Author Archives: Mary Martin-Blair
Be of Good Cheer: How to Survive the Holidays
The holiday season brings hopes and expectations of a happy, warm, loving family experience. From the end of October until the end of December we are immersed in the theme of seasonal joy and family togetherness. Movies, TV shows, and music all act in concert to reinforce this theme.
Fantasy vs. Reality
With so many messages perpetuating this idealized notion of the holidays, it’s no wonder that many of us find ourselves hoping that those dreams will come true. Childhood fantasies of kind parents and understanding families can be re-awakened, often without our even noticing.
But the … Read the rest
Following Through
Isn’t Motivation Enough?
Motivation is defined as the general desire or willingness of someone to do something. How many of us have a stack of books or magazines in our home that we genuinely intend to read? We may have the best intentions, but why haven’t we actually made our way through that stack? The answer to that question lies in a process called follow through.
Writing for the Harvard Business Review, author Peter Bregman described follow through like this: “Motivation is in the mind; follow through is in the practice. Motivation is conceptual; follow-through is practical. … Read the rest
Trust and Pixie Dust
All the world is made of faith, trust, and pixie dust.
J.M. Barrie
The Eternal Boy
In the well loved children’s tale Peter Pan, Scottish author J.M. Barrie wrote about the adventures of a never aging, mischievous boy with the ability to fly. From a psychological perspective Peter never completes the task of growing up. He remains a puer aeternus. This is a Latin phrase that means “eternal boy”1.
Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung saw the eternal boy as an archetype: an innate, universal human concept. Jung also drew attention to the fact that, like … Read the rest
Really Listening
The Gift of Listening
The greatest gift you can give your loved ones is the gift of really listening to them. The return to school, beginning a new job, handling the care for an elderly parent, moving to a new home are all stressful events that can be eased by being able to talk to a supportive person.
Maintaining healthy interpersonal lines of communication in a family, a marriage, or a business partnership also depend on high quality listening. When sharing their concerns in challenging situations, simply the type of listening one receives can make all the difference.
… Read the restThere’s a
Completed, Not Finished
Multitasking Madness
In our increasingly hectic world, remaining fully present to the moment yet open-hearted and flexible in spirit often seems to be a contradictory and unattainable goal.
Our smartphones ping, ring, and chirp. Our computers blink and flash throughout the day and evening. We find ourselves squeezed into public transport or inching our way down a crowded highway to and from work. We coordinate transport for our children to school, sports, or other extracurricular activities. We get up early for workouts at the gym, or to catch up on chores.
When the demands on our time and attention seem … Read the rest
Discover Your Money Story
Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.
Woody Allen
Tax season is behind us. For many of us April 15th is a tension filled date and it is a relief to be finished with the task of gathering, collating, recording, and preparing our tax returns.
May is an excellent time to build on that relief and explore how we could better deal with our money in the months ahead. For many of us money is a mixed bag. It can be the ‘root of all evil’ or a means to affect change.
Core Beliefs
What do you … Read the rest
Inspiration
We all need inspiration to lift us towards our goals, to make our endeavors fruitful and to bring our creative energies into sharp focus. However, inspiration often feels in short supply when we are overwhelmed by the exigencies of life. Discovering how to access this vital energy is possible, regardless of the daily demands we each face.
Origins
The word inspiration comes from the Latin verb inspirare, which means to breathe or blow into: the original concept was of a divine power whispering to us. The Greek Muses, nine goddesses that inspired art, literature and science, were said to … Read the rest
Channeling
We know not the mysterious…
Things of God but as they have been channel’d
to us by God Himself in divine
RevelationR. Carpenter, 1657
Moving Between The Worlds
Channeling in the realm of the spiritual is held as the process by which information is passed from the invisible world to the visible world. A channel can be seen as a conduit: a metaphysical pipe or a canal that transports knowledge, much like a physical pipe transports water.
Channeling Throughout History
Channeling is an age-old phenomenon, stretching back through recorded history. The oracle at Delphi, six centuries before … Read the rest
The Magic of Clarity
For the secret of a man’s being is not only to live but to have something to live for.
Dostoyevsky
The beginning of a new year is a wonderful opportunity to welcome the magic of clarity into your life.
What motivates you? What principles do you live by? What values are central to your life? The answers to these questions will shape and form the year ahead.
As with any good spell, the achievement of clarity requires focus and dedication. What better time than now, at the cusp of the New Year to pull away from the often frantic demands … Read the rest
Dog Days of Summer
These languid, sultry summer days were first labeled “dog days” by the Greeks. The ancient belief was that when the “Dog Star”, Sirius, the brightest star in the Canis Major constellation rose at the same time as sunrise, hot weather was guaranteed. This was seen as a time of turmoil, when things went awry: dogs went mad, food spoiled, floods occurred, and disease spread.
Shakespeare references this singular time of the year in Henry VIII, “The dog days now reign” and in Romeo and Juliet, “For now, these hot days, is the mad blood stirring.”.
In Ayurveda (an ancient Hindu … Read the rest
