On The Blue Couch Podcast

With March of 2021 coming and going, Dwight Hurst and I reflect and make some meaning of what this wild year has been for us and the world around us.

Hilary Marshall, LMT and Watsu practitioner, Hilary shares a great deal about the Watsu experience and what clients can experience during a session. Watsu can promote physical, emotional and psychological healing.

Michael Brightwood discusses the science, healing framework and practice of Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy. With extensive study and practice in psychology, healing arts and craniosacral therapy, Michael brings his decades of experience to this discussion.

We continue our conversation about addiction, intervention, recovery during a pandemic. In part 3 of this series on addiction, we focus on recovery during this time. Arthur Westinghouse CIP, CADC, with Westinghouse Intervention and Family Coaching, shares past and more recent personal and professional experiences so that we can all better understand the long-term recovery path.

In this podcast episode we continue the conversation on addiction and focuses on relapse prevention during a pandemic. Arthur Westinghouse CIP, CADC shares his personal and professional experience.

Conversation with an interventionist. How to think about intervention and recovery while social distancing.

Learn about buffers anxiety and a meditation for calm.

In Episode 32, I share The Guest House by Rumi. Each and every time I encounter this poem, whether it is shared by a meditation teacher or colleague, I gain a sense of comfort and footing. I am reminded that our inner worlds are vast and wide and no matter what is arising within ourselves, we are going to be okay. Here are a few things that came up for me when I read this poem more recently and talk more about in this episode.

When we go into our inner world:

1) Make space for it all. All inner experiences. When we make room for all of our experiences, we can feel more enlivened. When we push down the harder feelings such as anger, shame, sadness, we push down the other stuff too. The other stuff can be happiness, joy. Every time we look inward with a gentle tone, it brings us closer to acceptance of our experiences and who we are.

2) Know that one emotion is not better or worse than another. They just are. Some emotions and thoughts we carry around can be more painful and uncomfortable than others, but when we start to give each one equal attention and respect, the feelings that can be more difficult to tolerate can become less intense.

3) Judgement gets us nowhere. When we label our experience or have harsh words for where we are in a particular moment, it can create a stuckness, a block to ongoing flow of emotions. Physically, we can become more tight, more anxious or more hard on ourselves.

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.

Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

~Rumi

 

Evan Center, LCPC shares her perspectives on engaging your passions.