Posts

Character Matters

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The Victim Culture Hidden Survival Strategies: Understanding Covert Control, Shame, and Relational Patterns When people hear the word narcissism , they often imagine loud, boastful, attention-seeking behavior. But not all self-protective or controlling behaviors look that way. Some are quiet, subtle, and socially acceptable—so much so that they often go unnoticed, even by the people using them. This article is not about diagnosing personality disorders. It’s about understanding common relational patterns that arise from shame, fear, and early survival learning—and how those patterns can quietly shape adult relationships. Most of us carry some version of these behaviors at times. The question isn’t “What’s wrong with me?” but rather: “What did I learn to do to survive—and is it still serving me?” From Survival to Strategy Many controlling or attention-seeking behaviors develop early in life, especially in environments where children felt unsafe, unseen, or emotion...

Climb the Ladder. Choose your Pain

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Choose Your Pain. Climb the Ladder. I am inspired to write this based in part on one of my favorite books  The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck.   A Spiritual Journey is usually framed as a kind of grandiose romantic “calling” that requires little effort other than “listening” to your “guides” and preaching to an audience that usually turns out to be people who already agree with you or want to agree with you.  This is the era of toxic positivity, part of the new age industry.  People don’t like to disagree, or experience what they call “negativity.”  In reality, nothing is all good, or all bad. And everything has pain. If you rise to success, you suffer the loss of friends and a simpler life as responsibilities and pressures increase. If you choose to leave a relationship that is no longer good for you, you will face the pain of loss and some loneliness even though you have left behind the disrespect of not being valued, or even the pain of abuse. Thi...

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

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The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck This title is a book by Marc Manson and the second book this month to make me very happy. (The first book being Why won’t you apologize by Harriet Lerner). The content is dead on for one (of many many) aspects of healing and moving forward in your life. It does not address deep healing, the depth of childhood issues, or energy, or past lives, or resolving conflicts etc etc. It does address some of the dysfunctional behaviors of the new age industry and self-esteem culture that are current in this era and that is both stimulating food for thought and also desperately needed viewpoints to balance out some of the ill effects of  present day cultural trends. I hope you will take a read/listen and when you do, take the best, and leave the rest (as I always advise.) On another completely different point, the style of writing is so straight forward and direct and blunt that it calmed me down because I live in an area of the country where th...

What do to, and when?

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What to do and when? Hahaha. Good luck on this one. As if there is an answer. Some people live by “if you wait, it will come”. Some believe you must consciously intend and manifest (because Spirit is sleeping on the job?).   Some believe it must “feel good” or it is bad for you. (Well heroin “feels” great…. So what does that mean?). One answer for sure is that there is no one answer when it comes to personal growth and Soul Evolution. In fact one can only hope that you realize every article I write is from my truth(s) and if you find it helpful that is wonderful. And if you find these articles annoying, then hopefully you will disregard and move on. Take the best and leave the rest as is said in 12-Step programs. Your Life Path was designed by you and your Guides for you to evolve as a Soul. This means everyone is on a Spiritual Path, whether they know it or not, whether they believe in spirituality or not. No one “has to” work on his/herself. Life is the ultimate T...