Practicing Abundance

I've been thinking about this one for a while.  It seems like everyone is talking about dopamine these days. How good it feels to our brains, how it helps us regulate as humans, and how the modern world preys on our chemical systems like a hungry predator... 😳 Dramatic, perhaps, but unless we start using this beautiful brain of ours to filter and decide how and when we access these dopamine mines of the modern world, we may soon find ourselves needing more and more and more just to feel satisfied. More on why that matters in a minute. Dopamine is known as the "more molecule" in some circles. It's the messenger in your brain that says "That was good! Do it again" and "More please". Checking off a to-do item on a list, putting things back in their places, and the allure of endless novelty through scrolling media or exploring the endless internet are just a few examples of when this chemical response happens.  In his book, Indestractable , Nir Eyal e...

  I recently attended a virtual professional conference through the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association (ASHA), the governing body in my field of speech-language pathology.  One of the presenters (who I particularly enjoyed listening to) shared several concepts and practices that have helped her to build awareness and mindfulness into her private practice life. She talked about identifying and living within boundaries, building, resilience, and living true to our core values, among other things.  One concept that she shared has really stuck with me - the idea of "declaring enoughness". It's easy to want to keep going at the end of a work day and finish whatever thing, or keep trying to achieve a higher level of perfection on a project.  But we can reach a point, or a pre-determined time of day when we can sit back and declare it "enough". We can do this by establishing what she calls "conditions of enoughness" These are her exa...

Some unedited thoughts about the concept of surrender. I keep wanting food and lifestyle adjustments to be the only answer...I want to take care of this lupus thing myself without worrying about new medications or scary body changes...but I keep coming back to the grounding fact that lupus is real and medications are real. And real helpful. I keep wanting to push back and argue, "No, I can do this myself!".  And I am reminded, "No, dearest, you can't".  It's got me thinking a good deal about our relationship with God, and our embedded need for a Savior. There are SO many times in life I want to say, "No, I can do this myself". I got this.  But the truth is - I "got" nothing. Jesus Christ is the only one with real power here. I am only accountable for my thoughts and actions at any given moment, and I want to choose Him more often. I choose to surrender to His love; His promises; His goodness; His grace. What does that look like? Stay tune...