Jumping off from Mary Oliver’s ‘Wild Geese’ poem opening, what would it mean to stop trying so hard to be good and start listening to your body instead? This article is a gentle look at attunement, self-compassion, and offers a small practice to try this week.

Francis Weller opens his soul filling book The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief, by asking us to take up what he calls an "apprenticeship with sorrow." Grief is centered on here, not as a problem to be solved (or a set of stages to move through), but a sacred relationship to enter into.

On the tv show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, there was a "monster of the week,” that could be defeated by the end of the episode. Running underneath those stand-alone episodes was a longer lasting thread: the season-long arc built around a single "Big Bad.” The monster of the week gave the show energy and variety, while the Big Bad gave it direction. Therapy tends to move through something similar, and knowing which mode you're in, and when it might be time to shift, can make a real difference in how much you get out of the work.

In Robin Wall Kimmerer’s beautiful book, we move through fecund and generous plants and dreamlike stories of conscientiously working to honor the offerings of our natural world. We can learn to center on this interconnected mutuality to flourish. A clear, delicious vision rises up as we live with the earth as a gift shared with a sibling and not a resource.

An appreciation piece for the book burnout by Emily & Amelia Nagoski. "Emotions are tunnels. If you go all the way through, you get to the light. Exhaustion happens when we get stuck in a tunnel." The Nagoski sisters have a way of distilling research into easily metabolized pieces that are motivating to remember and weave into daily life. They make a key distinction here: stressors and stress are not the same thing. Solving the problem doesn't automatically release what your body did with it and it’s lingering threat activation.

"It is only through relationship that we learn how to be, understand our impact on others, and explore small shifts that may yield remarkable collective change." adrienne maree brown

Before we can fully and openly meet another person, we have to be willing to fully and deeply meet ourselves.

If you've ever Googled "sex therapy" and felt a little uncertain about what you'd find — you're not alone. Sex therapy is one of the most misunderstood and underutilized forms of psychotherapy available, and most of that comes down to mythology. Cultural noise, Hollywood portrayals, and a general cultural discomfort around sexuality have contributed to a distortion of what sex therapy is. This article could help clarify sex therapy’s purpose and who can benefit.

You’ve found a good fit with a therapist, their approach and what you want to work on. Well done on taking those steps and investing in your relationship with yourself. What can you do to consolidate between therapy sessions to get the most out of therapy?

Starting therapy is a courageous act. But before the real work begins, there's a step that often gets overlooked: finding the right person to do that work with.