Category: self-reflection

Aesop’s Fables: The Wild Boar and the Fox

A wild boar was sharpening his tusks busily against the stump of a tree, when a fox happened by. Now the fox was always looking for a chance to make fun of his neighbors. So he made a great show of looking anxiously about, as if in fear of some hidden enemy. But the boar…


Aesop’s Fables: The Lion and the Mouse

A lion lay asleep in the forest, his great head resting on his paws. A timid little mouse came upon him unexpectedly, and in her fright and haste to get away, ran across the lion’s nose. Roused from his nap, the lion laid his huge paw angrily on the tiny creature to kill her. “Spare…


Aesop’s Fables: The Heron

Aesop (c. 620–564 B.C.) was a Greek storyteller credited with a number of fables now collectively known as “Aesop’s Fables.” His tales, with their moral value, have long influenced our culture and civilization, contributing not only to the education and moral character building of children, but also, with their universal appeal, to the self-reflection of…


Self-Compassion in the Classroom: Three Things You Can Do in Five Minutes

What is this self inside us, this silent Severe and speechless critic, who can terrorize us And urge us on to futile activity And in the end, judge us still more severely For the errors into which his own reproaches drove us? – T.S. Eliot, The Elder Statesman (1959) We have a tendency toward self-criticism as a way of…


Aesop’s Fables: The Frog and the Mouse

Aesop (c. 620–564 B.C.) was a Greek storyteller credited with a number of fables now collectively known as “Aesop’s Fables.” His tales, with their moral value, have long influenced our culture and civilization, contributing not only to the education and moral character building of children, but also, with their universal appeal, to the self-reflection of…


Aesop’s Fables: The Dog & His Reflection

Aesop (c. 620–564 B.C.) was a Greek storyteller credited with a number of fables now collectively known as “Aesop’s Fables.” His tales, with their moral value, have long influenced our culture and civilization, contributing not only to the education and moral character building of children, but also, with their universal appeal, to the self-reflection of…


Identifying Our Blind Spots Through Observation and Reflection

Kelly Boys, author of The Blind Spot Effect: How to Stop Missing What’s Right in Front of You, highlights the fact that blind spots have multiple dimensions, including cognitive (the way we think) and behavioral (what we actually do in response to stimuli). In an earlier post I explored these dimensions in more detail and…


We’re All Monastics Now

My Zen teacher Susan recently told a group of her students at the end of a Zen meditation retreat, “We’re all monastics now.” In this pandemic, we’re in an era of isolation, retreat. We’re also in an era of heightened uncertainty. This can be a terrible thing and drive us to loneliness and distraction—or it can be…