Playing Myself

Playing for keeps in a brave new world

[playingmyself]

Integrity is living up to what you declare, in an improv scene and in a life. Declare what you honestly want, and live that vision fearlessly.

Mick Napier, Improvise. Scenes from the inside out

[gracefulbabe]

Words of wisdom from Amy Poehler

[ucbcomedy]

A daily dose of Poehler wisdom coming atchya!

[therapistconfessions-deactivate]

When clients ask me to define love.

I’m just like:

[playingmyself]

Brilliant mash up of Kim Kardashian tweets with Soren Kierkegaard:

We traveled the world together, laughed & lived it up, and never noticed that our immortal souls had blown away like so much dust.

— KimKierkegaardashian (@KimKierkegaard) August 6, 2014

[neogohann]

[tea-doctor-blog]

This is deep, man

[regretisfortheliving]

one of the greatest piece of information taught to me in life was from a fucking deranged talking baboon

[carriehopefletcher-deactivated2]

I love this!

[playingmyself]

Passion has little to do with euphoria and everything to do with patience. It is not about feeling good. It is about endurance. Like patience, passion comes from the same Latin root: "pati." It does not mean to flow with exuberance. It means to suffer.

Mark Danielewski

[playingmyself]

In the best stories, like in reality, everything and everyone is in medias res.

Tim Carmody, Kottke.com

[playingmyself]

How I feel about good-byes

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,

Because their words had forked no lightning they

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright

Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,

And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight

Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,   

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,

Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

-- Dylan Thomas

[skeletorislove]

Skeletor Affirmations (by ghoulnextdoor)

EVERY OPEN DOOR IS AN EXCITING OPPORTUNITY.

Alternately: I AM THE ONE WHO KNOCKS.

[playingmyself]

Sage advice for rough times

I am halfway through a rough week. Will try to do as my husband sagely advised, i.e., to "hang in there and take a big dump." 

[playingmyself]

See this and many other evocative and visceral posters from the collection of Polish Posters 1945-89 at MoMa

[playingmyself]

iO Level 5 Week 4 w/ Craig Uhlir

"If you're not sweaty by the end of a show, you probably didn't have enough fun." 

[playingmyself]

HOW TO GET AN MBA FROM EMINEM

In 2002 I was driving to a hedge fund manager's house to hopefully raise money from him. I was two hours late. This was pre-GPS and I had no cell phone. I was totally lost. I kept playing over and over again "Lose Yourself" by Eminem. I was afraid this was my one shot and…

The Tucker Max addendum at the end really elevated the entire article for me. 

[playingmyself]

My job isn't to keep you alive, it's to help you build a life that's worth living

Steve Hollon

[ambiendew-deactivated20131217]

[playingmyself]

Delirious Thoughts on Training as a CBT and Psychodynamic and Groups/Systems Therapist

On my first day of sixth grade, shortly after I immigrated to the United States, I lost my lunch ticket. Now, I didn't know how to say "lost," "lunch," or "ticket" in English. But then as now, I was extremely motivated to get fed. And these lunch tickets were these pink pieces of paper like the ones you get at Chuck-E-Cheese's. And I also didn't know how to say "pink." So I told my teacher that "I can't find my small red paper for eating." This was a cumbersome and less-than-accurate sentence, but it got me what I needed.

After training psychodynamically and interpersonally and systemically, going into a CBT clinic is a lot like immigrating to a whole new country and needing to learn its language and culture.

Immersion first, integration second. At first, I didn't use the mindset of total immersion. I attempted to use psychodynamic terms and theories to scaffold me during CBT supervision, thinking that I needed to use what I knew. But the results of hanging onto psychodynamic framework during CBT supervision were suboptimal. At best, it was as if I was using Chinese to ask my American teacher for a lunch ticket - I wasn't going to get what I needed because I wasn't going to be understood. At worst, my psychodynamics verbiage at times stirred up such averse reactions from staunchly CBT peers that it was reminiscent of the "learn English or go back to where you came from" refrain that many immigrants have received. Once I let go of my psychodynamic "crutches" in CBT clinic, I started gaining fluency more quickly by clobbering together clumsy, less-than-accurate but entirely CBT "sentences." I also started experiencing more support and less averse reactions from my peers. 

Language is culturally embedded. CBT and psychodynamics are not only different languages but also different cultures. Just like how some tribes have 17 words for snow, and how some words are directly translatable across languages but some are not. it's kind of like that between the tribes of CBT and psychodynamics. For example, can the notion/term of the unconscious be translated into CBT lingo? Not sure. 

As an immigrant, you may not know the new language or culture, but you still have access to all of your life experience and you as a person. I didn't speak English in sixth grade, but I did know how to walk and open doors - a fact that surprised some of my American classmates. No matter what modality of therapy I practice in, I relate and respond to my clients in an authentically me way because that's me. And as a psychodynamically and systemically trained therapist, just because I am fully immersed in the CBT clinic does not mean I can/will turn off my awareness of groups/systems dynamics or psychodynamic phenomena like projection and splitting or data about clients' early childhood experiences.

Experience in multiple different cultures and languages is usually an enriching experience even if the culture shock and learning curve can be challenging at first. 

[playingmyself]

HT: Flowing Data