“REAL” – genuine, authentic, true (as opposed to performed, artificial, imitated, or virtual).
“GREEN” – regenerative/doing as little harm as possible.
“SELF-COMPASSION” – so we can ditch the shoulds, perfectionism, and eco-guilt while we’re being real and green.
Updated July 2026.
It’s uncomfortable to be around someone who is suffering because it wakes up all that’s untended to within our own selves. We can’t stand that, so we hurry to put a band aide over what-ever is hurting in the other person, to quiet things down again, so we can get back to pretending we’re fine.
Our “story,” of how the world works and who we are, is like a script that prompts our choices and actions. There is a new story available to us that prompts cooperative and life affirming behaviors rather than competitive and exploitative ones. Indigenous peoples and eastern spirituality have been indicating it, and the newest sciences are finally now “discovering” it. It’s a story that would put us on an entirely different trajectory.
Sometimes change asks more of us than we have to give, and we break. Sometimes we recover, but whether we recover or not, there is no going back to what we were before the change. We’re transformed us, forever, into something different than we were before. Here’s why I feel that this degree of change is upon us collectively now, and why I feel hopeful even in the midst of all that’s happening around the world.
The “bus” I’m talking about is entire populations of people all gabbling without listening to one another and without thinking clearly. The bus is hurtling toward a cliff, with no-one in the driver’s seat. The opinions, the conflict, the angst, are all fueling the bus. Here’s how to understand what’s going on, and how to disengage from the insanity.
You have a limited amount of mental space and its up to you to choose what to fill it with. In this post, I’ll share 3 practices for using our thinking to “bring ourselves home.”
We’re so in the habit of controlling each other or being controlled that we’ve forgotten how to think for ourselves. We’re so overwhelmed by the challenges we face that we assume there’s nothing we can do (and it’s all our fault). And we assume that controlling each other is necessary and failing was inevitable because humans are just basically bad.
Let’s explore how we might replace these habits and assumptions with more empowered ways of thinking.
There are 3 core skill sets that I believe can help us live together in more compassionate, just, sustainable, and enjoyable ways. I call them: Internal Self-parenting Skills, Sustainable Living Skills, and Relationship Skills.
Most of us, most of the time, do the things we do for stick, carrot, or avoidance reasons. But to really thrive, we need to do things for gift reasons.