Yesterday, when I was helping people feel safer in a Coping and Healing group, I wrote and shared this:
I helped myself feel safer yesterday by changing how I visualize a judgmental and critical person. I used to call them my personal dragon. Which is scary! I imagined them as a little yappy dog. And that helped!
I helped myself feel safer, after the group, by walking around Boston during a beeoootiful day and then going to see a play with my friend and real estate agent, Jane (not pictured, because my phone was running out of juice and I wanted to conserve some power so I could feel safer when I walked back to my car). Do any of my photos from yesterday help you feel safer?
Knowing that this is “Thinking of You Week” helps me feel safer, as does Boston’s Christian Science Center, book stores, cakes, animals, friends, and people trying to solve world problems.
I helped myself feel safer yesterday while I was waiting for Jane at a restaurant by starting a new original song, called “Who Cares?”
Who Cares?
by Ann Koplow
Who cares?
Who dares to?
Who cares what scares you?
Who cares and shares with you?
Who cares in that rare way
from Sunday to Saturday.
Who cares, aware and true?
Do you have that someone
Who never says, “I’m done,”
Who won’t run
Even when it’s not fun.
© Ann Koplow, 2019
I’m hoping to help myself feel safer this weekend by working on that tune and three others I’ve started but haven’t finished.
Dr. Peter Levine, whose books have helped me feel safer, offers two ways to help people feel safer:
Expressing gratitude helps me feel safer, so thanks to all who helped me create today’s post and — of course! — to YOU.
The Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally 
I care that you feel safer, Ann.
I care about you, too, Mark.
Watch your ankles with those yappy little dogs 🙂
I’ll do my best to stay safe around yappy little dogs, Derrick! Many thanks.
Feck Perfuction? Bwahahaha!
Your one performance only show had two. How perfect is that?
I am glad you saved your battery for a safe trip home
My show actually had three performances, Maureen, which was Perfuction. Thank you for helping me feel safer with this caring comment.
I felt safer watching the garden photos, it looked peaceful, Ann 🙂
That is a rose garden near where I work in Boston, Irene. Thanks for this peaceful comment.
To solve one world problem? What a dilemma.
Intolerance.
Your comment helps me feel safer, Peter.
If I knew how to read maps, I would have chosen,the photo with the map. My heart of emotions went directly to the photo of the fountain with the statues. (Where is that, by the way?). It looks very European, above all, it’s serene probably because man isn’t there to ruin it… 😉 This is where I feel safe. Enjoy, your day, Ann
The fountain is in the Kelleher Rose Garden in the Fenway. I hope you get to enjoy that soon! Here’s the link:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/kelleher-rose-garden
Thank you, very mucy, Ann
I have a hobgoblin who squats at the back of my head telling me terrible things. The other night as I was leaving my writers’ group meeting there were several people gathered outside talking and the hobgoblin muttered, “They all hate you, they’re all glad you’re leaving, and you should never come back.”
That’s the sort of thing it says most of the time. Then someone yelled, “Chris! You can’t leave without telling us one more joke!” And several other people yelled “Yeah!”
Who cares? It was a small thing and no one knew how much that meant to me, but the hobgoblin got a little smaller and a little quieter when they dared to say, “We care!”
I can safely say that your hobgoblin is WRONG, even though it thinks it’s protecting you. Perhaps you can imagine it as a little dog with laryngitis. Thanks for another helpful comment, Chris.
I love the photos, all of them, and in particular, I always feel safe (and happy) in a bookstore! But your reimagining difficult people, taking them down to dog-sized rather than experiencing them as dragons, is just fabulous! Very useful to me. Thank you…I will feel safer!
Thank you for helping me feel safer, my lovely friend !
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