Tag archives: relationships
As a marriage and family therapist for more than 40 years, I’ve seen a lot of couples. Over and over, the demise of marriages and relationships in general, is not over money, children, or health but crummy communication styles. We were not taught in school or at home about how to communicate, so we resort […]
I previously wrote in this space about how only recognizing perspectives “for” or “against” an issue can get in the way of understanding and potentially resolving conflicting views. The recently heightened polarity around discussing race and bias in school classrooms is a prime example. We are seeing advocates frame debates in ways more likely to […]
Radhule Weininger’s new book, Heart Medicine: How to Stop Painful Patterns and Find Peace and Freedom — at Last, features a brief forward by the Dalai Lama and another longer, more personal one from colleague Joanna Macy, the prolific author, environmental activist, and half-century-plus scholar of Buddhism. Additional pre-publication praise has come from locally beloved […]
Public speaking is a commonly held fear, but I have noticed a dramatic rise in fear of speaking privately – particularly with those whom we love and respect, but also disagree. Local conversations about school bonds, water, masks, racism, elections, and conspiracies escalate with unnerving speed and ferocity, as if all these issues are connected […]
Ah yes… Valentine’s Day is here. Commercially, it’s a very successful day because merchants have historically used this “hearts and flowers” day to sell lots of sugary red hearts and flowers. And, having grown up as a Catholic, I’ve always experienced a certain sadness from learning how St. Valentine was beheaded for sending a note […]
We’ve heard from a variety of different perspectives in this column, giving us a sense of how each person’s relationship with their hometown changed after heading off into the bigger world. We’ve heard from Clay Rodgers, whose relationship with Montecito and his music career was complicated by natural disasters. We’ve heard from Julia Kupiec, who […]
Montecito resident Dr. Jennifer Freed has released her 9th book, titled Use Your Planets Wisely: Master Your Ultimate Cosmic Potential with Psychological Astrology. The book, which is available locally and online, is the culmination of over 30 years of Dr. Freed’s work, in which she teaches how a person’s astrology can set the tone for […]
Ever since Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden for taking a bite out of the “Big Apple,” men and women have been arguing over who is smarter, stronger, and the most trustworthy. So, let’s examine some of those traits. Intelligence Men and women seem to be equal in general intelligence (IQ […]
Nearly everyone has a relationship they’d like to, ahem, adjust, perhaps wrangling with a romantic partner, sorting out sibling situations, still feeling frustration over family foibles, or maybe handling conflict with a co-worker. But transforming relationships starts with making changes in ourselves, says Crystal Stokes, who has offered transpersonal/spiritual psychology and coaching in Santa Barbara […]
Nearly all the spiritual traditional and psychological systems suggest that suffering comes from how we interpret our experiences. Life is always going to have painful moments – but it’s what we make them mean that determines our level of inner happiness on anguish. There are many paths that aim to help humans alleviate the symptoms […]
I really can’t recall how many time shivers ran up and down my spine as I talked with Martin W. Ball last weekend about his upcoming talk at Unity of Santa Barbara this Saturday, March 2, when Ball – one of the world’s leading experts and proponents of entheogenic/psychedelic medicines and an authority on the […]
