Welcome!

Welcome Therapists, Coaches, Mental Health and Addiction Professionals, and all Clients to the inaugural newsletter.

Gestalting YOUR Day 

With this and the following newsletters (every 2 – 3 weeks), I hope to stimulate your creative juices to shape your daily encounters and experiences into a Gestalt that is powerful and affirming. Gestalt, a German word, means that something is whole, complete. An example: Look at your hand; we know what the function of the hand is without identifying the many parts that make up a healthy, functional hand. You, as a person, are also complete and whole with a body, mind, and soul that assist you in navigating through your daily life constantly choosing and co-creating your existence. And yes, there’s the rub, as Shakespeare says, for life holds countless kaleidoscopic possibilities of which you may or may not be aware that will influence and shape how you see things, feel, think and make decisions. To live an aware life in coordination with what is possible is the power of gestalting your day.  Are you interested?

The beginning of this newsletter coincides with another beginning for me, a long time ago, 58 years to the day to be exact, that I would like to share with you:

Beginning – a Gestalt

It was my last night on the ship, the magnificent Ocean Liner, Amerika, where I was introduced to a world of plenty, a world of luxuries I could have never imagined in my young life – a life that had been filled with many hardships, the central ingredients of life in Germany prior to, during and post-WW II.

This night was different. I was told that in the morning an experience was waiting for me at sunrise, so magnificent that it would take my breath away. Not wanting to miss a thing, I bundled up and went on deck while it was still dark with only the stars lighting up the dark sky. 

Shivering from the cold night air as I waited, I somehow sensed that my life was about to irrevocably change. I could still feel my mother’s last touch, making a little cross on my forehead as I left my homeland. I knew that my life would be altered forever and that I could never go back again. I felt a strange, but incredibly strong, sense of terror, hope and a profound sense of loss. 

As the dawn gave way to the rising sun, more and more people gathered on the deck, talking excitedly in languages I did not understand and laughing as they gestured toward the east. I strained to see what the excitement was all about. Then I saw it … on the horizon, illuminated by the sun, a rising Phoenix, an odd-looking statue, spikes on her head like a crown, majestically holding up a torch. In the background, enormous skyscrapers rose as a testament to her power. She was the Statue of Liberty – the doorway to the United States of America, the symbol of freedom and a welcome to all. 

Naturally, not every day holds such powerful experiences and emotions as I had felt during those few hours; Yet I know that every fiber of my being was absorbed by these moments that made the experience so extraordinarily rich that I can still feel the intensity on the 4th of November 58 years later.

Beginnings invariably include mixed feelings because they require courage and include unknowns. So how can you begin by gestalting, make a contribution, to enrich your day, every morning, one day at a time, no matter what the day holds?

• Every morning, refreshed or still groggy, be aware that your heart is beating, your lungs are breathing and you are ALIVE
• Take a deep breath, become interested as you reflect on your plans for the day
• Experience what you are feeling, how your body feels as you reflect  on the day
• Now consider how you would like to feel ideally at the end of the day even as you feel the day may be tiring, difficult, boring, overwhelming
• Keep remembering what you hope for by evening (as you can squeeze in a thought here and there). Say what you want to feel out loud or to yourself often
• In the evening ask yourself honestly how close or how far you feel from what you projected.
• If you are pleased (even a little bit) ask yourself what you contributed to make this feeling happen?
• If you are not pleased, is there anything that you could have changed, learned something?
• If you had to give the day a name what would it be? That is your Gestalt for the day.

Try to do this as often as you want; in time it’ll change some things. Let yourself be surprised by your power of gestalting your day. After all, who has a better right and more responsibility to make a good day happen than you do? Keep a journal if you are so inclined.

“There is no perfect knowledge which can be entitled ours, that is innate; none but what has been obtained from experience or derived in some way from our senses.” William Harvey

“Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.” Oscar Wilde

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