Posts by Deborah Drake
ToD: The Wisdom of Annie Lennox
“There’s this youth culture that is really, really powerful and really, really strong, but what it does is it really discards people once they reach a certain age. I actually think that people are so powerful and interesting – women, especially – when they reach my age. We’ve got so much to say, but popular…
Read MoreWhat exactly IS a Healthy Sense of Self?
A Healthy Sense of Self is one’s own felt sense of being one’s own person, separate from others. With a Healthy Sense of Self a person is free to be the unique human being whom he or she was born to be, and allows him or her to effectively become increasingly more independent through each…
Read MoreHave you got parental anguish? Insights by Jennifer Senior.
“Why is raising our children so associated with (parental) anguish?” Each time I have watched this TED Talk, I fully relate to what Jennifer Senior shares about parental anguish and the day her son was born. For I, too, had a C-section that was planned–when my soon-to-be-born daughter turned herself around to a breach position…
Read MoreSoS Thought of the Day: Your life is going to change.
Editor’s Note: I read a lot for the work that I do for Healthy Sense of Self. A seemingly random collection of short and long pieces add up to a lot of words read daily–and much like my daily effort to walk 10,000+ steps–it’s a practice that “keeps me curious and engaged with living.” It…
Read MoreThought of the Day: Rebelle Society’s Alison Nappi, an open love letter to your inner child
“To the child who could never understand why she was being hit by hands, words, ignorance… To the one who was told she was sinful, bad, ugly… To the one who didn’t fit. To she who bucked authority and challenged the status quo… To the ones whose dreams were crushed by adults whose dreams were…
Read MoreWhere does mental strength come from?
Dear Reader, Here are three questions for you to ponder: What exactly is mental strength? Where does it come from? And, if you want more of it, how can you get it? According to Amy Morin, Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Writer at LifeHack, there are 13 things mentally tough people don’t do. She clearly struck a…
Read MoreDo you remember what you got during last year’s holiday gift giving?
A positively disruptive headline landed in my email inbox today that was attached to a newsletter I subscribe to. My eyes scanned the icebreaker, “Do you remember what you got during last year’s holiday gift giving?” “The headline” got me thinking–deeply. I paused and tried to remember what “gifts” I received last Christmas. At first, nothing jumped…
Read MoreThought of the Day: Mandela’s (Tata Madibe) Sense of Self
The time for the healing of the wounds has come. The moment to bridge the chasms that divide us has come. The time to build is upon us. ~Nelson Mandela, Inaugural Speech, May 10, 1994 I was Seattle-bound late afternoon and listening to news for the first time on NPR, when I heard that Nelson…
Read MoreFrom our Healthy Sense of Self to Yours. Gratitude. Gratitude. Gratitude.
Whatever your traditions, may you feel welcome where you are. We the “family of HySoS” offer you our best wishes…today and everyday. *** From the kitchen sink of HEALTHYSENSEOFSELF to the thanksgiving diner Table of all Friends and Foes of HySoS wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving Diner with lots of people and things to be…
Read MoreThought of the Day: Living on your on terms ~Seamus Heaney
The ability to start out on your own impulse is fundamental to the gift of keeping going on your own terms… Getting started, keeping going, getting started again — in art and in life, it seems to me this is the essential rhythm. – Seamus Heaney What truly supports us in our capacity to start…
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