The telling of our stories releases us from our attachment to them, puts them in context and gives those stories a life of their own. In the telling, our stories enliven memories; storytellers reconnect with the original energy they experienced when living those...
Back when I was in high school, working three jobs to save toward college, yet feeling pessimistic that I would ever have enough, a supportive adult friend introduced me to an elder from her family. She hoped his stories would distract me from my worries and somehow...
A recent New York Times article discussed feelings of malaise induced by the pandemic’s shut-downs and consequent reduced social exposure as languishing. “Languishing is a sense of stagnation and emptiness. It feels as if you’re muddling through your days, looking at...
Have you ever noticed how attentively you listen when people confide in you? Most of us tend to “self-listen” that is, we hear only part of what a person is saying while calculating our own response. It’s so automatic that when I ask you about the quality of your...
The term “midlife crisis” was coined by psychologist Elliot Jacques in 1965 when he was 48 years old. By that age, he had earned two doctorates (medicine and psychology) and worked as both an organizational consultant and psychoanalyst. In the second half of his life,...
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