character

Letters to a young doctor… Learning to say No

Letters to a young doctor… Learning to say No

‘What has been the hardest lesson you have had to learn?’

‘Saying No instead of Yes….’

Hello….

It has been surprising to me that the hardest lesson I learned from Medicine is how to say “No’.  I suspected the lessons in school would be the hardest, maybe the ways to have delicate conversations, or to sit with the dying.  However, nothing comes close to learning to say “No’. 

Stepping toward fear...

Stepping toward fear...

“Fear is a natural reaction to moving closer to the truth” 
― Pema ChödrönWhen Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times

I am struck by the honesty of this quote, there is a deep truth within this understanding, there is a fear in moving, edging closer to the deep truth that lays within us all.  This has been the 11th block of a 15-block training in Hakomi Mindful Somatic Psychotherapy, and as per usual, I am sitting at the Newark Airport feeling a little shaken up by the process.