Articles – Page 7

Our Need for Heroes – It’s Time to Look Within

October 31, 2014 By Judy Lipson

In a society starved for genuine Heroes, we should do what we can to help them become the real thing in their own life. ~ Caroline Myss

By Judith E. Lipson, M.A., LPC

Have you been seeking a hero in your life to emulate? Psychology teaches that people often see in others what they desire for themselves. Your eager, outward search may really be to find your inner self. If so, it may be time to discover the hero within you. Peace activist and spiritual teacher Mahatma Gandhi taught us to “be the change you wish to see in the world.” Deepak Chopra has added that “transformation ‘in here’ leads to results in the outer world as well.”

Jean Houston’s book The Wizard of Us follows Dorothy’s experiences in and out of Oz. This is done within the framework of mythologist Joseph Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey”, also known as his monomyth. Houston adds exercises for the reader to explore his or her own journey. If this concept interests you, Campbell and Houston are both worth reading.

The following is a summation of Campbell’s stages of the Hero’s Journey that can help you to identify and appreciate your own Hero’s Journey:

The Call to Adventure – to leave old concepts and move toward new ways of being. [Read more…]

Living a Six–Sensory Life

September 3, 2014 By Judy Lipson

Our intuition is always there, always reading the situation, always trying to steer us the right way. ~ Arianna Huffington

By Judith E. Lipson, M.A., LPC

I’ve known about my sixth-sense for some time. I first heard the term six-sensory from author and spiritual teacher, Sonia Choquette. Being a six-sensory means that you process your world with more than the conventional five senses (visual, auditory, touch, taste, smell).

Your sixth sense is your gut instinct. It’s natural, normal and everyone has it. The parental version of sixth sense awareness happens when children first venture away from parents: When you get there, if something doesn’t feel right I want you to call me or leave right away. Others talk about business relationships and opportunities: I just knew from the start that this was not a good person/idea, but I didn’t listen to my gut and I got burned. Think about the varied ways that your sixth sense has been involved in your life.

Now that we have established that you have a sixth sense, the question is: Do you listen to yours or have you ignored your inner voice?

Choquette believes that “your sixth sense should be your first sense”. Author Sophy Burnham (The Art of Intuition) says it’s the subtle knowing without ever having any idea why you know it. If you are ready to embrace your six-sensory self, there are ways to develop, and learn to hear, your inner voice / gut instinct / intuition: [Read more…]

Energy Cleansing

April 20, 2014 By Judy Lipson

As a spiritual being having a human experience, it’s important to care for all aspects of your being.

By Judith E. Lipson, M.A., LPC

You are more than a physical structure. There is energy in and around your body. Clinicians who study acupuncture follow the energy along meridians to look for blockages or sluggish movement. Correcting these can improve health, pain and mood. Also within the physical body are chakras – energy centers. Each chakra corresponds to specific physical structures of the body as well as to emotional and psychological processes; and is also linked to a symbol, name, musical tone and color. There are seven major chakras: the root chakra at the base of your torso, abdominal, solar plexus, heart, throat, third eye at the center of the forehead, and the crown chakra at the top of your head.

Those who are hyperaware of the traditional five senses as well as the sixth sense of intuition, empathy and energy are considered Highly Sensitive People. If you are a Sensitive, other peoples’ energy fields as well as the electro-magnetic fields of your environment likely affect you. When all of this inundates your energy fields, it can lead to emotional distress, physical tension and even illness. There are a number of practices that you can use to clear or balance your energy:

FOR THE SELF

DURING A SHOWER use the water to wash away all uncomfortable emotions and tensions from the day. Have it all flow down the drain.

IN A RELAXED STATE, IMAGINE A SPONGE passing from head to toe on all sides of [Read more…]

Scarcity or Abundance

March 2, 2014 By Judy Lipson

cooking structure Which best describes the way you approach your life, and why does it matter?

By Judith E. Lipson, M.A., LPC

In author Stephen Covey’s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People, he describes the mindsets of scarcity and abundance. Abundance is the recognition that there are enough resources and successes for everyone. He contrasted this with the scarcity mindset, which focuses on not having or being enough.

When scarcity is your mindset, you believe there is not enough to go around. Scarcity is founded on the idea that if someone else wins or is successful in a situation, another loses. There is little consideration for the possibility of all parties winning. Scarcity, therefore, often results in destructive and unnecessary competition.

Compare this mindset to those who see life as abundant. Individuals with an abundance mentality are able to celebrate the success of others rather than feel threatened by it. Abundance is the realization that there is always enough and that we need not worry about quantity and opportunity – for ourselves or for others.

You may believe that you live in a mindset of abundance, but it may surprise you [Read more…]

Finding Your Purpose

January 7, 2014 By Judy Lipson

“Who am I? What am I doing here? How can I make a difference?”

By Judith E. Lipson, M.A., LPC

Do you have a deep yearning to know? You probably first asked this of yourself while in college. During or after the child-rearing years, you may again face this sense of urgency. As you approach retirement, you will once again assess your life experiences and determine if you have really lived your purpose. This can be a life-long search because the journey, and therefore the answer, shifts.

This pursuit seems to take on a more vibrant call for the individuals that I call Sensitives – those who are keenly attuned to the six senses. Even during childhood, Sensitives feel urgency.

Sensitive or not, you probably feel it more prominently now. There is a need to shift our planet toward peace and love. If your direction and purpose still seem mysterious, you can begin to find your way.

SEEK PASSION OVER COMPULSION

[Read more…]

Setting Boundaries

November 1, 2013 By Judy Lipson

“No” is a complete sentence

By Judith E. Lipson, M.A., LPC

As I talk to clients and others I realize how many children and adults, but especially females, have trouble saying no. While being compassionate and kind are important, respecting yourself is at least as essential. You must know where your boundaries are, where they need to be and how to honor yourself by communicating these boundaries to others.

You have a right and a responsibility to care for yourself, which is why flight attendants instruct you to put on your own mask before assisting your children or those around you. Yet too frequently, you have assisted or done for others until you felt used and exhausted. If you did finally say no or asked for assistance, it’s probable that you also felt guilty doing so. This takes a toll on your physical and emotional health.

Most children are not explicitly taught how to assert their needs in a respectful and self-assured manner. Girls, especially, have been taught to be “nice” and to not make waves so it is problematic for most women to learn how to express their own needs in a healthy manner. Males are not immune from this difficulty. [Read more…]

Mentoring and Parenting Sensitives

October 2, 2013 By Judy Lipson

Are you, or is your loved one, a Six-Sensory?

By Judith E. Lipson, M.A., LPC

Sensitives come in all ages, sizes, races and faiths. They can look like everyone else, and yet stand out by being empathic, compassionate, creative people. Sometimes they are at peace with these gifts, but for others it creates inner turmoil and can lead to minor or significant difficulties. [Read more…]

Living Your Authentic Life

August 30, 2013 By Judy Lipson

“Owning our story can be hard, but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it. Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky, but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy—the experiences that make us the most vulnerable. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.” ~ Dr. Brené Brown

By Judith E. Lipson, M.A., LPC

Living authentically is when the peaceful, confident core of your being directs the inner and outer aspects of your life. It means operating from your truest inner-self, so you can be the person who you were meant to be and to experience life empowered.

We each have an inner compass, our entelechy, which guides us toward our authentic life. The entelechy is the fullest realized essence of a thing, i.e.: The oak tree is the entelechy of an acorn, and a full grown adult is the entelechy of a human infant. Dr. Jean Houston, in her book “The Wizard of Us”, teaches that the entelechy is that Essential Self that longs to be expressed and remains your gentle guide.

However, outside forces may interfere with this central guidance. Parents, schools and other elements of society try to mold you to act in a certain manner. This socialization is done [Read more…]

Acceptance and Diversity

July 30, 2013 By Judy Lipson

We all judge; and have our opinions on how things should be and how people should act. We get turned off if somebody acts in a way that doesn’t live up to the way we want things to be. At the end of the day we are all different and it comes down to unconditional love and acceptance. ~ Lenny Kravitz

By Judith E. Lipson, M.A., LPC

There have been many great leaders urging us to accept each other as equals. The foremost leaders for my generation were President John F Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. President Kennedy said, “If we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity”. Martin Luther King Jr’s: “I have a dream that my four children…will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character” is still revered.

We call the United States the melting pot, yet we have been striving for more than two centuries to fully accept our diverse members. Our Declaration of Independence states that all men are created equal with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Our Constitution was written to support these inalienable rights. Yet it took a Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation before African Americans had the right to live freely, and an additional 50 years before the 19th Amendment allowed women to vote. And still there are groups that don’t have equal rights, so the conversations continue. [Read more…]

Be an Agent of Change

June 25, 2013 By Judy Lipson

Finding Hope in an Insecure World

By Judith E. Lipson, M.A., LPC

The challenges that Earth and our society face are all around us: diminishing rain forests, herbicides, pesticides and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in our food supply, terrorism, superbugs, etc. It can even bring unease to an eternal optimist, like myself. Some of my students and adult clients have expressed their worries. They are concerned about the state of our world, and the youth often wonder whether they should bother setting goals for a future more than 10 years away.

I suggest we look at the situation from a different perspective. Human nature recognizes problems primarily when they are distinctly apparent, and it seems we have been given numerous opportunities to be enlightened. What if it didn’t need to be so obvious and instead, we allowed ourselves to recognize a problem before it was seemingly out of control? [Read more…]

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Our Need for Heroes – It’s Time to Look Within

Living a Six–Sensory Life

Energy Cleansing

Scarcity or Abundance

Finding Your Purpose

Setting Boundaries

Mentoring and Parenting Sensitives

Living Your Authentic Life

Acceptance and Diversity

Be an Agent of Change

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