How do we grow our tolerance for discomfort? Keep asking how.

I read recently that if you want to get to the heart of something, ask the question “why?” five times. (So, parenthood has been preparing me for something!) “I worked in group dialogue for years: often in dialogue to do with conflict and peace,” wrote Pádraig Ó Tuama, poet, theologian and host of the Poetry Unbound…

The Language Your Body Speaks

Befriending your self starts with making small talk with your body My father was a pharmacist, my mother a nurse. In my household, we took stale-dated medicine (because it was still good even if it was illegal for him to sell so why waste it) and we were never indulged a day off school unless…

Rise of the revivers

Covid-19 has made Lisa Sambo want to say, “It’s good to see you.” More than that, it’s made her acutely aware of how much she’d like to hug people, to greet them with an over-the-top enthusiasm, to tell them she loves them. She laughs at herself when she shares this with me. “You know what…

Run towards hope

Maude Cyr will run 110 km September 26 to raise funds for the Howe Sound Women’s Centre to address domestic violence When Maude Cyr was a girl, growing up in Rimouski, Québec, a friend of hers experienced domestic abuse. She confided in Cyr. When Cyr took this information to her parents, her parents did what…

An Interview with Danielle Dulsky, author of Seasons of Moon and Flame

Danielle Dulsky’s new book (which came out March 10 2020), Seasons of Moon and Flame, drips poetry and takes you on a rich explorative cycle through the 13 moons of each year, with an invitation to embrace the “hag”. It’s not a sit-down-and-skim book. It’s immersive and invites a visceral response and is quite challenging…

Shifting ground

I entered a triathlon once. I miscalculated the length of the run leg (I wasn’t exactly competitive about it) and didn’t realize it was two laps of the course until I put on a little late breaking burst of speed to cross the finish line and the marshall waved me away: “Another lap to go.”…

The pandemic might not make me a better person

Day 20 of our self-imposed isolation and I have to confess, I haven’t really maximised the opportunity to self-actualize. Not that there’s been any shortage of resources or recommendations shared by beautiful loving-minded friends – how to work from home, how to be healthy when completely alone, how to learn a second language, spring clean…

Reflecting on the question, What’s to Come?

View this post on Instagram Even in your self-isolation and social distancing, tele-commuting and homeschooling, adapting and responding, may you feel deeply connected and supported. May you do your part. May you find sanctuary in your breath, in the trail, in looking up at the sky, in the air outside — even if simply from…

Emotions last 90 seconds so why am I still freaking out?!

Here’s the phenomenal nugget of information that dropped into my lap last week (the original source was Thich Nhat Hanh’s book Peace is Every Step; neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor also writes about it in her book My Stroke of Insight): emotions last about 90 seconds. After 90 seconds, the feeling has been metabolized. What lingers…