“My soul, where are you? Do you hear me? I speak, I call you—are you there? I have returned, I am here again. I have shaken the dust of all the lands from my feet, and I have come to you, I am with you. After long years of long wandering, I have come to you again. Should I tell you everything I have seen, experienced, and drunk in? Or do you not want to hear about all the noise of life and the world? But one thing you must know: the one thing I have learned is that one must live this life.

This life is the way, the long sought-after way to the unfathomable, which we call divine. There is no other way, all other ways are false paths. I found the right way, it led me to you, to my soul. I return, tempered and purified. Do you still know me? How long the separation lasted! Everything has become so different. And how did I find you? How strange my journey was! What words should I use to tell you on what twisted paths a good star has guided me to you? Give me your hand, my almost forgotten soul. How warm the joy at seeing you again, you long disavowed soul. Life has led me back to you. Let us thank the life I have lived for all the happy and all the sad hours, for every joy, for every sadness. My soul, my journey should continue with you. I will wander with you and ascend to my solitude.”

A few hours later I walked into our bedroom to find a beautifully wrapped package on our bed, card and all. It was a great gift, but there was a better one still to come, which was Hannah’s reaction when I told her I forgot to buy her a gift. She just laughed. No blame, no “what does this mean about our relationship,” and no scene.

The gift I really received this year was her grace.

This 8-day immersion into the Green Psychology paradigm will be truly enhanced by the nourishing warm weather and water experience offered at Maya Tulum. The warmth…the water…oh you should see the color of this water…the womb of Maya Tulum.

Eight days provides a generous amount of time to experience a new way of seeing the world. This is a chance to go deeply into yourself, applying the Green Principles to your life and practicing Green Speak. The benefits of living without fear of judgment, of living according to your values, of wisely using your personal energy…will sink deeply into your psyche and allow you to choose new behaviors.

In this expanded experience you will find yourself dropping into a new appreciation for yourself…perhaps even falling in love with who you are and leaving with a clarity about how to more consciously live your life. Eight luscious days lived within an intentional community of people practicing deep respect for others with appreciation for our differences.

No prerequisite is necessary for this training.

If you are a therapist, you can receive 35 continuing education clock hours, authorized by NBCC (National Board for Certified Counselors), as part of your completion in this program.

This 4-day training in Green Psychology is an opportunity to get away from the busy-ness of your life and retreat to the quiet beauty of this wilderness refuge. Gift yourself with this time to renew…while learning a unique practice that will change forever how you perceive the world and influence how consciously you live the rest of your life.

If you attend this workshop with your partner, you can recreate your relationship by developing a shared language that promotes understanding and intimacy.

If you are a therapist, you can receive 20 continuing education clock hours, authorized by NBCC (National Board for Certified Counselors), as part of your completion in this program. There is no extra charge for CEUs.

We have reserved the Vallecitos Mountain Refuge through Monday morning, August 9th, even though our workshop ends Sunday afternoon. We encourage you to stay at the refuge Sunday night, giving yourself time to relax and integrate all that you have learned during the workshop.

Green Psychology advocates that we become aware of all parts of ourselves even those parts that we dislike, i.e. our jealous, anxious, fearful, selfish, angry, resentful, needy parts. We are then asked to accept, not necessarily the behaviors of these parts, but the needs underlying these parts. These “needs” stem from what Carl Jung called our original or “core delusions” which he described as “fixed ideas created by unresolved…painful events.”

Jung meant that something happened in our past and from that experience we formed a mistaken perception about ourselves and others that we keep applying to current experiences. Homeopaths also see this core delusion as often being inherited or genetic.

A few examples of the myriad of core delusions are: “I am not safe”, “I will be betrayed”, “I am better than everyone”, “I am not good enough”, “ I do not deserve to be happy”, “There is something wrong with me that I must hide”, “If I am not sick or in pain, I will not be loved”, “I will never be successful”, “I am not lovable”.

Generally we are not consciously aware of this driving force behind our actions, thoughts, plans, and behaviors. Discovering the “core delusion” is central to the Homeopathic process and the focus of my practice. A constitutional remedy is designed to address the “core delusion” by finding a remedy that will match each patient’s delusion or misperception, which then stimulates an internal adjustment, so that we can begin living our lives based on more realistic perceptions and expectations of ourselves and the world around us. When we address our core delusion, most everything in our lives becomes easier.

My blog entries will not always be used to promote my practice, but I feel so passionate about helping people deal with core issues, homeopathically, that I will occasionally utilize this venue to share such information.

Buffet’s quote reminds me of the Green Psychology principle of self-renewal. Green Psychology suggests that self renewal comes from knowing what we value and then living in accord with these values.

I like the idea of combining Buffet’s advice about “concentrating on our circle of competence” with the Green Psychology principle of self-renewal. The GP principle says that self-renewal comes from knowing what we most value and then living in accord with these values. Putting the two together, we do what we are good at if in doing it we nourish and energize ourselves. This seems like a pretty healthy recipe for a life well lived.

So what is your area of competence? Or areas of competence? Have you built your life around these areas of competence? Is it realistic to do so? It may not be. Maybe you are a competent artist, but you can’t financially support yourself creating art. If you were to pursue a career in art you might cause yourself financial hardship, depleting yourself with worry…this is not a path of self-renewal. I encourage you to combine the two criteria—define what you are good at, also define the ways you nourish yourself—then look for things that satisfy both criteria.

When we are witnessed we feel seen by another person. When seen, we feel less isolated. In my book I’ve written a poem with the following lines that describe witnessing, “To touch and be touched, to see and be seen, to show and to say, ‘this is me, I see you.’” These are aspects of witnessing that dissolve our sense of isolation.

Witnessing is much easier when you adopt Green Psychology‘s perspective of No Praise No Blame. This perspective takes us outside the duality of “good/bad” and “right/wrong” thinking. Framing things as right or wrong—especially in the subjective realm of personal opinions and feelings—inhibits intimacy. Try dropping the frame of right and wrong, replacing it with curiosity. It is possible to leapfrog over our need to be right and go directly to understanding.

During my first marriage I refused to settle; I continued to believe that I could be happier and that partnering could be easier. After years of trying to improve our marriage, we finally divorced and I left my life in Vermont and moved to New Mexico.

In 1993 Hannah and I married and since then my expectations for a marriage of ease and deep intimacy have been born out. It is possible for partnering/marriage to be easy. And what a difference this makes. I’m not unwilling to work hard when my marriage requires me to, but I want my marriage to be a respite from hard work and constant challenges. Our marriage was relatively easy from the beginning, but we used to squabble a couple times a week. Things would become tense for a day or two. Part of this was due to my immaturity, part of it was because we lacked elegant communication skills.

Since adopting the principles of Green Psychology and the communication skills that are the basis of Green Speak, our communication has become more elegant and respectful. Now we squabble about twice a year. This blog will reveal ways we use Green Psychology and Green Speak to simplify our lives, to renew ourselves, and to increase the depth and expression of our love.

One simple place to begin…feed each other dinner, no utensils, use your fingers, no words, just taking turns placing food in each other’s mouth. This is a form of witnessing, something I’ll write more about next time.

“Today, I struggle me with the heaviest of hearts. I experience me in a dark space. What do you do when you find yourself in such a place?”

Welcome to the conversation.