Live Conscious Blog
Changing Core Beliefs
I’ll tell you a secret about therapists. From time to time we wonder if people, even ourselves, can truly change our core beliefs. We witness a 54-year-old woman pick the same “wrong guy” she has picked five times before. She’s smart, conscious, been in therapy for...
Good Morning
The subject line for this blog post is Good Morning… Mostly we say it in a perfunctory way, but I suggest that it really is (or can be) quite powerful. Is Good Morning a hopeful wish we make for ourselves and others that they (and we) actually have a “good...
How To Deal With Loss
Less than a week ago there was a tragedy in Arizona, six people were killed and eighteen wounded, when a lone gunman violently expressed himself. In response to the tragedy, President Obama delivered a memorial speech in Arizona, a speech, which I believe addresses...
A conversation—What is kindness?
We recently had a gathering at our home and a group of us watched the movie Crash. One part of the story includes two brothers and their mother. The elder son is a detective and the younger son a petty criminal. The mother believes her younger son thoughtfully stocked...
Spiritual Breakthrough and Awakening
Spiritual breakthrough and awakening is readily available to us through the use of Live Conscious. Many people interested in personal growth and development seek to experience spiritual breakthrough—or awakening—the ultimate reward of personal evolution. Deeply...
Therapy Retreats
Therapy retreats (good ones) may be more effective than weekly therapy sessions in bringing about personal growth and development. By participating in a high quality, week-long (or longer) therapy retreat, we’re able to access deeper levels of ourselves. We...
The New York Times: The Happy Marriage Is The “Me” Marriage
In a recent NY Times article, Tara Parker-Pope writes, “A lasting marriage does not always signal a happy marriage. Plenty of miserable couples have stayed together for children, religion or other practical reasons. But for many couples, it’s just not enough to...
A Living Conversation—
That’s what we are—a living conversation, reshaping our relationships and our world with every word we speak… This is a poem I wrote Thanksgiving day—giving thanks for the conversations we have within the Live Conscious community. One line, marked with an...
A conversation about life—with and after—cancer.
I’m curious to speak with you about life after cancer. After you first learned about your cancer, my perception is that you began to live more fully than ever before, but I’m wondering if after the first year anniversary you are still living as fully? Jake,...
Is It Realistic To Befriend Ourselves?
Pema Chodron is an ordained Buddhist nun in the Tibetan Vajrayana tradition. One of the goals of her work is to apply Buddhist teachings in everyday life. Consider her words: “Loving-kindness (maitri) toward ourselves doesn’t mean getting rid of anything....
What is Spirituality?
I think of Live Conscious not only as a psychological practice and a set of communications tools, but as a spiritual practice as well. I hear many people talk about spirituality—of course I live in Santa Fe… but, even elsewhere, I hear many references to...
Do Yourself Over Again
Redo Yourself I love the simplicity of this concept. When you interact with other people and you displease yourself with your own behavior, or a particular result that you create—maybe things get tense, or there’s a misunderstanding, resulting in frustration or...
