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Chocolate as Resistance + The Spirituality of Chocolate

(Video link HERE.) This beautiful little video about the culture of chocolate in Mexico, will give you a view of the origins of the delicious sweet we love to eat, unaware how the making of it can be an act of resistance and spirituality, as is true with many endangered foods. In 4 minutes, we got a big view of culture, ecology, economic forces and memory that goes way beyond chocolate.

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Marsha Linehan on Building a Life Worth Living

We got interested in psychotherapist Marsha Linehan after a reader told us that it was she who first used the Buddhist concept of Radical Acceptance as a therapeutic tool in psychotherapy. It was a groundbreaking approach, as were the treatments she pioneered for patients who were previously written off as hopeless. The story of how she developed it — as a young woman she had been one of those “impossible” patients — is a marvel of resourcefulness and creativity.

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Radical Acceptance with Biscuits (Tara Brach, Ed Brown)

When I hear the word “radical” used in the context of personal change —whether a book, a course, a workshop — I generally pass it by. It’s so overused and overblown, I’ve come to mistrust it. But in the past few months, I’d heard a number of smart, curious, level-headed people mention Tara Brach’s book, Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha. Among the trove of very wise and helpful ideas, I especially love this passage about saying yes, perfection, self-comparison and….biscuits.

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This Certificate Grants You Permission

Recently, several friends described themselves as unproductive in the saddest and most judgmental tones. How did it happen that we have learned to value only obvious tangibles and define our worth by them, to savage ourselves with opinions? I view THAT as a hyper-charged product of the Plague Years we are in. And I’m here to offer an respite.

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