Wise Blood

After three decades of using various self-help strategies on myself, as well as suggesting them to others, I share five techniques that seem to work - for me - especially with regard to situations involving interpersonal conflict.

K = (Loving)Kindness - "May you be happy/healthy/free from suffering."

I = Intentionality

N = No More Suffering - This Too Shall Pass | גם זה יעבור

G = Gratitude

S = Something Else

Text Version of this piece: http://stevewasserman.co.uk/?p=5620&preview=true

Accepting the mixed-bag Now of our lives. Hard.

--

THE THING IS

-Ellen Bass

Full text of this episode can be found here: http://stevewasserman.co.uk/amor-fati/

--

Audio used in episode (in order of occurence): 

-Jon & the Nightriders - Rumble at Waikiki: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41YvSrk5paQ&t=81s

-Can't Stop The Feeling (Justin Timberlake) - Original Piano Arrangement by Maucoli: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MpOfn4rDcU

-ET: https://open.spotify.com/album/1Wcggztq9SspsBeXcrnHZo?highlight=spotify:track:3VVilIGlUJ6tIirr7GGCHs

-Night Flight - Say Yes (Elliot Smith Cover): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnQ0ac8A8hk

-A Day In The Life (Orchestra Overdub): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecybFp71bnc

-Reading of The Thing Is (Ellen Bass): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JONWgsZ6vm8

-Steven C. Hayes talking about Feeling & Experiential Avoidance: https://www.soundstrue.com/collections/authors-steven-c-hayes/products/acceptance-and-commitment-therapy

-Extract from Bernard Malamud's A New Life: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Life-Penguin-Twentieth-Century-Classics/dp/0140186816/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=a+new+life+malamud&qid=1624180687&sr=8-1

-Jane Hirshfield reading her poem Amor Fati: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/92039/amor-fati 

-Extract from The Gay Science: https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/The-Gay-Science-The-Joyful-Wisdom-Audiobook/B01EWAXDI4?qid=1624180836&sr=1-1&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_1&pf_rd_p=c6e316b8-14da-418d-8f91-b3cad83c5183&pf_rd_r=ZN7BMAJ44S0DHR5PPNXE

-Susan Buffam reading her poem Amor Fati: https://www.lyrikline.org/en/poems/amor-fati-4435

-“Kindness” by Naomi Shihab Nye, A Poetry Film by Ana Pérez López: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFLQOOiAqxQ&t=15s

-Elliott Smith ~ Say Yes (Live in Stockholm): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOnHEApbjV0

-Itzhak Perlman plays Fiddler on the Roof (John Williams Los Angeles Philharmonic): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h745la-Lo1I

-Neil De Grasse Tyson giving an overview of our 65 million year-old hominid evolutionary history: https://samharris.org/podcasts/252-alone-universe/

-Can't Stop The Feeling by Justin Timberlake Live (Downbeat LA Cover): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGz7Nbaavgg&ab_channel=DownbeatDownbeat

-Hakeem Oluseyi waxing lyrical about astrophysics: https://www.startalkradio.net/show/a-quantum-life-with-hakeem-oluseyi/

What my friend Charlie taught me about having a "good" break-up (or any other painful setback in life).

Text version can be found here: http://stevewasserman.co.uk/4793-2/

What I have learnt from my dog-child Max about trauma.

Text version of this piece: http://stevewasserman.co.uk/trauma/

I've got my philosophy (keeps my feet on the ground). You?

What my friends Jackie and Guy (circa 1987) taught me about Eros.