The last week has been tinged with the sorrow, outrage, and hatred that masks itself as self-righteous indignation over the horrific attacks in Paris. It has come up with a few of my clients. It alternates between a slow-burning seething pain and a flaring, almost overwhelming rage. Why the violence? Why do so many people feel justified in taking the lives of innocents in the name of their ideology, as a response to their wounding? Why do we stand by while this happens?

The exercise at the end of last week's post is a Shadow exercise. If you didn't get a chance to do it before, I strongly recommend that you take some time to do it before reading on. You see these people the way that you do because they are holding projections of who you are at your deepest core. The people that you admire are the embodiment of what you know you can become. They are the ones that appear to embody your highest standards for yourself. At times these standard

There are a few different layers to projection (If you missed last week's intro on projection, read it here). We are complicit in all of them, until we get to the 4th. This is when we have to choose to accept that our projection is a shadow issue of ours, or we move on and start it all over again with someone else. Here are the five stages: 1. Stage 1 – I meet somebody that I am emotionally connected to. It can be a lover, boss, family member, neighbor, etc. I see in

Have you ever experienced something like this? Luis started dating Jennifer a few days ago. He really liked her. He was excited about the relationship and where it would lead. He was a little nervous, because she had all of the qualities that he wanted in a woman. She was athletic, intelligent, funny, and gorgeous. He expressed to me that he didn’t know how he had been so lucky. One day, Luis and Jennifer were scheduled to meet for lunch. Luis showed up at the restauran