#relationaldynamics

Our sexuality exists at the line between exploration and structure

Richard Feynman is reported to have stated: “Science is a lot like sex. Sometimes something useful comes of it, but that’s not the reason we’re doing it.” If we reverse the relationship a bit and see sex as rather like science, then sex becomes this powerful force behind much of humanity’s progress, a process full of testing, exploration and anxious inquiry, with a great many people…

Journeys of our mind-maps are the lines and symbols of our interactional lives.

  Traveling usually requires directions. They may be obsessively precise or they might be confusingly opaque, but whether you’re deciding to turn down such and such a street or taking a right at the end of the fence-line, there’s still some level of guided movement involved. With GPS, the history of more broadly keeping an eye on where we’re going seems to, however, have gone away. Stories litter…

Prior to suffering is connection. Within that is the means of our healing.

Grief, as much as it often inspires thoughts of separation, is our mind’s way of recognizing over and over how close we truly all are. Loss is as much a part of life as growth, each movement a step away from one space into and towards another. There is no gender, economic status or race that is exempt. The form loss takes and the way each of us works through the consequences will differ, though…

How the story of one's self is created is as important as its content

“Who we are is a story of our self—a constructed narrative that our brain creates.” (Hood, 2012) The how of that construction provides ample space for frustration when our actions don’t fit what we believe ourselves to be; confusion when what we say is not as clear to others as it seems to be to us; and anxiety when confronted with terrible events and are unsure how to continue moving forward.…

Expectation is a combination of relational width and emotional depth

Mind over matter, that’s the hope and aspiration explored in fantasy literature and speculative science fiction, promoted through various product-lines and explicitly endorsed in many religious ceremonies and practices. Implicitly, ‘mind over matter’ assumes mind as being something other or above that of physical reality. Placing it nicely in such a nebulous position allows for a great deal of…

A greater question than dependency is how our connections influence and shape our behavior.

To cling to someone for support and emotional safety is only a slight shift in perception away from becoming “clingy.” The former inspires sighs of contentment, the latter of exasperation. For those curious as to how the former becomes the latter, there is no concrete answer as the behavior for both is almost identical and further, largely contingent upon the viewpoint of the recipient. All of us…