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Thanksgiving: Gratitude (or Grace)

By Fran Westwood

Thanksgiving

mental health gratitude self compassion

Posted: October 9, 2025

Thanksgiving: Gratitude (or Grace) Practices of gratitude are mentioned often in the world of mental health, and for good reason. Intentionally identifying something you’re thankful for can encourage both slowing down in the midst of our frantically busy days, and it shift in attention helpful...

Engaging with Anxiety

By Graham Watt

anxiety

therapy self compassion mental health curiousity

Posted: September 26, 2025

Anxiety often feels like a wall we want to avoid—something to push away or outrun. But healing rarely comes from running; it begins when we turn toward anxiety with curiosity, kindness, and patience. This perspective echoes the heart of Aundi Kolber’s book Try Softer, which invites us to approach our inner struggles not with harsh striving but with gentle awareness and grace.

Self Compassion

By Fran Westwood

mental health

self compassion wisdom of your body

Posted: September 16, 2025

Cultivating self compassion introduces a kinder way of being with yourself. This translates into how we treat ourselves, and each other. It may not completely replace the harsh voices, the judgements, shame or angry outbursts. But self compassion invites noticing of our inner world and how we speak to ourselves, which over time translates into growth. It invites a pause, a noticing, even the recognition “wow, I am having such an unkind thought about myself” can create awareness, and that means distance between ourselves and that thought. When we can realize a part of me is thinking, feeling or acting a certain way, but not the whole of me, it stops feeling like the ultimate truth.

“When Summer Slips Away”: Holding Personal & Global Grief with IFS

By David McCallum

seasons mental health Self Awareness

Enjoying Life self compassion Grief

Posted: August 18, 2025

There is something undeniably tender about late summer; the golden light, the weight of warm air, the growing awareness that something is ending, even as the world still hums along. As August turns the corner, many of us begin to notice the quiet ache of grieving parts within our systems – some of these may be harder for us to name. They might be cued by the sadness of summer fading, or the anticipation of what's ahead. Or, it could be something even deeper: a mix of personal and global sorrow that feels too much for our systems to hold all at once.

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