Anxiety and Emotions: What If You Had to Live the Next Five Minutes Over and Over?

Anxiety What If . . . Every Moment You Experienced Today, You Had to Do Over Again? Dateline: Dallas, Texas, 9 p.m. I’m standing in front of the yummy shrimp display at Eatzi’s gourmet take-takeout, my over-educated and under-used brain caught in a dilemma. Should I sacrifice and buy only four …

Continue reading

How to Be a Loving, but Separate Person, Hawaiian Pineapple Cake

How to Be a Loving but Separate Self…Otherwise you will drift between faking agreement and hiding anger. MysteryShrink Short: Love and Boundaries FOOD, Pineapple Upside Down Cake The couple had just finished the last meal of their magical Hawaiian honeymoon. The gazed into each other’s eyes. The fragrance of blossoms …

Continue reading

The Problem with Hotel Loyalty Programs

The Problem with Hotel Loyalty Programs is– The “Wrong People” Get In The management of Executive Lounges in luxury hotels should make us where a badge.  By ‘us’ I mean travelers like me who invade prestigious hotels and their ‘executive lounges’ by using Hilton points cards to charge gas, public …

Continue reading

“Hey! You there! Don’t you see my halo? So move #$**!@! over!

“Hey! You there! Don’t you see my halo? So move over!” “Paying Attention to What You Are Paying Attention To” Series What you pay attention to changes the experiences the world for other people. Maybe not the president or even the mayor, but what you pay attention to matters a …

Continue reading

The Drinker, the Aardvark, and the Hat that Changed the World

The Drinker, the Aardvark, and the Hat that Changed the World “Paying Attention to What You’re Paying Attention To” Series Ms. R’s emaciated body shook so violently I wasn’t sure she would make it across the room to the ‘client’ chair, but she did. Ms. R, 56, had clearly crossed …

Continue reading

Paying Attention to What You’re Paying Attention To, Part 1

What Do You Mean, You Didn’t Notice? Paying Attention to What You’re Paying Attention To, Part 1 The Green Wallpaper Incident Dr. A is a fifty-two-year old psychiatrist who began the hour saying: “I’m satisfied in most areas of my life, but for some reason, every long-term relationship I’ve been …

Continue reading

Are You Better Looking than Most People?

MysteryShrink Short:  Who has the smallest rear, the youngest face, the finest clothes, the clearest skin? Who has the right skin color? Who are the losers? The winners? In the documentary, Come Back, Africa (1960) Zacharia, a man from ‘the villages’, comes to Johannesburg where his new employer, the wealthy …

Continue reading