planning & Meditation
Here in San Francisco most of the houses are built so close together they are either touching or are only separated by a few inches. This makes sense given that there is such limited space (49 sq miles with height restrictions). You’d think if this was the case there would be some uniformity in the…
-
On Strength
Back when I was young and naive, a phase that I’m hoping has passed but how can we ever really be sure, I thought that strength was about power. Having the power to lift, wield, dictate, reason, choose, decide. To be in control. The universe has a funny way of buffing out that naïveté, doesn’t…
-
Bringing Self-Care Home for the Holidays
There’s a reason they call self-care a practice. Unfortunately it’s not something you simply learn to do and then go on your merry way, having leveled up in the game of adulthood. No, self-care requires continual energy and awareness, and about as many hours of practice as anything else needed for mastery (10,000 hours? 100,000…
-
Tuesday Morning Thoughts on Feelings, Body Image, and Life
It’s not uncommon for me to feel overcome by my emotions. (I suppose this is the price that comes with being a cancer- lots of feelings, both good and bad.) Unfortunately my primary immediate response to this, the one I’ve unintentionally developed in the last 9 years, is to try to block out the sensation…
Eliza Dropkin Therapy 