I almost didn’t write this today… Alice and I just got back from seven days in Sedona, AZ. If you’ve not ever been, I’d highly encourage you to go there. It’s a pretty magical and special place. It’s known as “Red Rock Country,” and for me, it’s always been a place of spiritual healing and energy work. I’ve traveled here when my life and relationship fell apart back in 2012. The guides I worked with helped me come back to myself.  So after so much loss, change, and identity shifting, going back to Sedona felt like part of my healing journey. And coming home late Monday after being away for…

Have you ever lost something, and then watched your mind turn it into a full-blown kind of crazy thought-story chain? Not just, “Oh crap, where did I put that?” More like, “How could I do this? What is wrong with me? Am I getting old? Am I losing my memory? Why didn’t I pay more attention? And now this thing that means something to me is gone forever.” Or is it just me? When I started to write this, it felt more like a continuation from last week’s post, “What Happens When Enough is Enough with the Lie Your Mind Keeps Telling You.” Let me start by saying that St.…

I’ve been doing a lot of hiking lately and have had lots of early-morning time to think, and I’ve been listening to Joseph Goldstein’s podcast, who wrote Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening. This morning, while I was drinking my coffee and doing my morning pages, I noticed how loud some of my thoughts were in my head, and the same stories my mind keeps telling me. Like, “Shannon, why are you writing now? You need to get out on your hike before it gets too hot. You don’t have time to do this right now, be responsible, write tomorrow.” What was interesting was that these stories are loosely based…

It’s early in the morning, and the sun will be up in a bit. I’m sitting at my kitchen banquette. There’s something about being in this expansive space with just my journal and my thoughts. And memories of my dog Emma, who loved to snuggle with me here in the cold mornings of winter. It’s my favorite writing space, where I get a lot of my ideas. Even when it’s hard to pick up my pen, I try to do it anyway.  I pick up one of my favorite daily reading books by Melody Beattie, More Language of Letting Go. As I read her words about grief, I notice how…