Category: Mindfulness

Make room in your heart for yourself: lessons in self-compassion

Make room in your heart for yourself: lessons in self-compassion
It’s been a crappy day, which I will not detail for you. (You’re welcome!) I’ll be the first to admit that I’m prone to pity parties. Woe is me. Life’s a bitch and then you die. Fill in your own favorite cliché As soon as the words are out of my mouth, I stop. I’m... Read more »
By Kerri K. Morris,
December 9, 2017 at 11:05 am • 

Learning slowly: what writing teaches me about life

Learning slowly: what writing teaches me about life
A student came to my office today to talk about her literacy autobiography, in which she celebrates a teacher who helped her learn that becoming a writer takes lots of time. It struck me as one of those insights that everyone knows, but we need someone to put it into words for us. One of... Read more »
By Kerri K. Morris,
November 21, 2017 at 5:16 pm • 

Perspective is everything: taking a bad day and making it better

Perspective is everything: taking a bad day and making it better
Traveling is among my least favorite things to do. I would almost always prefer to be home. But I’m traveling for work today, stuck in Denver for another three hours until I catch my next flight. I have to tell you, though, I’m content at the moment because I am surviving a terrible, no good,... Read more »
By Kerri K. Morris,
October 11, 2017 at 6:15 pm • 
Advertisement:

Earthquakes, hurricanes and backyard weeds: getting life in perspective

Mexico was hit with a 7.1 magnitude earthquake on Tuesday and with a 6.1 earthquake today. It turned buildings to rubble, including a school where 19 children died. One hundred percent of Puerto Rico is without electricity after Hurricane Maria, which is causing a dam to fail, threatening the lives of 70,000 people. And, my... Read more »
By Kerri K. Morris,
September 23, 2017 at 5:58 pm • 

Finding joy when the sh*t hits the fan

Finding joy when the sh*t hits the fan
A friend of mine once told me that when he was living in Arkansas he was changing his son’s diaper on a sweltering day. An oscillating fan was helping to keep the heat at bay. When he set the poopy diaper aside a sticky tab caught on one of the fan blades, and, well, the... Read more »
By Kerri K. Morris,
July 8, 2017 at 10:10 pm • 

You don’t have to throw the whole dessert out just because the ice cream melts

You don’t have to throw the whole dessert out just because the ice cream melts
I’ve been binge watching The Great British Baking Show, Season 1. It’s surprisingly anxiety producing and after two episodes I was completely hooked. By the end of the season I was downright weepy. Episode 4, however, smacked me up side the head with some reminders about mindfulness, balance, black and white thinking, and giving up.... Read more »
By Kerri K. Morris,
June 24, 2017 at 11:15 pm • 
Advertisement:

Anxiety: the present moment is better than trying to live in the future

Anxiety: the present moment is better than trying to live in the future
Your life supposedly flashes before your eyes just before you die. I have no idea if that’s true, but we’ve seen it depicted in movies and fiction so often that it feels true. My experience of anxiety is like this, only backwards. What I mean is that anxiety, as I experience it, is the future... Read more »
By Kerri K. Morris,
November 30, 2016 at 10:57 am • 

Life is sometimes a surprise and a delight: thankful for a miniature murmuration of starlings

I don’t know what Leonard Cohen had in mind when he sang about a bird on a wire. I’ve always imagined it was a caged bird. But yesterday, I wondered if he was writing about Starlings. I was sitting at a stop light, behind a woman who was determined to drive six miles below the... Read more »
By Kerri K. Morris,
November 24, 2016 at 9:22 am • 

Gratitude Friday: alone in bed with room service and a television remote

I’m in Washington, D.C. for the BCAN Leadership conference, hoping to learn more about advocacy and more about bladder cancer. That means I’m in a hotel room all by myself. I have a King bed and a huge television, dozens of pillows, a couch, and towels. Clean, dry towels hung neatly in a row. I... Read more »
By Kerri K. Morris,
October 14, 2016 at 10:55 am • 
Advertisement:

Coming to terms with limitation and failure: my running days are over

Coming to terms with limitation and failure: my running days are over
I wanted to be a runner. Ever since I completed my first Couch to 5K class six or seven years ago, I caught the bug. I remember the first day that I was able to run for 30 minutes, the feeling of exhilaration and freedom. It was so empowering. Once I was diagnosed with cancer,... Read more »
By Kerri K. Morris,
September 30, 2016 at 12:51 pm •