Barn Life Blog
Weekly Theme: the Third Eye Chakra
Undoubtedly you have heard of the third eye chakra. In large part, we might say the third eye is the favored center of consciousness for us westerners. Since the scientific revolution, humankind in the west began to reduce our concept of wonder, mystery, the divine,...
Weekly Theme: the Throat Chakra
We cannot discuss the throat chakra without a comparison to the Greek god Hermes. His character personifies the traveling messenger between all deities, sending signals and expressions of harmony, disharmony, life, and death. Hermes is a trickster figure, often moving...
Weekly Theme: the Heart Chakra
Song of a Man Who Has Come Through Not I, not I, but the wind that blows through me! A fine wind is blowing the new direction of Time. If only I let it bear me, carry me, if only it carry me! ... If only I am keen and hard like the sheer tip of a wedge Driven by...
Weekly Theme: the Solar Plexus Chakra
In our work with the psyche and soma connection, we introduced the concept that the interrelationship between the body and mind is a primary factor in the individuation of one's personality. Consider that we were to approach a client as an individual rather than a...
Weekly Theme: the Sacral Chakra
“Ultimately, to acknowledge the life of the body, and to affirm our solidarity with this physical form, is to acknowledge our existence as one of the earths animals” – David Abram Aristotle once wrote that the human soul is a rational soul. He observed how plants...
Weekly Theme: the Root Chakra
How will you hold the rare and perilous given you? Dawn begins in the bones – Risa Kaparo We are not just physical bodies, nor are we the untouchable substance of our thoughts and feelings. Somewhere in the interrelationship between our physical bodies (soma) and our...
Body and Psyche: Healing the Divide
Well, we made it! Starting this week Barn Life programs are officially on campus! I thought it an interesting experiment as we connected through such physical distance. Our last theme, I believe, reflected our best efforts under the strain of social distancing....
Inner Alchemy Week 4: the Rubedo
Well, in our series of transformation, we have come to week 4, the rubedo. We have spent time exploring stages and experiences of suffering and healing with an alchemical eye. Growth is difficult. To shift the patterns of our relationships, our moods, and our deepest...
The Albedo, or the Whitening of the Black
We begin our 3rd week on inner transformation- a look into alchemy- with a short poem describing this stage known as the Albedo. The ash is washed away To reveal our original purity To every black, there must be a white. A heaven to every hell. And so Behind the mask...
Weekly Theme: The Crows That Ate My Bagel
This morning, while writing on the Nigredo, I ordered a bagel and coffee from a local favorite., As I checked the front porch I saw only coffee. Where was bagel? The writing continued as I sipped on my coffee and my gurgling stomach remarked of the injustice. I...
Inner Alchemy: An Introduction to Transformation
This week we begin our series on inner alchemy. I’d like to start with a brief explanation of the history of alchemy and why it is an important practice for mental health. We will be exploring certain stages of change from an alchemical perspective and offering...
Suicide and the Soul Part II: Writing Down the Soul
Is it a common occurrence for you to pay attention? How much of your day is spent in the here and now? When you add up the countless hours of television, mindless tasks, ruminating thoughts, and mind-filled wonderings, it can illuminate just how removed from reality...
A New Relationship With Fear
Here at Barn Life Recovery, we receive a lot of inquiries from folks dealing with anxiety. And a couple weeks ago, a blog of ours laid out some strategies for dealing with anxiety and we’d like to pick that thread back up. A recent piece in O, The Oprah Magazine...
Weekly Theme: Suicide and the Soul
Death is our friend precisely because it brings us into absolute and passionate presence with all that is here, that is natural, that is love… Life always says Yes and No simultaneously. Death (I implore you to believe) is the true Yea-sayer. It stands before eternity...
Weekly Theme: Giant Narcissus
Early in my depth-psychological studies, I was drawn to the artwork of John William Waterhouse. His paintings capture the great drama of many mythic and fairytale images. I’d sit in a sort of meditation looking at the orchestra of expression. This amplification...
National Mental Health Awareness Month
May is National Mental Health Awareness Month and it couldn’t come at a better time. In some parts of the country, shelter-in-place orders are being lifted and some folks aren’t happy about it. In other parts, the orders are being extended and people aren’t happy...
Borderline Personality Disorder and Mythology
You may never see it coming. The defenses can be aggressive, frigid, fiery, slithering, and destabilizing. Not too long ago I entered a women’s mental health inpatient to run a weekly group. Client rotation is common so meeting new faces is part of the job. I wore a...
The Three Marriages and Marriage to Others
What makes up a marriage? Is it an outdated construct that reflects religious themes and rejects the instinctual nature of our existence? Some may say yes, others no. Today, we enter the idea of marriage to others with a mixed bag of unconscious factors. These often...