In my last post, I wrote about the deep roots of shame. I was invited by a reader to write a post about how we exit the hell realm of shame. The first step is to realize, and I mean unambiguously realize, that we are not the cause of our shame. If we walk around…
In the early days of psychology, emotional and psychological “disorders” were associated with our nerves. A “nervy” person today is thought to be somebody who either acts without fear (“nerves of steel”) or acts boldly but perhaps thoughtlessly (“she has some nerve”!). But the old timers understood that when it comes to how we face…
I got back in the saddle at Hillhurst United in Calgary. These folks have made me their “Theologian In Residence” for the next little while. We’re not sure what that means exactly, but we’re going to figure it out together. I offered a reflection on Pentecost Sunday, and came up (rather arbitrarily with seven marks…
While I was writing a chapter for my forthcoming book, Bone on Bone: A Clergyman Leaves the Church, Finds Psychedelics and Get His Life Back, it came to me that a human being’s core addiction is to the traumatized self. Trauma, along with our early childhood patterns of compensating for these failures of love give…