Mid-Week Balance: 29 June 2011

Tweet

I have heard a rumor that summer is supposed to mean that things slow down.  That's not happening here.  In fact, my RSS reader this morning had over 400 unread items--I just haven't had the time to get through them all.  I have, however, had time to find some fantastic stuff to share with you this week.  The selections this week are a smorgasboard: from meditation, to secret-keeping, to body image, to challenging uni-dimensional thinking--with a dash of self-acceptance thrown in to keep it interesting.  I hope you find something that brings balance to your week.

Sunada is one of the regular contributors at the Buddhist meditation blog Wildmind.  If you follow my Twitter feed, or my Facebook page, you know that I'm a strong proponent of the benefits of meditation.  This post does a nice job of walking through how the paradoxical nature of meditation can be useful for someone facing anxiety.

I know that I included a post from Nourishing the Soul last week too, but since Ashley keeps writing good stuff, I'm going to keep sharing it.  In this post, she invites each of us to take a moment, assess what we are keeping secret, and actively share it with someone that we trust.  I'll let you read more about the reasons in her post, but I love this suggestion.

Hanne Blank's blog, Filling a Much-Needed Void, was a new discovery for me this week, and what a find!  I was blown away by this powerful, loving, body-positive post.  I think sometimes we need the reminder that all bodies are "real."

I have written before about the fact that one of the most valuable things we can do for one another is to allow a full range of emotions.  Because of that, I was excited to find this thoughtful piece from Martin Young at the KevinMD blog.  In it, Mr. Young explores the possibility that asking those facing serious illness to "just think positive" is not only not helpful, it is not respecting their experience.  I just had to share this one--let's promote & support anything that increases respect.

One of my newer blog finds has been Dr. Snit's Living with Lupus--But Dying of Everything Else.  Her lovely article about being "enough" was a MWB feature last month.  This week, I have the delightful dilemma of two wonderful posts in this blog that I wanted to share.  So, because I want my readers to get the best of what's out there, I'm sharing them both.  This beautiful post about loving our scars is an invitation to accept our imperfections as part of our beauty.   In addition, as a grief worker, I had to share this post about how loss is a part of life.

I know that this is quite the mixed bag of resources, and I hope that means that you find something that is exactly what you need.

Deep Cleaning

Tweet

So we're deep cleaning our house right now. Trying to make the closets into usable storage spaces instead of frightening doors to never open. Trying to let go of those things that are too big, too small, outgrown, or just not utilized enough. Trying to recover from the onslaught of new stuff that happens when you have generous relatives at this time of year. And I have noticed a few things about deep cleaning.

1. Deep cleaning makes a mess. In order to really know what we have and what we're getting rid of, we have to pull everything out, spread everything around, kick up the dust.

2. Deep cleaning is profoundly freeing. There is a small part of my soul that is just happier when I can easily open a closet, when a bookshelf isn't full to overflowing, when the toys have a designated home.

Deep Cleaning our Mental Closets

There are conversations going on all over the web right now about how depression is on the rise and the use of therapy is on the decline. There are many reasons given for this, including the time, energy, and effort that clients need to put forth in order for therapy to be beneficial.

That got me thinking. In many cases, good therapy is an invitation to do some deep cleaning of our internal lives. We pull out all of our outgrown coping strategies, dusty thought habits, and those untidy, painful emotions that we carefully buried under food, or work or Facebook or our personal denial mechanism of choice.

I don't know about you, but for me, deep cleaning of any variety is a team sport. If I'm on my own, I'm likely to just shut the closet door quickly--or distract myself from my emotional hurt. The team approach, the creation of a supportive, empathetic relationship is at the heart of therapy.

Are there any mental closets that you're afraid to open? Any stacks of emotional boxes waiting for an opportunity to bash you on the head? If so, I'm inviting you to reach out. Put together your "deep cleaning" team. Find a support group, connect on line, make the call that you've been putting off to investigate therapy. Share a comment below as a way to get it rolling!