I can’t even begin to understand the times in which we find ourselves. With each passing day, instead of understanding more, I look into the world and I “get it” less and less. I’m baffled by power structures simultaneously restricting reproductive rights and a woman’s agency over her own body while (still) stalling on legislation for fundamental, common sense gun control measures that could save countless lives. My rising fury while listening to on-the-ground and near-term projected realities in abortion clinics, superimposed with photos of children murdered at school with a semi-automatic assault rifle, with a side bar outlining more atrocities in Ukraine, followed by images from the 1.5 million acres currently being ravaged by wildfires throughout west as freshwater lakes and reservoirs dip to all-time lows is incapacitating.… Read the rest
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Vata season again – keep calm and swaddle
by Jill Sockman
Oh, friends. It’s vata season again. How can I tell? Certainly not by the weather, most days. Although despite our oddly warm weather, Mother Nature still seems to know it’s time to shed the old, as the leaves are slowly turning, falling.
It’s not by another page of the calendar flipping over, or even the coming holidays. I know, with 100% certainty it is fall because I can’t sleep. I can’t keep a routine for more than two days running. Regularly, it will be 3:00 pm and I’ll pause and wonder…Have I eaten today?… Read the rest
Put your inner critic in the corner
by Jill Sockman
My inner critic has a strong voice. Maybe she was a cheerleader. Or lead vocalist in a metal band — the kind where it sounds like a lot of angry screaming instead of singing. I’ve worked hard, and I mean really, really, really hard in the past few years to put her in her place. And please note I said put in her place — removed from her throne — not banished from the kingdom of my inner world.
Because she absolutely does have a place. The benevolent(-ish) side of that inner critic is the instigator for much that I have accomplished, and is in part responsible for making me who I am.… Read the rest
Practicing Forgiveness
by Jill Sockman
We’ve all been wronged. At one, some, or countless times in this life, you’ll be faced with the disappointment of being let down. People will turn on you, lie to you, talk about you behind your back, leave you, be cruel to you… there are so many ways that we (intentionally or not) hurt one another in this life.
So what do you do when that happens? I imagine there have been studies performed, papers drafted and books written about the steps that we, as humans, go through when we experience the pain of someone else’s flawed humanity.… Read the rest
Meditate on Loving-Kindness
Old patterns and habitual ways are not going to go down without a fight. They may no longer serve us or feed us, but man, do they ever feel familiar and easy.
Striking a new path takes intention, determination, work and community. The part of you that creates intention to 
change is the knowing part of you. The voice that lives within and truly knows what you need. It may often be drowned out by the busyness of your lives, and old, comfortable ways, but when you are quiet and still, you can hear it.… Read the rest