Web Sites Of The Month

How To Keep Your Sanity When Your Workplace Is Toxic

So many people feel trapped in their jobs or positions. They feel they must behave by other people's rules and norms of behavior. This can lead to intense self-recrimination and high levels of anxiety. Sometimes they feel that if they can't behave the way they want to, no one else should be allowed to either. "How To Keep Your Sanity..." isn't just an article about toxic workplaces. It's about how we can each take personal responsibility for what occurs in our own workplace. By embracing our own fears, mistrusts, ego-dramas, and other shadow puppets, we begin to master our own destinies and release the idea that we are victims to a separate reality. And how are we to do this? We begin by being authentic with Self and learning how to freely express who we are.

LOL To Good Health

This web site is a beautiful compilation of psychological and scientific theories of emotional experiences. Check out the laughter therapy page for some really hilarious jokes! The mechanism of humor is also explored as a means to relieve stress and enhance our emotional integrity.

Reconnections Teleclass

Daniel Jacob is offering a free teleclass on his "Spirituality and Sex" series on June 15th. Daniel is an entertaining and compassionate facilitator and most of his work is filled with wonderful insights. Explore with him the nature of playfulness and how to increase your own understanding of your wildly creative side.

Gabriella Tal and Michael Kovitz

Join Gabriella and Michael at the a house concert at Spivey's in Chapel Hill. June 4th, 8 PM. Also, Michael will read from his book "Meditations & Prayers on 101 Names of God." There will be music, drinks, and food. The recommended donation is $15.00. Call 919-967-9669 for directions. This is a benefit for the Pumpkin House Orphanage.

In order to be intimate with self and feel free to express ourselves, we need be in optimal emotional health. Nowadays, disease is seen as something outside the body. Illness is an invasion of outside forces like germs, bacteria, mental/biological imbalances, or environmental causes. Very rarely is disease associated with emotional health. However, most of the times I have gotten sick there has always been an emotional element to it. There has always been something stressing me emotionally that caused me to create dis-ease within the body.

Similarly, when we are afraid of our own feelings we want to deny them in others as well. If we can not accept the tenderness of our own inner lives then how is it possible to accept others' expression of affection and warmth? This comes out as criticism and demands that others change who they are to suit our preferences. As a society we are screaming for a genunine expression of love and intimacy but when we receive it we are programmed to flinch or push it away. Why? Simply because we have not learned to be intimate with Self. We must learn to cultivate the gentleness within.

One of the ways we can do this is through playfulness. What in our lives is so very serious that we can't take a moment to lighten it a little? As we begin to become more courageous with our emotions, we begin to risk feeling them. This frightens us because emotions are very powerful things. They can make a man murder or a woman elope. So, what are we to do as we become more and more accustomed to being emotional human beings? We must cultivate our senses of humor.

"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber

Ways to cultivate a sense of humor:

1. Learn to tell a joke, any joke.

2. Read humor articles or surf the web for jokes.

3. Look back on your life and remember the funny times. These make great personal anecdotes to tell to others.

4. When stressed or in conflict, take a moment to see the humor in the situation, if only for your own personal health.

5. Allow yourself to laugh even when no one else thinks it's funny.

6. Befriend people who are humorous and carefree.

7. If you have cable, view the comedy channel every now and then. Comedians are great role models for people who don't take themselves seriously and often laugh at their own foiables.