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Gestalting YOUR Day

Savor the Process

The first week of the New Year! How exciting, promising, tantalizing, and glad that we could end the previous year surrounded by the many family members including many grandchildren. It was truly exhilarating to have young and old together as we celebrated Christmas the German way with real candles on the tree, singing, praying, and enjoying the annual performance by our grandchildren of the story of Christmas (which by now is depicted with more humor than serious intentions) and of course eating traditional German Christmas delicacies. Now it’s over and we all are recovering slowly, day by day.

Now, as is also usual, I am in my office going through much of my work in an attempt to sort out what I want to keep (which is most of it), and which I can discard. It’s quite an undertaking. It’s actually quite relaxing, because I can revisit the many newsletters and good wishes from my providers and my clients. I take the time to really savor these intimate writings that fill my heart and for which I provide a permanent place to resource when I am in need of support or validation. Oh yes, I do get down sometimes which really makes me feel human and part of the rhythm of life. Invariably I feel recharged and connected with all.

One other activity I engage in is to go through the many books on my shelves – recently purchased ones and older ones and simply pick one out that suits my mood. It’s quite interesting to me that when I find myself in this reflective mood I usually choose a book that without realizing initially resonates with me once I stick my nose in it. This time was no different. I chose The Pleasure Prescription by Paul Pearsall (1996) which I had read more than once, judging from my various comments on the sides of the pages. The Subtitle reads: To Love, to Work, to Play – Life in the Balance. Ah, my first thoughts were, yes, I relate very much to the first three – but – Life in the Balance? No, I am really not good at it. While I genuinely love people, life, and my work, I forget to balance. You know the old saying “Don’t do as I do” – have you ever felt this way? And isn’t it great to know that your teacher, coach and/or therapist is imperfect?

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“We need new types of leisure which allow for contemplation and meditation. To this end, man (and woman) needs the courage to be lonely.”
~ Victor E. Frankl, The Will to Meaning.

“Growth is understanding what we have not yet been able to conceive, feeling what we have never felt, doing what we have never done before. It is daring what we have never dared. It may not, therefore, necessarily be pleasurable. It obliges us to leave our comfort zone, to progress into the unknown, to face the tremendous impact of the self.” ~ Piero Ferrucci, What We May Be.

“The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play.”
~ Arnold Toynbee

“Since “creativity” and “mindfulness” may be two ways of looking at many of the same qualities of mind, there is no end to the parallels’ that could be made between them.”
~ Ellen J. Langer, Mind-FULNESS.

“Only to the extent that someone is living out this self-transcendence of human existence, is he truly human or does he become his true self. He becomes so, not by concerning himself with his self-actualization, but by forgetting himself and giving himself, overlooking himself and focusing outward.”
~ Victor E. Frankl

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