Judging precludes understanding 8 July 2020 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Emotional principles , No Comments Frank Herbert, the author of Dune, wrote that, “Systems incorporate the unexamined beliefs of their creators.” Herbert highlights a fundamental law: we can never fully understand anything of which we’re a part. Or, more succinctly, judging precludes understanding. […]
What is emotional responsibility? 3 July 2020 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Cornerstones , No Comments What is emotional responsibility? It’s the Holy Grail. Eldorado. The X-factor. It’s what’s buried at the ‘X marks the spot’ on the pirate map. It’s the thing that U2 still hadn’t found when they released that cracking single […]
What is abandonment? 3 July 2020 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Cornerstones , No Comments What is abandonment? The question seems simple enough. Some people are unfortunate enough to lose the support of a parent or significant other, often during childhood, creating feelings of abandonment. What is abandonment? The Wikipedia definition supports this view: […]
The laws of emotional mechanics 2 July 2020 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Cornerstones , Emotional principles , No Comments In our intellect-driven world we’re very comfortable with the words ‘laws’ and ‘mechanics’. ‘Emotions’, less so—particularly when it’s in a sentence about laws and mechanics. Yet emotional mechanics are just as precise, just as […]
What is human sensitivity? 2 July 2020 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Cornerstones , No Comments In What is unconscious shame?, What is sexual shame?, What is generational trauma? and other posts I’ve written about the layer of unconscious, invisible shame and trauma that overlays our whole society. This raises a question: why are […]
What is sexual shame? 1 July 2020 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Cornerstones , Shame , No Comments In What is unconscious shame? I described how all the feminine aspects of our being—our emotions, our feelings about our body and our sexuality—have been pushed down into our unconscious by several millennia of patriarchal culture. […]
How shame affects arrested development 30 June 2020 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Cornerstones , Shame , No Comments On this site I’ve written extensively about unconscious shame. Here I want to connect shame to arrested development. Arrested development is a colloquial term, popularised by the TV show of the same name, for what […]
What is the ‘sexual-spiritual split’? 25 June 2020 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Cornerstones , Sexuality , No Comments The ‘sexual-spiritual split’ is a term that comes to us from Michael Picucci, PhD, co-founder of the Institute for Staged Recovery. Writing in The Journey toward Complete Recovery, Picucci describes the sexual-spiritual split as “a […]
Breathe – and stay above the fear and rage 5 June 2020 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Anxiety , No Comments As I write this, coronavirus is sweeping the globe, public trust in the UK government has collapsed and the streets of America are full of rage. So is my social media feed: “It’s […]
The 3 layers of trauma – ancestral, generational, current-life 18 May 2020 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Ancestral trauma , Generational trauma , Mother wound , No Comments NOTE: This article has been superceded by Trauma exists as a series of ripples When we set out to bring the contents of our unconscious to […]