After the Fairy Tale Ends (part 5)

After the Fairy Tale Ends (Part 4)

After the Fairy Tale Ends (Part 3)

After the Fairy Tale Ends (part 2)

After the Fairy Tale Ends (part 1)

Meet Kristin Armstrong, Spiritual Shaman

Here's my background check. I'm 42, single mom, divorced for 10 years. I have had my fill of dating, let's just say it like it is, who wants to be seen naked for the first time in middle age? Thank God for dimmers and failing eyesight after 40, just saying.

LINK

Ahhhh.

Kristin Armstrong.

Just allowing her name to pass through my mind brings me a measure of peace.

Quieting the Inner Voice

Quieting the Inner Voice

For most of my life I assumed that the voice in my head and me were the same thing. Until you notice the voice, and don’t even necessarily agree with the voice, then you have a weird brain-zapping aha-moment where you are aware of your awareness and you suddenly spy a glimpse of your ego. I like the term author Michael Singer uses for the voice – your roommate. So I have been listening to my roommate more carefully lately, especially now that I understand that I’m not her, I only have to live with her. And let me tell you, she is totally annoying.

She does not shut up with her endless chatter and observations, which is very distracting when I’m trying to relax, enjoy myself, work, run, hike, walk my dog, read, or focus on something. When I have insomnia, she is thrilled because apparently she does not sleep and loves having someone to talk at in the wee hours. I notice that when I’m really trying to listen to someone I care about she is like a petulant, interrupting child poking me and interjecting irrelevant thoughts or else obsessed with ideas of what I could say next.

Seriously, if she were renting a room in my house instead of space in my head – I would promptly evict this pain in the ass.

-- Kristin Armstrong

Sometimes the things we love in life merge and become one. Chris Martin from Coldplay recently fronted for u2 when Bono was recovering from a bicycle accident. This week Kristin Armstrong, a runner who serves as my de factor spiritual guide, wrote a column about self-compassion and quieting the inner voice that often disrupts our daily existence by interjecting unwelcome, critical thoughts into our brains, a subject addressed by another favorite author, KellyMcGonigal, a Stanford professor who has written about neuroscience and Eastern Wisdom.