Practicing Contentment

Cathy Adams Blog, self-awareness 2 Comments

Searching outside of ourselves for contentment will disappoint. It’s not a thing we can “have”. Instead, it’s a practice of paying attention, appreciating, refocusing. No one promised us contentment. It’s nobody’s job to give us contentment. Instead it’s an individual responsibility, a lifetime commitment. Sometimes it’s easy. Things flow, birds sing, life has rhythm. Sometimes it’s elusive. We feel worry, …

Feeling afraid? Create light.

Cathy Adams Personal Reflection, self-aware parenting, self-awareness 1 Comment

I told my girls about the Paris tragedy. I explained that a few very angry people chose to harm and create fear, but their actions actually led to compassionate solidarity all over the world. They thought they were spreading hate, but instead they ignited togetherness and love. In an instant people remembered what mattered most. They stopped, became silent, prayed. …

You look much better in person than you do on paper

Cathy Adams Family Stories, mindfulness, self-awareness, Uncategorized 1 Comment

My dad fell and has been in the hospital. Actually he’s fallen several times over the last few weeks, but this big fall led to him being taken away in an ambulance. In the emergency room the attending physician walked in and said to my dad, “You look much better in person than you do on paper.” Which made me …

You are wired for connection

Cathy Adams self-awareness 1 Comment

Over the years I’ve become geeky about neurological development and brain-wiring, and my absolute favorite wires are mirror neurons. These lovely links allow us the capacity to feel and experience what others are feeling and experiencing – we are literally wired to understand and help each other. Sometimes I feel like my brain is a house of mirrors because I …

Letting go of our junk

Cathy Adams mindfulness, Personal Reflection, self-awareness 0 Comments

Deep down our inner workings are good. What’s not good is all the junk piled on top of the good. The history, defensive mechanisms, trauma, judgmental thinking, biases, prejudices, and pain that blocks the good. Life is not a process of “becoming” better, we are good as we are. But we do have to commit to a consistent junk-removal process …