What has inspired YOU this year?

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Published: Friday, 07 December 2012 18:14

Written by Jane Peterson, Ph.D.

This time of the year, I like to reflect on what has inspired me during the past year, what has given me courage, helped me grow, brought me new insights. I’d like to share with you a few of the discoveries that have inspired me this year, in hopes that it might inspire you to reflect on YOUR inspiration sources this year, so that these may carry you into the new year with a smile on your face and joy in your heart.

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Helping During the Holidays

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Published: Wednesday, 07 November 2012 18:17

Written by Jane Peterson, Ph.D.

The holidays in the U.S. are a time when we are often called upon to help the “less fortunate.” While many of these efforts do indeed alleviate suffering and misery during the cold, difficult winter months, helping can have a sinister underbelly – control. In the guise of being helpful to others, we can really be trying to control their behavior to manage our own needs. Not surprisingly, this kind of helping often has unintended consequences or brings a different response from the “helpee” than the “helper” expects. Remember the last time you received unwanted advice, an unwelcome “gift” (sometimes with strings attached), or someone corrected your way of doing something? Could you feel their need for you or the situation to be different than it was? How did that feel? And, how can you be sure you are truly coming from a place of service if you answer the call of the season to reach out and help someone?

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Trick or Treat! This year go as something really scary.

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Published: Thursday, 04 October 2012 18:19

Written by Jane Peterson, Ph.D.

Considering your costume for this year’s Halloween party? We have a suggestion!

This June, the prestigious journal, Nature, published an article by several scientists expressing concern that we have tipped the planet’s biosphere past a point of equilibrium. Positive feedback loops (explained simply and brilliantly in Leo Murray’s little animated short) are driving climate change faster than scientists anticipated. For the first time, scientists involved in this field are daring to step out from behind their mask of technical reserve and sound an alarm. We should listen.

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Are You All In?

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Published: Friday, 07 September 2012 18:21

Written by Jane Peterson, Ph.D.

One of the things we see quickly in constellations is whether one partner is available to the other, or whether a parent was available to a child. What do I mean by “available?” Ah, now that’s an interesting question.

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The X Factors of Life

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Published: Tuesday, 07 August 2012 20:57

Written by Jane Peterson, Ph.D.

I sometimes wonder why things seem to take longer to do than I expect. In our household, the “X” factor stands for the multiplication sign. We talk of a 2X or 3 X job, meaning the job took two times or three times as long as we anticipated when we planned for the task or project. Discovering an “X” factor in the middle of an important project can be pretty frustrating in our time stressed world.

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Summer of Love

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Published: Saturday, 07 July 2012 20:59

Written by Jane Peterson, Ph.D.

Summer is the time of sunshine and outdoor events, including weddings. I passed a magazine stand in the grocery store this month and sure enough, there on the cover, was a smiling bride (no groom, interestingly enough), dressed in the traditional lace and fancy trappings of a traditional American style wedding.

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Surface vs. Substance

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Published: Thursday, 07 June 2012 21:03

Written by Jane Peterson, Ph.D.

Beijin, China. Dec. 4, 2011
We were staying at a resort outside of Beijing, China to do an organizational constellation training. Don and I were experiencing culture shock of an unexpected nature. The place our hosts had chosen was decorated in pinks and purples with chandeliers and marble tile. Besides being completely inappropriate for a business training, the construction of the place was fascinating. The furniture reminded us more of a bordello than a boardroom. Obviously a great deal of expense had been put into the materials of the place. From a distance, the effect was rather dazzling.

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Notable quotes

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Published: Tuesday, 17 January 2012 21:07

Written by Jane Peterson, Ph.D.

After a long delay, I should be getting a new blog site soon. In the meantime, as I start working on my SocialSoma theory, I will use this site to post interesting quotes from what I am reading. Here is a quote I came across today in Chapter 1, Kindle version, McGilchrist, I. (2009). The master and his emissary. Yale University Press/TJ International: Padstow, Cornwall, UK

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