Sophisticated. Conscious. Responsible.
Welcome to The Practice’s muse chronicling the ecology and sustainability of women’s health, secure function relationships and post traumatic growth.
Focused on community, gathering, and information, Full Circle is a space for women of all ages to talk, study, and grow our presence from mid-life and beyond.
Full Circle publication and previous posts
Winter 2023
The inaugural issue of Full Circle.
Syndromal Patterns
Autoimmune conditions can be painful and frustrating. This doesn’t mean you are being a pain or frustrating.
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A major piece of the process of caring for such conditions means untangling you from it while gaining insight into the patterns and needs.
Many people struggle for months and years to find the right mix of lifestyle, medication, dietary needs, and coping skills all the while wishing it would go into remission.
This book was shared with me by a friend and colleague Maija Prakash. It has helped me in ways that I cannot put to words in this post. It was written by a dear friend of hers Martine Partridge. I highly recommend it if you are looking for some extra support AND proceeds benefit Make a Wish Canada.
Family is Family
Family is family. It’s not blood or half or step or blended. It’s just family.
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I love the quote from Lilo and Stitch- “Ohana means family. Family means no one is left behind & no one is forgotten.“
However your family looks or was created the role of the family remains the same~ it is to be a place where people can individualize while being in relationship. A place of belonging and support. A place where we learn about ourselves and others. A place where we grow in relationship.
The Shadow Side
The shadow side of ourselves often gets a bad wrap. But rather than ignoring and rejecting the parts of ourselves that live in the shadow we are actually called to reclaim them.
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When we reject our shadow and repress it we become cut off from our own wholeness and grounding. If you are interested in getting to know your shadow side look to the qualities you feel most critical and judgmental about in other people. The presence of these judgements is our clue to the shadow as a rejected self.
“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” C.G. Jung
Support and Pressure
A vessel is regarded as a holder or receiver of things.
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Sometimes our bodies and our lives are referred to as vessels.
Our bodies hold our thoughts and emotions while supporting us to move throughout our lives.
Our lives hold experiences.
I often think of a potter throwing a bowl when I think of my body and life as a vessel.
This metaphor reminds me that I need both ‘support’ and ‘pressure’ to grow my vessel. Growing my vessel allows me to hold more ideas, feel more of my feelings, and live fuller experiences.
What size is your vessel and what do you hold in it? What supports its growth?
Feel free to share and also feel free to hold it sacred within your own knowing.
Body Dysmorphia
The #1 risk factor for disordered eating is dieting behaviours.
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Other Risk Factors for Developing an Eating Disorder:
* Thoughts about dieting
* Hiding your dieting under the guise of ‘being healthy’
* Restricting calories
* Avoiding unhealthy foods
* Working out to compensate for what you ate
Things To Remember:
* ‘Normal’ behaviour by society or sport-specific standards doesn’t mean that it’s completely ‘healthy behaviour’.
* Anyone can be in denial or validate unhealthy behaviour by searching social media or peers that elicit the same behaviour.
* Success doesn’t mean healthy
What To Do:
* Press pause on your thoughts and behaviours
* Take a step back
* Look from the outside in
* Say it out loud ~ if it sounds unhealthy or dangerous when it’s said out loud (even whispered) it likely is!
* Be aware of your mind, it will say “it’s not a big deal, everyone does it”
* Write out the risks and benefits of each thought/behaviour.
* Get to know all your ‘parts’!
* Befriend yourself~The Front Stage Parts, The Shadow Parts & The Self Part
Write to Find Your Right
Did you have a childhood dream before people stepped in the way and your dream became too hard and/or unrealistic?
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Mine was to be a writer of some kind~ possibly even a journalist or a poet (I was always making little books out of scrap paper and a stapler). Next, it was to be an architect (but that requires a lot of math classes). Then a social worker (which now that I think about it is kind of like a journalist and architect combined). At the time and place, I was growing up (in a small SK town) wanting to be a journalist, architect or social worker was not well heard of. When I think about it I didn’t actually know anyone who lived out such dreams. So, as the story goes I abandoned those parts of myself and considered education. I have a lot of amazing people in my life who are teachers so an obvious goal that was 100% attainable...I loved kids, I loved human development, I loved learning, and I loved school….except I knew in my cells I wasn’t meant to be a teacher.
Fast forward almost 30 years and I now have my own private clinical counselling practice. Turns out I did become a social worker! I am grateful to do the work I do. I get great satisfaction out of getting to know the people I work with and always feel a deep reverence for the complexities and wonders of life. I love hearing people’s stories and watching them create and re-create the architect of their life~ living out their own autobiography.
So, what does all of this have to do with Journalling? Well, when I was growing up my mom always encouraged me to journal; sometimes I loved it and sometimes I resisted it. But looking back, when I allowed my ‘journalling’ to be a place of expression, I had somewhere to think, feel and dream without outside influence. Still to this day my journal (well actually I have a few of them) is filled with long pages of stories, thoughts and feelings while at other times it’s lists and drawings of future dreams and goals. It’s a place to hold letters written to people I never intend to send and a quiet refuge to have conversations I long to have with friends and family who have died.
I hope that you have a journal and that maybe it is where you re-member yourself…your childhood, the people who have moved through your life, your thoughts, feelings and dreams. If journaling feels daunting or too vulnerable my hope is that you free yourself from all opinions or ‘how to’ or ‘can’t’ and just pick up some paper and a pen and let something…anything flow. HINT- not everything you write will have deep meaning or need to be taken too seriously. :)
“All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.”
Ernest Hemmingway