Just A Thought:

Sometimes Success...

Sometimes success is going to the gym because you told yourself you would. Sometimes success is being kind even when someone doesn’t deserve it. Sometimes success is forgiving yourself for your mistakes. Sometimes success is avoiding regret. Sometimes success is a smile. Sometimes success is going to bed on time. Sometimes success is choosing integrity. Sometimes success is doing what you know you should do when you feel like doing it the least.

Memory:

Americans have been focused lately on our two leading presidential candidates’ memory failures. That subject indeed warrants attention: The availability and accuracy of memories are important yardsticks of cognitive health.

But they’re not the only ones. And memories are reliably fickle. (How’s that for an oxymoron?) We lose track of memories we don’t need. We purge memories we don’t want. Consciously or unconsciously, we edit our memories into narratives that conform to our chosen senses of ourselves. They’re two-thirds documentary, one-third historical fiction. Or maybe it’s the other way around.

Whatever the fractions, each of us is a computer with only so many megabytes. There are files marked for keeping, others destined for deletion. We may have fewer megabytes in our later decades and a trash folder larger than ever, but that trash folder has been there all along. Life is a process of forgetting, from the very start. We should remember that.

The Best Response

Dr. Becky Kenney shares a response you can give to anyone that opens a door for them to talk more. The beautiful line is, "I'm so glad you're talking to me about this."

“It is the most beautiful first line to say to someone when they’re upset because what you’re deeply saying to them and how they receive it is, “I am interested in the part of you who’s feeling this way. The part of you who’s feeling this way is connectable to me. … I want to hear more about it. I will attach to this part of you.” 

And when you tell that to someone, they’re automatically willing to tell you more because it’s like an opening of a door.