Summer Study Part 3 – Imagined Reality

This blog continues sharing insights from my last summer reading program. (see blog posts one and two here).  This blog post focuses on my insights into the fascinating concept of Imagined Reality. The Cognitive Revolution in humankind could be considered the defining moment for our species. The behavior of all other animals has been determined … Continue reading Summer Study Part 3 – Imagined Reality

Abandonment Understanding – Second of 2

This blog post shares continued insights from exploring childhood abandonment. See first post here. As I explored the area of childhood abandonment, common defense coping mechanisms were discussed. All these response mechanisms are good when the perceived threat is real and in fact, you should have all of these response mechanisms in your toolbox depending … Continue reading Abandonment Understanding – Second of 2

The Courage to Accept

Ideas around Acceptance have been popping up lately and this blog post explores some of the thinking I’ve been doing on Acceptance. Recent Enneagram reading discussed 5 A’s: Awareness, Acceptance, Appreciation, Action, and Adherence.  Awareness has been a focus for me for a while now.  Awareness of my critical inner voice reiterating my self-limiting beliefs, … Continue reading The Courage to Accept

Empowerment Inspiration

When exploring various inspirational materials, it’s often a surprise to me when there is a coincidence in the topics. Is the Universe telling me something I really need to focus on? Last month, this occurred with a Chopra Meditation Series on Empowerment and my reading a Rachel Hollis book (Girl, Stop Apologizing), which was also … Continue reading Empowerment Inspiration

Living Up to Your Full Potential?

I’ve been feeling lately that I’m not “living up to my full potential”.  I’ve heard this phrase my whole life.  It’s a family/societal expectation. Yes, I know I’m trying to stop feeling like I need to live up to (what I perceive as) family/societal expectations!  But, I've been seeing this phrase a lot lately and … Continue reading Living Up to Your Full Potential?

Meditation Series on Gratitude

Another 21-day Meditation Series from the Chopra Center (link) was very inspirational for my Personal Spirituality exploration.   Spirituality exploration is one of my action plan items this year; as I worked through the holistic life domains in my Retirement Transition Process (see my book on Amazon), this was a domain area I felt needed more … Continue reading Meditation Series on Gratitude

Exploring Personal Spirituality

The life domain I’ve struggled with most in my holistic Life Domain Framework from my book Retirement Transition is the domain of Self-development/ Generativity.   So this year, exploring Personal Spirituality is on my action plan. For me, part of living a more contemplative life in retirement is better understanding both who I am (the authentic … Continue reading Exploring Personal Spirituality

Unrealistic Expectations?

Long held beliefs can create unrealistic expectations about life. And never more so than when you’re looking at creating a new “ideal for me” retirement lifestyle. Let’s consider ideal versus reality. We get our unrealistic ideals --- ideal beauty, ideal friendship, ideal romance, ideal family -- from unrealistic sources – sit-com plotlines, fairy tales, Hallmark … Continue reading Unrealistic Expectations?