I want to talk about sadness today. Many of us are in the sad boat, it seems.  We’re bummed. This bummed-ness feels similar to how I felt after 9/11.  It’s helplessness, hopelessness.The BP oil spill has got me in a state of hopelessness.
I was thinking, Okay, okay, BP is going to clean this up. Obama will take care of this. Okay, we’ll be okay. They’ll get out the Dawn dish soap and clean the birds.
And then I heard that this sort of thing happens in the Niger Delta every year.  …

I often go into a blog-post writing with the hope that I can solve a problem, once and for all, in the space of 500 words.
I feel like I’m writing things like “Transplant your own liver in 5 easy steps!”
But, there’s so much to say.  And I want to get it out and then talk about it.
Thank you for reading this, and talking with me about it, and finding value sometimes, and tolerating my words when the value is hard to see (or maybe not there at all. or only …

Previously, we talked about handling our feelings without hurting ourselves.
Today, we’re talking about handling our feelings without hurting others.
I hesitate to write about my children, because I want their words to be their own.
And yet, I think I can pinpoint the moment I stopped falling apart in front of  my children.
When I was 23 and my son was not-quite-3.  I found myself failing all of my courses at college.
I found that my little fledging restaurant had gone under (when a co-owner absconded with our wee, but sustainable profits).
I found …

So, in parts 1 and 2, we did very basic things.  We identified our emotions and we felt them.
Was part 2 hard for you?
Impossible?
For many, it is.
Sit still and feel something?  Sigh.

And he never did guess, in her cast iron dress, she was burning beyond recognition.
– Shawn Colvin
Do you feel so angry inside, and yet you want others to believe that certainly, life is swell, and you are okay and not one of those crazy hysterical types? Do you feel a smouldering rage?  Do you feel misunderstood?
I’m talking to …

Yesterday, we started the Safely Handling Your Emotions Series with identification. What do I feel?
Did you feel one thing? Or many?  Was it hard to distill it to one emotion?
Life is Jumbled.
Not only do we multi-task,  I’d venture that we multi-emotion.  We find a way to feel angry at our spouse and also blissed at the cat at the same time.  How do we do this? Is this a sign of our current age?
We like our emotions to be like our movies and our meals.  We like them predictable.  We …

Work is a little like Lord of the Flies.
You take perfectly nice people, put them in a stressful environment and the aggressive ones tend to win.
For the past 130 years, this mentality has been the norm.
It’s called progress, people.  Or at least that’s what they tell us.
Our Energetic Systems Know the Score
In a hostile environment, in a place that doesn’t feel like we can grow, we leave.
We stop remaining present.
Energetically, this is very interesting.
Your system  stops taking in so much junk. And you, energetically, go to a different place.
Your energetic …

In this economy, it’s hard to imagine saying, “I’m outta here.”
It’s especially hard to imagine saying that when you have to support your children.
Those little grunts costs upwards of $250,000 each to raise to adulthood.  A-ha! This is why I don’t have my sailboat.
So, your job is killing you and yet you have mouths to feed.
I need to say one quick thing: if your job makes you a really bad parent, then you need to quit your job.  You know who you are.
For everybody else
if you have to keep your …

It’s August, 2000. I’m under my desk in the space where my feet should go.
I’m under the desk with the door shut to my office and tears are streaming down my face.
I’m choking as I try to keep the tears back.
I hear one of my colleagues call my name and knock on my door.
“Bridget?”  He opens the door and I hold my breath. I hold completely still. Another colleague says, ‘Huh, she’s not here.”
The door closes again.  I wait and then when I’m sure that I’m really alone, I start …

Be Nice
I was born an intense, stubborn little creature. There were way too many emotions wrapped up in my little body.
The hardest one to control was anger.
I’d try to be patient, and then I’d feel this teakettle heat up and up and up and then I’d blow my stack.
And then I’d get punished for it.  I had a temper and I didn’t know what to do with it.
I felt like people didn’t get me, and as I got older, I realized that if they didn’t get me, at least if …