New book

I've written a new therapy workbook-journal "The Jungle Pack: A Therapy Workbook-Journal" to help other therapists and counselor's with keeping clients on track and documenting thier reponses to prompts in a customized manner. It's geared towards goal-setting and awareness of emotional boobytraps. The workbook is meant for the client to take it with them when discharged from psychotherapy or counseling. Behavior and the connections to thoughts and feelings are self-monitored by the client. The motto for this book is "We all step on each other's toes; sometimes without even trying." The workbook is 77 pages in length, not including foreward, acknowledgements, table of contents and title-page.

The moment

I'm visualizing my Jack Russel "Uno" taking flight and doing a 180 degree turnaround in the air after he has just hurdled over his buddy "Benji" our Maltese-mix and briefly touched earth. I'm inspired by the sudden break into play-and-run. He needs no preparation or specific reason to start having a good time.
The cool thing about play in my life, is that for this moment I have shot through ego and I am taking a chance in living without being careful.

A talk on PLAY on th TED website

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/stuart_brown_says_play_is_more_than_fun_it_s_vital.html

Through watching my son Zachary initiate a physical activity, I have noticed where frustration sets in and the whole thing is discontinued. In my mind, I envision him playing this activity endlessly and that is where it occurs: The difficult part which can be made easier, not because he should be handed an easy advantage, but because the benefits of endless play far outweigh the so-called "character building" limits of current age and physical ability (don't get me wrong. Zachary is big for his age and is very strong). Also, with endless play comes a natural attunement to physical exertion. Right now this country is battling with childhood obesity. Right now, I don't see where it is doing any good to try and convince a child to change his or her ways of doing things differently or eating right. I do see making physical endless play for accessable and attractive for the child by taking away the barriers of physical difficulty. I'm talking about making the environment meet the child so the child can gain strength for the harder levels of whatever activity.

you know you want to

At 42 years of age, I want to play and I do. I am damned blessed to have a love for being in the process of seeing what I can do without rules to abide by. I think this is why I love running as fast as I can. No one is holding a stopwatch and telling me how to run. I am just out there doing it and I can feel every inch of my body go into overdrive and think of nothing. I'm just having fun. As I'm writing about this the thought occurs "Okay so what about those people who cannot run for the fact of a disability." Alright, if I am thinking about this I am not in play mode. When I am running, I do not think of these things. That is not what play is all about. Playing means maintaining an action without having some sort of guilt trip over those who are not currently in the moment with you. To screw with playing because of some belief that I am not being mindful of other people's plights is to be implying I am not capable of compassion. Where does that come from? It comes from listening to old family rules and holding onto other people's fear statements or garbage about what is entailed in being a grown up. It's about a distorted sense of responsibility and some wierd superstition about consequences. It's about thinking "Oh, I better not have any fun, because I might hurt so-and-so's feelings." or, "I better not enjoy myself, cause people might not think I'm serious about whatever." It's a bunch of bull. The more we do without being in the process of enjoying what we are made of, the more time there will be to worry and stress, which leads to resentment and even physical sickness more than you and I realize.