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Notes From the Dig
This is where I reflect on my journey and its continuation throughout my life – the connections, the lessons, the memories. I write about it all because the story needs to be written: the story of survival, overcoming, unearthing, and thriving. I write it here, one post, one nugget at a time.
The excavation continues here.
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Story Mining Welcomes a “New” Offering
Having compiled the clinician’s offering, it occurred to me that since nothing about that broader version of The Mini Dig it uses actually requires a clinician to be present, that it could be every bit as much a self-paced, do-it-yourself tool as the original; indeed, that “new” version constituted another product under the Story Mining umbrella entirely on its own.
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The Parts of My Past Keep Showing Up: Eight Years of Nightcaps
Recently I began a new social post feature I call Before You Sleep. I felt like I wanted to have another daily touchpoint with people and it seemed natural to make it something personal and reflective, like Story Mining itself. As I was hatching the idea of Before You Sleep, it dawned on me that this is not the first time I’ve created a space to reflect at the end of the day…
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I Almost Clicked
The scene: Late night Facebook. My timeline is full of inspirational quotes, memes and posts by self-improvement enthusiasts, coaches and organizations all of which I’m casually glancing at and scrolling past. Then I come to one video in particular: Full Stop. It was a woman – attractive, likable, seemingly competent – naming “four reasons you might be feeling a certain way” as they appeared one by one in writing on the screen over the video.
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Rise to the Surface: A Live Story Mining Mini Dig Experience
This August, I’m holding a small, live gathering for a handful of women (no more than six) to move through the Mini Dig together – rather than on their own. Two parts, two weeks apart, held by me in real time online in a private, non-recorded, camera-optional gathering.
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The Mini Dig Is Officially Available!
The Mini Dig is a self-guided reflection experience I’ve developed – seven reflections, each one offering a question to sit with, entirely at your own pace. There’s no deadline, no program to keep up with, and nothing you’re required to feel. Some reflections may move you. Others may leave you blank. Either way is exactly right.
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Welcome to Story Mining
On Saturday morning – after weeks of building and planning, contemplating and deciding – this, the Story Mining website, went live. I’m brimming with gratitude for all the help I received from my behind-the-scenes tech-genius, detail-oriented, all-around wonderful husband Scott, for helping me transform my vision into a safe and nurturing online home for Story Mining. It represents the culmination of years of untangling, unearthing, and rebuilding that has defined much of my life.
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The Lie We Tell Ourselves
What she’d described is one of the cruelest features of an abusive relationship. It’s not enough that he hurts you; he’s also persuasive enough, in the moment, to make you doubt the very truth you’ve already arrived at. You know. And then he speaks, and suddenly you’re not sure you know. And you find yourself searching for outside proof of something your own gut already settled.
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The First Dig
The First Dig is a single Story Mining prompt – one question, held in the same careful, witnessing space that the full Story Mining experience offers. There are no right answers; no conclusions you’re supposed to reach. Just you and one question; turn to whatever feels right to respond with – words in a notebook, a voice memo, a doodle, a few minutes of quiet reflection sitting with your eyes closed.
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Abuse “Amnesia”
You’re really good at pretending and keeping up the facade – and one way you do that day in and day out is by managing your yesterday. “Managing” entails stashing all the emotions and memories away in a mental file cabinet, closing the drawer and forgetting about it. Then you put one foot in front of the other and get through today – because today is the only thing you can deal with right now.