Author: cirestone

What does it mean to live without regrets? Miriam Webster defines regret as “sorrow aroused by circumstances beyond one’s control or power to repair”.  That makes a lot of sense, as we think about regret to mean: I don’t know about you, but all of these feel like we are giving the power elsewhere. We…

When I used to think about untying my lines, I was full of a sense of freedom and adventure. I felt nothing but potential and the thrill of my own capabilities. It felt like I was ready to tackle any challenge and there were no limits to where life would take me. The secret was…

Authenticity is polarizing, and as you pursue your true self, you have to be authentic.  But our success in the world is often dependent upon being liked by the majority and acceptable to everyone. There has been so much discussion recently about authenticity and vulnerability. Moving to remote work with the pandemic gave us a…

When I think about untying my lines, I don’t see it as a journey of selfishness. I think about it as an awakening to oneself. As we transition into adulthood, our identities become heavily burdened by other people, social norms, cultural obligations. We believe the stories we are told, and we willingly jump on the…

One of the lessons I’ve learned as I’ve been untying my lines is that I struggle with boundaries. One of the primary reasons that I couldn’t stay in my marriage is that if I asserted myself to achieve equal footing in the partnership, I would trigger my partner and end up on the receiving end…

I had a terrible dream this week. There were three distinct story lines, and in each scenario, I was in a helpless, “less than” situation with a man. But surprisingly, I wasn’t fighting it. It was a helplessness that I had given into. I had surrendered to it. In one of the stories, I was…

‘freedom’: the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action As I’ve explored the concept of loneliness, I have discovered loneliness is the same thing as a lot of other things. As Pema Chodron says, it’s the same as contentment. CS Lewis shared that with true consciousness comes our greatest sense of loneliness….

I’ve been thinking about a phrase I used in my last post about loneliness: Anchor Person. I don’t know where that came from, as I’ve never used it before. I was using it to mean the role a partner might play for us, but when I wrote it, I suppose I was thinking about a…

The older I get, I’m realizing that loneliness is possible despite how many friends you have. I would call myself a gregarious introvert. I need to be alone to recharge, but I also need social situations so that I can come alive. Therefore, I have a broad network of the most fascinating humans that I…

Whether you believe in generational spiritual markers or the role of epigenetics on our beliefs and behaviors, we all can generally agree that the experiences of our ancestors have some level of impact on our lived experience. Where we come from, our generational wealth (or lack of wealth), our family ties and connections to community…