Tag: Psychology

Two therapists talk about dreams

This is a powerful, interesting discussion. At 31:00 they get into the topic of reoccurring themes and discovering the often shrouded messages of our psyche. And I love what they have to say about when in a disturbing or scary dream, that we can ask ourself to keep dreaming it, and then upon waking, we can talk about it, just like out loud, and keep talking it through and allow ourself to finish the dream, which moves it along so we can securely process the dream and find resolution. And you can do this with children, too, when they wake up from a nightmare. This kind of reminds me of how in narrative therapy, we can rewrite the story through a lens of strength. I’m also reminded of Robert Moss’ Active Dreaming technique, a kind of shamanic lucid dream process of engaging with the dream in various ways including in waking life.

Be well, and sweet dreams! ✨ 🦋

Asking better questions

Asking better questions is something I have written about, and it is not usually about the answer we receive. It is about what occurs when those questions are asked. It is about shifting the dialogue towards radical truthfulness in the interest of promoting a better framework of wellbeing, so that we as a society start to look more honestly at where we are investing our energy, and how we showing up in our lives. Are we asking from a place that encourages integrity and growth and open-hearted connection? Are we answering from a place that perpetuates the disordered values imposed by society?

https://jezebel.com/are-we-really-mad-at-gwyneth-paltrow-for-admitting-she-1850265383

I’d ask her if she feels there is any danger, as a public figure who many people look to for beauty/health guidance, in elevating forms of beauty and wellness that require vast amounts of money to obtain. I wouldn’t expect or even want any nice, pat answers–I’d want her to squirm a bit, and I’d want to squirm a bit with her, for us to sit in confronting silence. Maybe if we start asking better questions about what it means to be beautiful, what it means to be well, we can at least start to shift the pendulum in the other direction

Zeba Blay

Leading with heart

It has been a little over a year since I officially left my design business and went back to school, and what an experience it has been! Where 2020 broke me open, 2021 gave me the transformation I was hungry for. Now it is March 2022, and I truly feel like a different person.

When I first attended college, I was ill-prepared, immature, and very unwell mentally and emotionally. I didn’t care about much; I went to college because it was what you did after high school. After a couple years, I dropped out easily with no forethought and no plan. Returning to finish what I had started over twenty years prior, I really didn’t know what to expect. All I knew was that I would give it my all, and if after the first semester I was miserable, then I could always reevaluate.

Well, I must’ve been more ready than I knew, because I took to the school work at CIIS with a voracity and zeal that was thrilling. Suddenly I was thinking critically, challenging old preconceptions, expanding my capacity for knowledge, and redefining how I saw myself. CIIS makes room for every kind of learning style and encourages creative expression; I fit right in.

My senior capstone project was on Dreaming. Yet, because I still needed a handful of elective credits to graduate, while I had reached the end of CIIS’s Bachelor’s completion program, I was technically not complete. Currently, I’m earning those remaining credits through an online platform called Study.com. My student life at this moment looks and feels quite different than it did last year. One might say I’m in the final slog, the last leg, the darkness before the dawn. I am as committed as ever to finishing this degree, and forging ahead to the Master’s program, and towards my new career…committed, but also more easily distracted (I should be studying right now).

Lately, I’ve been making heart patches. Why? I have no idea! Sometimes this is how the creative process goes, no final vision or end product, just a deep longing to birth what is coming through. To be an artist is to be a vessel; the muse dictates the work. This reminds me of something Julia Cameron says in The Artist’s Way, and I’m paraphrasing here, ‘It is not my job to judge the work, only to do the work’. So yeah, heart patches. Many times, when I’ve altered a sweater, or cut the length off some jeans, I save the remnants. This has been going on for years, which means I’ve collected quite a basket full of fabric bits and bobs. Some years ago, I had an idea to just make some heart patches and give them away. But who has the time? Instead, I’ve plodded along in stages, just cutting the hearts, or a background, then putting them in a pile, in a box, away for another time. Cut to, I saw this post from Bertice Berry, sewing heart patches into jackets that she and her friend donate, and I felt newly inspired to return to my heart patches, too.

Currently, I have a small batch that are ready for the embroidery stitching, which is the last step before they are sent out into the world. So don’t be surprised if one of these days, you receive a heart patch in the mail…

I’ve been watching a lot of astrology talks on YouTube, usually while cooking dinner. (For many years, I made a willful attempt to not know about astrology simply because of my name. Like, I can’t be named Libra and know about astrology, too. That’s too cheesy! But I’m over all that now.) Astrology has helped me learned more about archetypes, planetary cycles, and energetic patterns; and how these combined elements of archetypal energy exert influence on us personally, as well as collectively. My Youtube people are all saying that shit is changing rapidly. Of course, we don’t need to look to astrology for confirmation of this, obviously. But being a student of psychology, I find their insight fascinating. Apparently we are in the change years, 2020-2024, and we can continue to expect radical shifts. A lot of upheaval, a lot of change, yet the more we can connect to our hearts, the more we can align to the higher frequencies that are being birthed right now. (Here’s who I follow on Youtube).

We are witnessing a lot of pain in the world and the antidote to this lies with our heart. The heart is our home plate, our connector and grounder, our regulator. For my final paper in Neurobiology, I wrote about ADD and the power of sound healing and that’s when I discovered the science of Heartmath Institute. Heartmath has done extensive research on the power of the heart and coherence. We all have a biofield, which is the energetic field that surrounds every human, animal, and even our planet Earth. Our biofield is affected by our emotional, internal state. We can learn how to use our heart and our breath to shift from a chaotic state into a coherent, ordered state (the technique is similar to meditation, but also different). Heartmath’s research has substantiated the invisible stuff that us feeler types have always felt (and sometimes seen) but had no material proof. In the realm of science, everything must be backed up by studies and must be replicable and Heartmath has done that. They have bridged science and spirit, and shown us that raising our consciousness is tied into our heart connection. It is not woo-woo jargon, but part of energetic cause and effect.

The wisdom of the heart reminds us that we are all connected, and by cultivating that still point of peace within ourselves, we are also sending that out into our day, into our surroundings, and into the world. If we want to make this world better, we are going to have to start checking our judgements so we can move through the world with an attitude of equanimity.

The future is about We, not Me.

Well, that’s all I’ve got for now.

Keep creating, keep dreaming, and keep shining your light!

🌈  🌎  🌳
Beauty is a bridge that can put us squarely in the present moment and it can do it quite quickly, reminding us of our connection to Everything. Nature is the ultimate source of beauty. A winsome daisy weed grows through a crack in the sidewalk. A cool breeze against your neck. The smell of rain soaked grass. A stunning sunset, a hummingbird that pauses and looks right at you. This is not superficial, magazine glossiness I’m talking about. This is beauty as an experience, as a doorway to wonder, as a creative practice. 
-Libra

Project: Dreaming with Purpose

The senior project is a big deal. It is a capstone to the three semesters of hard work, and a requirement for the successful completion of the undergraduate program at CIIS. Because I chose the Bachelor of Science in Psychology, the senior project assignment is to conduct a study, as in research. In the 2nd semester there is an entire class, Research Methods, which prepares us for carrying out the senior project in the 3rd semester.

So yeah, this was a massive undertaking, and somehow, remarkably, I really enjoyed it. Had I not chosen a topic that I am truly passionate about, it could have been miserable (I learned that lesson in the first semester- another story). There were multiple components to this project, including a 30 plus page research paper, a research poster, and a video, where I address the main data points that I gleaned from my research. For the poster and video, scroll down this page. To read the research paper, click here: https://librakaplan.com/my-senior-research-project/ , password: staylucid

For full screen, click at the bottom right. For best resolution go HERE.
To download, click the arrow at top right, select download in the popup.

You have a gift.

Normal is a lie. What a relief, right? As Jonathan Mooney (2013) says, “…the only normal people are people you don’t know very well” (47:59).

We need to be challenging normalcy. Why? Because normal is a lie, and yet this myth of normal is keeping so many of us locked into a belief that we are less than, that we are failures, that we are deficient. Especially those of us who are defined as cognitively or physically different. We need to be challenging the current pathology paradigm, which has always sought to isolate and pathologize every variance that veers too far from the fabricated standard of what is acceptable–mentally or physically–and what is not. If you think about it, our entire society, the whole Western Anglo-Saxon world and beyond, is built on an ideal of normal. And because of this, everyone, every single one of us, we lose. yes, even if you are so-called “normal”. Because what happens when you fit in to the normal bracket, you end up othering everyone else. This unknowingly perpetuates the stigma of normal/abnormal. But guess what? Not one single one of us is “normal”. Think about that. I don’t know anyone that doesn’t have some kind of struggle and it always comes back to what we are supposed to be living up to. Happy, healthy, successful, powerful. Even the people that the media props up as pinnacles of perfection, they show up years later with booze problems, sex addictions, abuse scandals, gambling debts. They confess to depression, to childhood trauma, to attempted suicide, to cancer, to heart disease, diabetes. The list goes on. Somehow we are always surprised by this. OMG, can you believe that so and so has such and such? They put a crack in the grand facade…yet we still keep clinging to the myth of normal.

I propose that we crack this facade right in the clunker. Why not embrace the truth: we are all unique. Regardless of brain type, blood type, gene type, each and every one of us is different. Rather than let this separate us further, I believe that acknowledging our quirks, our kinks, our weird, our geek, this will actually bring us closer. Because if we don’t have to be so normal and by extension perfect, that takes a lot of pressure off. Suddenly we don’t have to measure up to anyone. AND we are free to just be ourselves. This leads us to finding our gift!

If you are alive, then you have a gift. Are you someone with a unique brain that is cognitively different? Autistics, add’ers, dyslexics, I’m talking to you. You may not know what your gift is yet, but that is okay. But more likely, you do know, in fact, you may have been aware of your gift all along, but dismissing it, thinking oh no, that’s not good enough, not marketable enough. That’s not perfect enough, normal enough…? I say to you, nonsense! Society has done a great job making you believe that you are not worthy, because you are not normal. And as you may have guessed by now from the tone of this article, that is just not true. Normal is lie and you are beautiful. Shine that wild light, you glorious diamond. Shine it bright and big and may we begin to shift this societal paradigm towards one of Love, kindness, and inclusion. Remember: difference isn’t a deficit–in fact, difference is the norm.

Give Jonathan Mooney a listen and tell me what you think…

Adaptation

In childhood, we often learn coping mechanisms that help us adapt to our environment. This is especially true in situation of early childhood trauma. These early efforts at adaptation which served us so well at one time, can become hinderances later on, manifesting in adulthood as addiction, attention deficit, tuning out, defiance… According to Dr. Gabor Matè, such neurodivergent traits that society labels as abnormal are not genetic flaws, they are a human process which results from growing up in an environment that did not meet our developmental needs.

https://soundcloud.com/publicprograms/mate-buggs

Lost perspective? Try this linguistic trick to reset your view | Psyche Ideas

findings about distanced self-talk build on decades of research showing that psychological distance – taking a perspective beyond the ‘here and now’ – is an essential ingredient for aligning our thoughts, feelings and behaviour with our goals.

Lost perspective? Try this linguistic trick to reset your view | Psyche Ideas

Essay: Belonging to Ourselves First

This is my final paper, submitted for Social Psychology, CIIS, Summer 2021.

Facing the Problem

            When something intended as metaphor is believed as literal, it is called ontological confusion, and we see examples of this when people take biblical stories at face value. Similarly, there are some who are convinced that our reality on planet Earth is a computer simulation. This kind of thinking is not as harmless as it may appear; it is a setup for disappointment and failure because even if it were a screen that could be cracked to reveal the ‘real world’, if there were a man behind the curtain, or what not, there is one problem that remains- us. We are still the same person inside the simulation or outside of it, inside the matrix, or not. It might also encourage a nihilistic mentality, as in we’re not really here, so let’s burn it all down. Yet we are here. Our brains, our neuroses, our problems, our monkey minds, jumping from one conclusion to the next. Wherever you go, there you are. Simulation or not, we remain. From an existential perspective, the solution is often contained inside the problem. The answer may not be outside of ourselves at all, but within us.

Last night I received two dreams about facing my shadow, and I believe they speak to this topic at hand. In the first dream it is nighttime, and I am holding a clear plastic bag in my left hand, the kind used for fruit or veggies at the market. The bag is not tied or knotted, just gathered tightly at the top. Inside is an extra-large, other-worldly spider. My grip lessens and the arachnid will soon be released, set free. I can only protect him for so long. His long, limber legs paw gently at the opening. The focus is on this spider—my spider—and he looks scary, but in truth he is a gentle being. It is my perception of my fear that I am most afraid of. I tell myself I have sequestered the spider to protect those around me. But I am the one who holds the bag. I want to embrace the younger me, the girl who holds him. There is nothing to fear, I want to say. My shadow is only scary when it is Othered.

In the second dream, I am in a house. Someone has left me there. Many people coming and going, strangers, chaos. Why is my house not my own? I’ve misplaced my medications, my things are not where they should be. There is discord and disharmony, and I am so tired. Finally, I stand at the mirror, ready to be myself. I remove the false fronts from my teeth, the veneers. They are plates, front-facing coverings, adhered with glue or something to just the fronts of my real teeth. They come off easily. I stack these cover plates on the counter, running my tongue against my original teeth which have been covered up too long. There is nothing wrong with my teeth. It feels good to shed the layers, such relief to be my real self.

This semester in our Social Psychology class at CIIS, we confronted the many ways that humans engage in social behavior, and the resulting dynamics that occur from being the social animals that we are. Conformity, dissonance, relational aggression, propaganda. The research brought to bear in The Social Animal (Aronson & Aronson, 2018) was at times confounding and, in all honesty, depressing. More than a few times, I found myself wondering, are we truly this predictable, this limited…this hopeless? When I examined my own life, I found evidence of these unconscious mechanisms at work in my life, which is exactly what made it so humbling to face. Yet, just as in my dream, to accept my shadow spider, i.e. my dark, disowned parts, I would have to face myself in the mirror, without the veneers, without the false face and just be real.

When we abdicate responsibility, we also abdicate a solution…of course we must accept that there is a problem first. And this brings us to said problem: humans at large, avoid self-inquiry because it is too shocking, too painful, too vulnerable. Looking at ourselves truthfully is not glamorous; without filter, without makeup, without our social masks to hide the many flaws we have deemed unacceptable. This honest self-examination might be one of the most difficult, painful, bottom-of-the-barrel tasks we are ever called to do…which is exactly why we must do it.

Belonging

According to Aronson & Aronson (2018), the need for belonging is the strongest of the five central social motives of human social behavior humans (the others are understanding and prediction; control; a need to matter; and trust).

What does it mean to belong? The desire to belong drives so much of our behavior that we rarely think about it. Yet, marketers, propaganda, and mass media most definitely do think about it. If fact, they use this central social motive to sell us their wares, get us to see issues a certain way, use their apps and products, and influence us in myriad ways. Most people are unaware of how often we are played on a daily basis, just like puppets in a play. The average person has never thought about how we are being manipulated, how everything that is competing for their attention—billboards, apps, pop up ads, targeted facebook ads, mailing lists, politicians, movies, tv shows—they are all selling something. And they are using our need to belong against us.

Yet, what about belonging to ourselves? What about facing ourselves in the mirror and being honest about our own humanness. Whatever is hurting and eating at us inside, does it not also deserve love and kindness? What are the thoughts going through our head when we engage in our destructive behaviors, our repetitive thoughts that keep us stuck. What are we thinking about when we are binge eating, or drinking ourselves to sleep, or pushing away anyone who tries to loves us, or sabotaging new opportunities, or having a hard time speaking honestly to our partner, or getting defensive every time our partner gets that tone in their voice, or cutting ourselves to feel better, or ignoring sensations of pain, or never allowing ourselves to cry? We are not weak because we engage in these things, although they do harm us. We are made weak only by never examining the backstory of why.

Belonging to ourselves is not something that is taught, nor are we given examples of what this looks like. Our capacity to be our own protector, our own best friend, it is a superpower we give away when we give into thoughts, emotions, behaviors that have never been examined. We may be told that in order to love another, we must first love ourselves. But how many of us berate ourselves cruelly when we make a mistake, or forget a date, disappoint another, or do something we swore we wouldn’t do again?

If we are to become aware of these social motives that are unconsciously driving us, especially our need to belong, we must learn to love ourselves fiercely, more than we ever have before. This is not selfish; it is the most compassionate, kind thing we can do. As Ghandi said, and I paraphrase, to see a change in the world, we must be that change we wish to see. To love ourselves is a daily experience of opening up to acceptance and then letting go of control. It is about learning what feels right and what does not, what we are okay with and where the line must be drawn, creating boundaries and then being vulnerable, sensitive, honest, and present within that.

While therapy can be incredibly valuable, many people may be skeptical. Or they may feel self-conscious about how they would be perceived if a family member found out; many see therapy as a demeaning, that they are not enough. However, every human on this planet feels some measure of pain if for no other reason than that we are all connected. It is not shameful to ask for help, but it is a tragedy to carry a burden as a point of pride, or a medal of honor. It is no secret that the Earth is in pain and we humans along with her; we are all experiencing some level of dis-ease. We may be struggling right in this moment.

Ho’oponopono

One way to address this problem of self-avoidance is through practicing forgiveness and self-love. Ho’oponopono is a Hawaiian healing prayer which offers a unique opportunity for addressing the pain we carry. The word Ho’oponopono roughly translated means, to put things right, to move back to balance. It is a tool for connecting to self-love, belonging, and forgiveness. Meant to be said in repetition, like a mantra, it can be said to yourself, or direct it outwards to someone whom you seek forgiveness from. The prayer goes like this:

I’m sorry, Please forgive me, Thank you, I love you.”

I’m sorry serves to recognize there was a wrong done (by you, or to you). We can only change that which we acknowledge. Please forgive me is the sincere contrition. Thank you serves as appreciation for the recognition and the apology. I love you completes the circle, offering wholeness and closure.

Ho’oponopono is a balancing practice to facilitate mental and emotional release and connect you to your heart center. Recite the prayer in your head, or speak it aloud, at any time of the day. To do this exercise in front of a mirror is especially healing; this is because a mirror does not lie. For instance, if we say this prayer in our head, but at the same time we are thinking of other things, then the energy of the words are blocked because we are distracted. Yet, in front of a mirror we must gaze into our own eyes and there is nowhere to hide. We might say I’m sorry and wince, or I forgive you and begin crying. This tells us there was something there inside of us that needed recognition, which was tender and hurting.

Love fosters belonging, which in turn allows for understanding and trust. When we trust ourselves we are better equipped to look honestly at the disowned parts of ourself and decide if we want to integrate them or discard them when they no longer fit. It is only when we keep them “safely” contained in a bag, unacknowledged and unexamined, that they do us harm.

Pledging allegiance to ourselves in earnest is not something that has been modeled in our society. We have been a culture that looks outward, avoiding our insides at all costs. We have only recently seen evidence of people on the world stage, like Simone Biles, being courageous enough to honor their inner knowing, trusting their heart and their boundaries.

We do not need to try and change our driving social motives extrinsically; for in truth, there is nothing wrong with these motives in and of themselves. In fact, they often serve good purpose in the social nature of groups and community. What is wrong, however, is to continue to move blindly along in life, remaining in pain, remaining asleep, when we have the tools available to wake up.

References

Kriss, S. (2016, October 13). Tech billionaires want to destroy the universe. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/10/silicon-valley-is-obsessed-with-a-false-notion-of-reality/503963/

Annie Lowrey. (2020, Sep 15,). The bunker magnates hate to say they told you so. The Atlantic https://global.factiva.com/en/du/article.asp

Aronson, E., & Aronson, J. (2018) The social animal (12th ed.). Worth Publishers. http://public.eblib.com/choice/PublicFullRecord.aspx?p=6418106. 

Wisdom Weavers of the World. (2019, January 30). What Does Ho’oponopono, the Hawai’ian Phrase, Mean? [Video] Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3eBAD8KgaM&t=1s