Category: Blog from Newsletter

In this season of celebration and also of retreat and renewal, I’m still hoping you might be able to squeeze one of my webinars on Sense of Self into your schedule this week and weekend. The sign up link and dates are below.

And in case you are interested in the exploration of your Sense of Self, but can’t fit in a 90 minute deep dive this week, I’m sharing with all of you the homework that I created for the webinar participants, which is also useful as a standalone exercise. When I created this homework yesterday, I worked through the exercise with one of my personal roles. Today I went through the process, looking at myself in the role of Wounded Healer and Trail Guide.

I met my vulnerability, my fear “that I am less than I am”, my “grief and shame for not having more or better to offer.”

Continue reading “Webinar! And: Do you have ten minutes to meet yourself?”

Hello, Emotional Human,

Humans are interesting.

Some of us only notice our emotions when we find ourselves “being emotional”, that is when we can no longer maintain “normal” neutral behaviors. Maybe we get so excited that we shriek out loud, or maybe we get so angry that we shout or growl or slam doors.

The reality is that emotions – or feelings, which may be a broader term – are with us and influencing each of us in every moment.

I believe that we have a program going on in the background, in our unconscious, that is constantly asking the following questions:

• What is the most important aspect of this situation?
• What am I supposed to be feeling in this situation?
• What am I actually feeling?
• Are there any feelings here that I’m not supposed to have?

Continue reading “Emotions Are Everywhere”

Hello, Beloveds,

I hope that you are safe and well as we head into the pandemic winter, and in the US, into the pending transition of power in government.

Winter is not my best season. In the past, I felt stressed and pressured to give my kids satisfying holidays, which always felt inexplicably difficult. I also have frequently gotten sick with colds and coughs that would last for weeks or months. This past week or so, I have been wondering if some of the vague dread that has been showing up is not just emotional weather, but perhaps an old emotional pattern of winter stress.

This year I got sick in the summer with COVID. Hopefully I paid my dues and can make it through the winter in better shape. And I am feeling quite a bit better, if not fully back to my normal. Last weekend, for the first time in more than 3 months, John and I headed out to the park for a bit of a hike.

Continue reading “A Healthy Sense of Self”

Hi, Everybody!

Firstly, my COVID update. My antibody test came back negative but I’m still clear that it’s COVID – there are 8% false negatives and my IgG levels are way low which means I would be one of those negatives. I’m still recovering – this week I am trying to have a semi-normal schedule, and I will see how that goes.

Now, about wanting ice cream and not getting it…

Those of us living with the effects of developmental trauma sometimes have emotional experiences that don’t fit what is actually happening. Depending on the scope of our developmental trauma patterns, this might happen often, even several times a day.

Continue reading “Protesting disappointment – or “I want ice cream! You said I could have ice cream!””

Hi, Friends and Co-conspirators in Seeking a Better World,

It’s Rosalie checking in. I was so proud of myself for sending out my inaugural “welcome to my email list!” email on August 11. I was all rocking and rolling and ready to come up with friendly, inspiring, affirming, interesting, uplifting messages every week for months at least. Yay for me, woot, woot!

That was a Tuesday. Wednesday morning at 6 am I woke up with chills and then a mild fever. It was COVID. Lucky for me, throughout the 18 days of being sick, I never felt horrible, I just had an inconvenient set of symptoms like severe fatigue and foggy thinking. My sense of taste did take a hit last week, but it is fully back on board now. My energy level is not yet fully on board, but is coming back day by day.

I’m not sure if we caught COVID from grocery delivery or restaurant delivery or package delivery or mail delivery or pharmacy pickup. Those are the only choices unless someone came onto our front porch and deliberately sneezed on our doorknob.

Continue reading “Helplessness or Hope? I choose Hope!”

Hello, Beloveds!

I’m thinking about my friends, family, colleagues and clients, as I look at the tree in my neighbor’s yard that I can see out my window, and at the basil that is growing in a can on the windowsill.

I’m thinking that the pandemic hasn’t affected my day to day life that much but then thinking about the trips I can’t take to visit my children and grandchildren. And how much the pandemic HAS affected them, Mom, Dad and kids all at home all the time. And thinking of the people I know who have been sick with COVID and who have died from it.

And then I’m thinking about the social justice protests that are so necessary because Black lives HAVE to matter more than they have mattered until now. And Native American lives HAVE to start mattering more. And the lives of Trans people HAVE to start mattering. And the lives of migrant children and adults fleeing war and violence HAVE to start mattering. And the health and well-being of low-income people HAVE to start mattering.

I want to write something about being good enough, but I don’t know if I’m good enough to say what I want to say.

Continue reading “My friend Yange aka “You Are Not Good Enough””