I tell people in my Coping and Healing groups that what sticks in our minds tends to be negative, so we need to consciously let go of unhelpful and distorted thoughts and reinforce helpful reframes.
What sticks for me, here and now, is
the new harness for my cat Joan, which uses strips of Velcro for easy on and easy off,
that somebody on Twitter unexpectedly blocked me, and
my gratitude for all the people who do keep me in their lives.
What sticks in my images for today?
If I stick to my healthier eating habits, I won’t be having any sticky waffles or pies today.
Here’s what I find on YouTube when I search for “what sticks”:
Please stick any thoughts and feelings you choose to share in the comments section, below.
What sticks at the end of my posts is my thanks to all who help me create this daily blog, including YOU.
Yesterday, two of my questions on Twitter were about toxic people.
There must be a lot of toxic people out there— those tweets got hundreds of responses and here are just some of the quotes about toxic people I found online:
What’s your favorite quote about toxic people?
I try my best to avoid toxic people, but let’s see if there are any of them in my other images for today.
I don’t know about you, but annoying, obnoxious, miserable, angry, and unsafe people take up too much space in my brain.
My brain tells me that it needs to focus on these people, because they are threats to our well being.
I am telling my brain that we also need to focus on more pleasant, restful, and helpful things, in order to take care of ourselves and to conserve our energy.
I hope my latest images don’t take up too much space in your brain.
Here’s what I find when I search you tube for “Who is taking up too much space in your brain?”
Please make space in your brain for that important message: we can’t control thoughts and feelings, but we can control our actions.
Who will be taking up space in the comments section, below?
Thanks to all who have helped me take up blog space for almost 3000 days in a row, including YOU.
I always appreciate it when you come back to this blog, which today will start out with a definition of “comeback.”
come·back /ˈkəmˌbak/
noun 1. a return by a well-known person, especially an entertainer or sports player, to the activity in which they have formerly been successful. “the heavyweight champion is set to make his comeback” Similar: resurgence, recovery, return, rally, upturn, revival, rebound, fightback 2. INFORMAL a quick reply to a critical remark. “some of my best comebacks just go right over people’s heads”
I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s comeback of many well-known politicians to the activities in which they have formerly been successful. I’m also looking forward to the comeback of my country to the world stage.
Also, since I was very young, I’ve been known for my comebacks. Once, when a young man was telling me how wonderful he was and said, “You can call me God, for short,” I had this comeback: “Short for what — Godawful?”
Now it’s time to come back to my most recent images. Do you see any comebacks in them?
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Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire have had many comebacks, as you can see here:
I look forward to your comebacks in the comment section, below.
Thanks to all who come back to this blog, including YOU.
For the last four years, I’ve been complaining about the U.S. President and the enablers of his outrageous behaviors.
I’m looking forward to not complaining about our President, very soon.
Do you see any complaining in my latest images?
I actually did a little complaining to Michael about last night’s dinner, because (1) it was the second sandwich in a row and (2) it wasn’t pasta. As I said in my tweet above, I’m looking forward to more of that kind of complaining.
I am complaining about my sleep pattern lately: I wake up way too early and have trouble falling back asleep. I’m hoping I’ll be doing less complaining about my sleep after the inauguration on Wednesday.
At first, I was thinking that the scariest animal would be a crocodile or a bear. Later that night, I realized that, to me, the scariest animal was something else.
Man.
What’s the scariest animal in my images for today?
I find it more difficult to believe that everything happens for a reason when so many people seem to have lost their reason.
When so many people seem to have lost their reason, I look for a reason for why that has happened. That’s why I posted this question on Twitter yesterday:
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People’s responses happened for a reason and included the following:
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Those answers may have happened for a reason, but I still can’t find the reasons why so many people are still Trump supporters after all the unreasonable — and dangerous — things he has done and said.
Have these photos and other images happened for a reason?
There’s a reason why I captured that last image — I plan to use the “Thank you!” to end this post.
Here is “Everything Happens for a Reason” by Zhané:
It happens that I have so many reasons to be grateful, so thanks to all who help me create this daily blog, including you!
Yesterday morning, before the bottom dropped out at the USA Capitol Building in Washington, people in my Coping and Healing group discussed experiences of when the bottom drops out, including how that feels and how to cope. By sharing those experiences of when the bottom drops out and realizing they were not alone, the group members lifted each other up. I suggested that when the bottom drops out again they look down, feel their feet securely on the floor, and realize that the bottom is still there, even if it feels like it has dropped out.
According to an online definition, the bottom drops out “alludes to collapsing deeper than the very lowest point, or bottom.”
Yesterday afternoon, the current inhabitant of the White House collapsed deeper than his previous lowest point/bottom, inciting his followers to violently disrupt the transfer of power in the country I love.
As the whole world watched in horror, the bottom dropped out in the USA yesterday. Those of us who are familiar with malignant narcissists like Trump know that the bottom will drop out even LOWER if he remains in office.
When the bottom drops out, I’m too upset to take many photos, so here are all my recent images from top to bottom:
What do you do when the bottom drops out? When the bottom drops out for me, I reach out for people I love and trust, I anchor myself in the present moment, and I tell myself, “It’s safer than it feels.”
Therefore, I’m going to post, again, the video I shared on this blog yesterday, before the bottom dropped out, of audience members at the Stephen Colbert Show lifting up the late, great U.S. congressman from Georgia, John Lewis, as he crowd-surfed above them.
It makes me cry, here and now, to see how far the bottom has dropped out of my country.
Here is Senator Amy Klobuchar speaking to Stephen Colbert last night about her experience of when the bottom dropped out yesterday:
Here‘s Stephen Colbert showing a lot of feeling in his live monologue last night after the bottom dropped out and before his interview with Senator Klobuchar:
And here‘s his interview with Republican Representative Adam Kinzinger about his experience of when the bottom dropped out.
If you have any thoughts or feelings about when the bottom drops out, please drop a comment, below.
Now that you’ve reached the bottom here, thanks — from the bottom of my heart — to all who help me drop a blog post every day, including you.
I am addicted to understanding other people’s behaviors (that’s probably why I became a psychotherapist). The article about the addiction to grievances explains a lot about Trump’s increasingly concerning behaviors as well as the behaviors of many others.
The article, by James Kimmel, Jr., a lecturer in psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine, explains that focusing on grievances stimulates the brain like drugs do, resulting in the constant revisiting of grievances and a craving for revenge.
Here are two quotes from the article:
… it turns out that your brain on grievance looks a lot like your brain on drugs. In fact, brain imaging studies show that harboring a grievance (a perceived wrong or injustice, real or imagined) activates the same neural reward circuitry as narcotics.
Recent studies show that similarly, cues such as experiencing or being reminded of a perceived wrong or injustice — a grievance — activate these same reward and habit regions of the brain, triggering cravings in anticipation of experiencing pleasure and relief through retaliation. To be clear, the retaliation doesn’t need to be physically violent—an unkind word, or tweet, can also be very gratifying.
James Kimmel, Jr., POLITICO Magazine
Personally, I am actively trying to break any addiction to grievances by focusing on other — more adaptive — addictions, like blogging, walking, and taking photos for this blog.
I am also addicted to connections, synchronicity, and making meaning, so it occurs to me, here and now, that a brain addicted to grievances is a cold and dark place.
What are you addicted to? Have you ever been addicted to grievances? Do you know somebody who is addicted to grievances? I’m addicted to your comments, so please leave one, below.
Finally, I’m addicted to expressing gratitude, so thanks to all who help enable me in my addiction to blogging, including YOU!
“What are people thinking?” is something I often ask in my Coping and Healing groups.
“What are people thinking?” is also something I am increasingly asking myself as I look at the news these days.
What are people thinking on Twitter recently?
What are people thinking about the photos I took yesterday?
When I search YouTube for “What are people thinking?” many of the videos focus on what rich people are thinking, which, to my way of thinking, explains a lot. Personally, I don’t care what rich people are thinking. I think people think about rich people way too much.
Here is “The Dangers of Thinking Too Much; And Thinking Too Little” (and what were people thinking punctuating that title like that?)
Here is what one person is thinking about that video:
I think that sometimes I may think too much about thinking too much.. I think.
The Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally 