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Words to inspire the belief that we have all we need to be the change we wish to see.

Month: January 2022

Default mode network

What I understand about the default mode network in the brain is as follows. When you see a picture, the part of your brain that understands pictures lights up. And when you see words, the part of your brain that understands words lights up. And when you see nothing, the default mode network of your brain lights up.

This is where we daydream and marinate thoughts and ruminate. It’s when you drive somewhere you are used to going and suddenly arrive and wonder how you got there. It’s where we may regret the past which for some can be labelled as part of depression or where we worry about the future which for some can be labelled as part of anxiety.

Sometimes we end up in the default mode network when there are parts of life where we just follow the path. If you are skiing down a frozen hill and several people have gone down before you, it’s hard not to get into the grooves in the snow from the earlier skiers. Whereas when we ski on freshly fallen snow, we must form our own path. Basically, our goal in life is to try to get ourselves out of the default mode network and some things that can do that include meditation, journaling, breathing exercises, or even being mindful while making your meals or pouring a cup of tea. That awareness of the now. Continue reading

Resentment

Resentment. Author and psychologist Tara Brach writes in her book Radical Acceptance, “The word resentment means ‘to feel again.’ Each time we repeat to ourselves a story of how we’ve been wronged, we feel again in our body and mind the anger at being violated. But often enough our resentment of others reflects our resentment of ourselves. When someone rejects us, he or she might be reinforcing a view we already hold – that we’re not good enough, not kind enough, not lovable enough.” Continue reading

Floating in the air

There is a house being renovated on a street where I often walk. The ground beneath it has completely been dug out to underpin the foundation and there is a massive excavator in that hole, under the front wall. The whole house looks like it’s floating in the air.

And when I passed it yesterday, I noticed that there is still a holiday wreath on the front door. It made me smile and think about how we’re all kind of like that house. Our foundation has been broken down through years of uncertainty, a global virus, interruptions of jobs, school, milestones, and anything else that was part of ‘normalcy.’ Yet, we soldier on, a wreath on our front door, while our feet stumble to find something solid to stand on. And when we find it, we put one foot in front of the other and keep walking. Our mindset is everything. Continue reading

Sidney Poitier

I was listening to Sunday Morning on the radio yesterday and learned some things I didn’t know about Sidney Poitier when they shared an interview he gave a few years back.

He was the youngest of seven children and he was born three months early when his parents had travelled from the Bahamas to the US to work picking tomatoes. They didn’t know if he would survive and his father bought a small casket in case. His mother went to see a palm reader and the woman said he will survive and he will walk with Kings. Continue reading

© 2023 Siobhan Kelleher Kukolic

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