Some luckily aren’t —

The only way out is through — I don’t feel okay and probably never have. But I long to. I’ve been clenched in fear for as long as I can remember. I’ve talked about my feelings to great expense, but have only recently begun to feel them. The more I do, the more I realize that I…

It’s not as easy as it sounds — Last session, my therapist told me to be nice to myself. But before I could clarify what exactly that meant, it was time to “release our shared space for the moment.” My first guess was that being nice could conceivably mean a carte blanche trip to Donut Dip.

But, oh, to be laughing — Life deals us daily disappointments. Some small, some large. That’s non-negotiable. The question, I suppose, is how we respond.

But I’ll take whatever slivers I can conjure — The other day I was trying to cut a few flowers for the table when I accidentally lopped my head off. I called my doctor, but the “call-valuing” automated system said there were no available appointments for fourteen months and that my insurance doesn’t cover this kind of thing anyway.

But our minds can still get us there — Our culture suffers a destructive “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” mentality that presumes that who we are and what we do is just a matter of choice. But we don’t have as much choice as we might like to think. And certainly less than we’ve been told. For starters…

I only hope my phone doesn’t get jealous —

Trusting each other is astonishingly win-win and has won-won us everything we have ever had — Prior to the pandemic, one thing I certainly wouldn’t have thought to prescribe for our already socially malnourished culture was a massive infusion of “social distancing.” Unless, of course, I was trying to kill it. But maybe, witnessing a large-scale social breakdown during the pandemic…

Battling his nemesis with naps, coffee, and donuts, among other things — If you missed part one of Feeling Fighter’s avoidant antics, you can see it here. I’ve spent most of my life desperately trying to fend off and avoid difficult feelings. These days, I’m making a deliberate effort to spend time with these uncomfortable sensations, observing how they move in my…