Day 2721: Here and now, with all of it.

Here and now, I’m pointing out that the subtitle of this blog, The Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally, is “Here and now, with all of it.”

I’m doing two online Zoom meetings for my group psychotherapy organization this morning, and I’m going to do my best to be in the here and now, with all of it.

Why is it so difficult for us to be in the here and now, with all of it?

I could guess, but I’d rather be in the here and now, with all of these photos.

This music, which I shared in a recent post, has been helping me stay in the here and now, with all of it.

Here and now, all of your reactions are welcome.

Here and now, with all of my gratitude to YOU, until next time.

Day 2699: For now

For now,

• Oscar seems to be feeling better, perhaps due to his steroid medication,
• friends and family seem to be well,
• I am not suffering,
• a lot of people are in pain,
• I am facilitating a telehealth version of my Coping and Healing groups five times every week,
• I am using the word “mute” and “unmute” way too often,
• I’m working from home for the foreseeable future,
• I am still President of the Northeastern Society for Group Psychotherapy,
• pasta is still my favorite food,
• the weather in Boston is beautiful,
• I am living near the water,
• most people in my neighborhood are wearing masks when they are outside,
• I see a lot of white male rage,

• I love Melissa Villasenõr,
• I believe in skill, perseverance, flexibility,  and luck,
• I was inexplicably able to fix an inexplicable and annoying display change on my laptop,
• when somebody calls me “annoying” or any other critical label, I have trouble letting go of that,
• I think saying “hello” and “goodbye” are both very important,
• focusing on the future often raises anxiety,
• I’m trying to avoid fortune telling, mind reading, and the other cognitive distortions,
• I prefer to live in the now,
• I am very grateful for all that I have, and
• I am sharing all my photos from yesterday.

For now and forever, I don’t drink wine because I’m on Coumadin for the rest of my life. For now, I am totally fine with that.

For now, I need to end this post and get ready for work, so thanks to all who helped me create another “For Now” post, including YOU!

Day 2422: Immediate

My immediate reaction to checking my old blog posts, just now, is surprise that I have never written a post with “Immediate” in the title before.

My immediate thought upon waking up this morning was “It’s the day of my one-day only Fringe Festival show —  “Group ‘Therapy’ with Ann.”

I’m hoping to help the people who show up to my show to get an immediate appreciation of the benefits of group therapy. I’m also hoping that the immediate and understandable performance jitters I might be experiencing during my show will not cause me to forget the immediate words and the chords of the two original songs I’ll be sharing.

When I saw this sign yesterday on the streets of Edinburgh,

… my immediate thought was “That’s the title of my blog post tomorrow.”

What are your immediate reactions to the many other photos I took yesterday?

My immediate urge is to let you know that you can enlarge any of those photos by clicking on it immediately.

My immediate reactions to the extraordinary show of my venue captain  …

… Walter Michael DeForest of “Van Gogh Find Yourself” — were all  extremely positive.

When I was putting up my immediate posters for my show at the venue — The Natural Food Kafe — I asked a patron if he would come to a show like mine.  His immediate reaction was yes, if he could.  It took just a few minutes for us to realize that we had an immediate connection in our mutual love for jazz guitarist Pat Metheny.

My immediate decision is to share this live performance of Speaking of Now by the Pat Metheny Group.

To me, the Pat Metheny Group is immediate group therapy.

Please share your immediate thoughts and feelings in a comment, below.

Immediate thanks to all who helped me create today’s immediate post and to all my readers, including YOU!

Day 2256: The Heart of the Matter

I don’t have much time to blog this morning, so allow me to immediately get to the heart of the matter.

Last week at a group therapy conference in the heart of Los Angeles, I heard a wonderfully skilled and compassionate group therapist suggest something that mattered a lot to me —   if somebody is telling a long story in group which is taking people out of the here-and-now,  the facilitator can interrupt to ask, “What is the heart of the matter?”

Yesterday, in my first therapy group after my return to Boston, I told the members what I had learned about inviting people to go to the heart of the matter. That touched people’s hearts, in the moment, and deepened the experience of the group.

Do you see the heart of the matter in my photos from yesterday?

Usually, it matters to me that I completely erase the white board  in preparation for other meetings in that room.  Yesterday, I left “The Heart of the Matter” on that white board for other hearts to experience.

Here‘s “The Heart of the Matter,” by Don Henley.

The heart of the matter is that I am unbelievably grateful to all who help me create these posts and to you — of course! — for reading them.

Day 2193: For now

For now, there’s only one other post I’ve written with the same title as today’s post. (For now, I believe that 2017 post has some useful information in it. For now, you can click on that link to read it.)

For now, today’s post is the only one which also has a photo of “For now.”

For now, I’m not sure what a “retail incubator” is, but I can show you my other New Year’s Day photos of the Seaport District  of Boston (and, for now, this is the best article I’ve found online about “the hottest neighborhood in town“).

 

For now, I have more must-dos for today’s blog.   For now,

• somebody I’ve known for years is not speaking to me,
• I’m President of a local professional organization of group psychotherapists,
• with great power comes great responsibility (I saw the new Spider-Man movie at the Seaport District theater yesterday),
• I haven’t experienced the full glory of the new Spider-Man movie yet, because a fire alarm screwed up the theater’s computer system and the house lights stayed on for most of the film,
• I’m  writing a new original song every month,
• I haven’t made any high quality recordings of any of my songs,
• I’m still waiting to hear back from the Edinburgh Free Fringe about my show proposal, even though their last email to me three weeks ago said somebody would get back to me “in a few days” and I’ve written them again asking for a response,
• I’m feeing better about not hearing back now that I’ve read that Edinburgh Free Fringe link, above, and seen that  “our main programming decisions [will be] taking place from the end of January and through February and March”,
• my son is in Boston on Christmas vacation from University,
• I haven’t started packing for our Disney World trip this weekend,
• I feel tired when I walk up stairs, and
• I have more pictures to share from yesterday.

For now, there is still plenty left of the best tuna noodle casserole I’ve ever had in my life. For now, I can assume that Michael meets the two criteria I had established for a future boyfriend when I was 10 years old: That my boyfriend love cats and tuna noodle casserole. For now, I’m actually not sure that Michael loves tuna noodle casserole, but he certainly helps me to keep my tuna casserole love alive.

For now, this the best “For Now” song I can find, from the musical Avenue Q.

For now,

and see you tomorrow.  And for all those who helped me create today’s blog post and for all those who are reading this, thanks for now and beyond!

Day 2112: What aren’t you doing right now?

What aren’t you doing right now?

What I’m not doing includes the following:

• reading the news,
• driving a car,
• speaking,
• worrying about the future,
• regretting the past, and
• anything else besides creating this blog post.

Whenever we choose to do anything, there are an infinite number of things that we aren’t doing.  If we focus on what we aren’t doing, rather than on what we are doing, there are infinite reasons to believe that we’re not doing enough or that we’re not doing the right thing.

Here’s something else I’m not doing right now: taking photographs. However, I am sharing these:

 

 

 

 

I’m also not

• wearing Ouija Board socks,
• drinking tea,
• being bitten by  sea lions or cats,
• looking for our shy cat Harley,
• waving a magic wand,
• blushing,
• writing new lyrics or music, or
• playing the ukulele.

However, I am sharing this:

Whatever you’re not doing right now — like commenting — you can do soon, if you choose.

I am now doing this: expressing gratitude to all who helped me create this post and — of course! — YOU.

Day 1980: Now what?

Now, what happens when you accomplish something?  Do you ever ask yourself, “Now what?”

Now what should I do after performing my first original song at an Open Mic? Now what can I do to top that? Now what makes me think I have to top that?

Now what gets in the way of my being here, now, and enjoying all the now has to offer?

Now what photos do I have to show you?

Now what do you do during busy times? Now what do you think I was doing when I took that photo?

Now what wants to be chosen, heard, stuffed, stitched, fluffed, dressed, named, and taken home?

Now what are we fighting about if we are all human?

 

Now what helps you stay cool? Now what is a museum of ice cream?

Now what kind of person would wear that t-shirt? Now what kind of roll is that?

Now what music does that Meowsic make?

Now what video could I possibly include here?

Meow what video could top that?

Now what are you going to say in a comment?

Now what should I end with, except gratitude for the now, the meows, and YOU?

Day 1652: Here and now, there and then

Here and now, we’re getting ready to move, so I’m unearthing many memories from there and then.

There and then, I’ve created my own t-shirts.

The first t-shirt I ever created, there and then, had the Chinese name for Jackie Chan (“become the dragon”). There and then I loved that t-shirt, especially because I was born in the Year of the Dragon.

Here and now are more memories from there and then.

 

I hope it’s okay, here and now, that I include three musical numbers from there and then (here, here, here and now on YouTube).

In the words of Pat Metheny, “We Live Here.”  Together.

As always, I express thanks to those who helped me create this then-and-there, here-and-now post and to you — of course! — for being here, now.

Day 1624: Questions and Answers

Question: What did I do yesterday?

Answer: I attended a lecture and demonstration group by world-renowned Group Psychotherapy expert Dr. Molyn Leszcz.

Question:  What kind of questions does Dr. Leszcz  ask people in therapy groups?

Answer: “What are you thinking?” “How do you feel right now?” “What is your hunch about that?” “How do you think other people are experiencing you?”  “What do you want people to know about you?” “What are you going to do next?” “What did you see?” “How would you like to work on that in the group?”

Question: Does Dr. Leszcz think that working in the here and now is good?

Answer:

Question: What did I do last night?

Answer: I went to a Pat Metheny concert.

Question: Whom did I meet there?

Answer:  Gabe, who is a jazz guitar student at Berklee.

Question: What’s the first question Gabe asked me?

Answer:  “Are you a musician?”

Question: What question did I ask Gabe?

Answer: “Do you have any music on YouTube?”

Question: What did Gabe say?

Answer: “Yes.”

Question: What Pat Metheny tune did Gabe and I name as a particular favorite?

Answer:  Question and Answer.

Question:  Did Pat play that tune last night?

Answer: YES!

Question:  Did I take any other photos yesterday?

Answer: What do you think?

Question: What am I doing today?

Answer: I am going to the bank in preparation for selling my condo, getting an INR blood test at the hospital, and driving down the Cape to visit with fellow blogger Mark Bialczak and his dear wife Karen!

Question: Should you leave a comment about today’s blog?

Answer: Yes, please.

Question:  Who should I thank, here and now?

Answer: Everybody who helped me create today’s post and — of course! — YOU.

 

Day 1460: Circles

As I circle back here to create another daily blog post, I notice that I’ve circled through the concept of circles before (here and here).  If you’d like your thoughts to circle more positively, it’s worthwhile to circle through those previous circular posts.

As any new year approaches,  my mind circles through memories of the past and wonders about the future. Those circles make it difficult to circle in on the present moment. Nevertheless, I try to circle back to the present moment, over and over again.

What’s circling in your mind, here and now?

Yesterday, somebody in a therapy group circled around to asking if he could co-lead the group with me.  I circled my seat around to let him sit at the head of the table.  He helped the group circle through many important topics, including this one:

You can circle to more information about the wheel of intimacy here.

Do you see circles in the other recent photos circling on my iPhone?

Before I circle back to cardiac rehab and all the circling machines there this morning, I have time to circle around to music  by The Cyrkle …

 

… and to gratitude.