by Lisa Kohn | Nov 14, 2022 | Resilience
We’ve learned to label emotions “good” and “bad” or “okay” and “not.” We’ve learned to push our feelings down and away, to plaster on a smiley face, to say “anyway” at the end of sentences (or paragraphs) where we’re being real but we think we’re being a downer. We’ve...
by Lisa Kohn | Nov 7, 2022 | Recovery, Resilience
I was on a zoom with another Second Gen (those of us born and/or raised in a cult or extremist group). He was telling us how he was struggling. How something had happened in his cult-activist network, and that it kicked up shit. That he was having a hard time getting...
by Lisa Kohn | Oct 31, 2022 | Resilience
As my chemo’d eases, my insomnia’d has crept a bit back in. F—g p—s me off. I want to only start feeling less achy, less tired, more like me, and instead I have days with the physical, mental, and emotional pain of insomnia’d. Where I feel so bad, I can’t...
by Lisa Kohn | Aug 29, 2022 | Resilience
Damn but this time of year is beautiful. The sun in the morning. The flowers blooming. The trees against the sky. The yellow birds. Yes, my yellow birds are visiting my bird feeder every day. They were coming for a while; they seemed to go away; and they’re back. Damn...
by Lisa Kohn | Aug 22, 2022 | Resilience
I am allowing myself to feel however I feel – the “good,” the “bad,” the in-between. I am using RAIN (recognize, allow/accept, investigate, and nurture – thank you Tara Brach!!!) to move through the feelings…or to let them move through me. As a child, I had to not...
by Lisa Kohn | Aug 15, 2022 | Resilience
I noticed it a while back. “Am I allowed to do that?” I’d ask my therapist. “Am I allowed to feel that way?” “Is it okay that I want this?” I noticed it in my work with my clients as well. There I’d flip it, and tell them they were allowed to do, think, feel, try,...