Category: personal development
Posted on May 10, 2025
by MJ
2 Comments
This coming Sunday, May 11, 2025, is Mother’s Day in the United States, and I am likely not alone when I say that I have mixed emotions about this day. It is by far one of the busiest days for the restaurant industry in… Continue Reading “Mother’s Day and Me”
Category: abuse in families, Borderline Personality Disorder, co-dependency, forgiveness, Healing, Mothers, personal developmentTags: family, grief, love, mom, mothers-day
Posted on July 3, 2020
by MJ
17 Comments
I wrote a post entitled AFFECTIVE DEPRIVATION DISORDER AND ALEXITHYMIA IN MARRIAGE in 2014. I wrote it from a place of profound emotional and psychic pain, but there was also a thread of hope woven into that post because I thought I had found an… Continue Reading “Epilogue: Nine And A Half Years Later”
Category: domestic abuse, emotional abuse, Healing, long-term relationships, personal development, relationships, Uncategorized, Women's IssuesTags: Affective Deprivation Disorder, alexithymia, domestic abuse, emotional exploitation, healing after divorce, reciprocity in relationships
Posted on April 21, 2020
by MJ
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Recently, I had a conversation with someone in which they asked me about self-loathing and how to overcome it. It seems that this person lived within a polarized self-image either liking themselves at one moment or hating themselves the next; and, this split view-always… Continue Reading “A Brief Discussion of Self-Loathing”
Category: abuse in families, emotional abuse, Healing, personal development, traits in victims, traumaTags: healing from trauma, healing process, Inner Critic, perfectionism, personal development, self-compassion, self-loathing, trauma
Posted on February 21, 2020
by MJ
4 Comments
Sometimes I write a post, and the words flow with little effort on my part. It is as if an idea is born into the ether with its own agency. Sometimes, however, I feel anxiety because I know I’m going to say something that… Continue Reading “Enabling Our Own Exploitation: An Inquiry”
Posted on January 6, 2020
by MJ
6 Comments
Happy New Year, everyone! As an exercise in developing intention for the new year ahead, I looked back over the past year. In the spirit of looking back, I browsed at the beginning of this blog and saw that my first post was in… Continue Reading “Necessary Unraveling to Transformation”
Category: encouragement, Healing, Moving Forward, personal development, Recovery, traumaTags: blogging and healing, healing after divorce, healing process, narrative approach, personal transformation, Recovery, trauma and meaning, trauma recovery
Posted on June 1, 2019
by MJ
4 Comments
I don’t think I’ve ever gone this long without posting. For what it’s worth, I’m almost ready to move from the Twin Cities to the Bay Area. This has been a daunting task requiring maximum effort. So much good has come from the endless… Continue Reading “Expanding Your Life: Unearthing Negative Core Beliefs”
Category: Complex PTSD, Healing, human trafficking, mental health, Moving Forward, personal development, PTSD, sex trade, traumaTags: an intentional life, Complex PTSD, healing process, human trafficking, narrative approach, negative core beliefs, personal development, torture and human trafficking, trauma
Posted on April 19, 2019
by MJ
1 Comment
We are in the middle of preparing for Passover which will soon be upon us. I was listening to Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks discuss his interpretation of an element of the Exodus story when something he said struck me. He said that identity requires… Continue Reading “Identity and Memory”
Posted on April 11, 2019
by MJ
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I have been winding down my life in the cold North in preparation to pack it up and move it to the Bay Area. Adieu, snow and cold. Hello, Karl! This is Karl: Karl the Fog has his own Twitter (@KarltheFog) and Instagram (karlthefog)… Continue Reading “Challenging the Ex Factor”
Category: co-dependency, Complex PTSD, DBT, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, divorce, domestic abuse, domestic violence, Healing, mental health, personal development, self-advocacy, traumaTags: domestic abuse, healing after divorce, healing from PTSD, intrusive thoughts, personal development, Recovery, self-compassion, wise mind
Posted on March 6, 2019
by MJ
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I think I’ve tried to write a blog post six or seven times in six or seven weeks and failed each time. If you knew my writing process, then you would know that is not me. I have never had a problem writing anything. … Continue Reading “Resiliency and Vulnerability”
Category: domestic abuse, domestic violence, encouragement, human trafficking, mental health, Moving Forward, personal development, Recovery, self-advocacy, trauma, Women's IssuesTags: domestic abuse, healing process, personal development, practicing vulnerability, resiliency, Resiliency Spectrum, trauma
Posted on January 23, 2019
by MJ
7 Comments
I can usually write a blog post in an hour or two but not this time. For some reason I could not put this post together no matter how hard I tried. I sat down in December to write a post on personal inertia. … Continue Reading “An Introduction to Personal Inertia and Taking Action”
Category: anxiety, encouragement, Healing, mental health, Moving Forward, personal developmentTags: cognitive distortions, daring to desire, embracing change, fear of change, overcoming inertia, personal development, taking action