by dmackinnon | Jan 21, 2012 | Healing Choices, Thought Work
My husband, Tom, left the country and dry land for three weeks. I stayed home with our son. In some ways, life was harder, but in some ways, life was a lot easier. I noticed about a week after Tom left, that I felt good. Lighter. I had more “work” to do, and less time...
by dmackinnon | Dec 30, 2011 | Healing Choices, Process
Back in the fall, I started thinking about goals for 2012. More specifically, I reviewed my list of WIGs (Wildly Improbable Goals). Martha Beck talks about them in her book, Finding Your Own North Star. WIGs are goals that seem almost impossible but they are things...
by dmackinnon | Dec 22, 2011 | Healing Choices, Thought Work
In the past, my thinking about gratitude has been along the same lines as the attitude of a Depression-era parent. “Be grateful for what you have. Don’t ask for more. What you have is good enough.” Since I have Depression-era parents, I came by this thinking honestly....
by dmackinnon | Dec 16, 2011 | Healing Choices, Thought Work
If you had a friend who constantly berated you, judged you or criticized you, would you keep her close? Would you want to be around him? Would you try to find ways to spend more time with her or would you try to find ways to avoid him? Most of us would say that life...
by dmackinnon | Dec 9, 2011 | Healing Choices, Limiting Beliefs
Recently, I got back in touch with a friend I have known since college. She is a born salesperson, and has been in sales since we graduated (many, many years ago.) The last time I saw her, a few years ago, she was commuting about 3 hours a day to her workplace and...
by dmackinnon | Oct 31, 2011 | Healing Choices, Thought Work
As I was sitting in traffic at the Burlington Mall a few weeks ago, I was thinking my thoughts, and scanning the road in front of me. It was bumper-to-bumper to get to the mall exit, so I was sitting with my foot on the brake. I scanned right and then left as the car...
by dmackinnon | Oct 13, 2011 | Coaching Tools, Healing Choices
A couple of weeks ago my friend and colleague, Master Life Coach Susan Hyatt, asked a question on a coaching forum that I am a part of: What do you do for fun? Ever since I read The Four Day Win by Martha Beck years ago and learned about Rat Park, I’ve been trying to...
by dmackinnon | Oct 6, 2011 | Healing Choices, Thought Work
There was one point during the Rugged Maniac 5K obstacle race last weekend when my mind tried to scare me. I’d been doing fine with the obstacles. Not fine as in, “wow, that was easy!” but fine as in “I’m not thinking ahead, I’m just dealing with the obstacle...
by dmackinnon | Sep 27, 2011 | Healing Choices, Thought Work
I thought this blog would be a place where I would write about “tips and strategies to live a more peaceful life.” So far it’s mostly been about the crappy thoughts in my head and how I change them. Sigh. But that’s okay–because that’s how to live a more...
by dmackinnon | Sep 14, 2011 | Healing Choices, Thought Work
Every September feels like New Year’s to me, I guess because I spent so many years in school. So right about now I’m thinking about what I want to learn. And even more importantly, what do I want to unlearn? What lousy piece of advice did I get way back then that...
