On New Conversations Day, which was yesterday, I had conversations with people about doing something new: staying off of others’ emotional roller coasters.
In these new conversations, I suggested to my empathic patients that instead of going along for the ride in the car with somebody else’s ups and downs, that instead they visualize standing on the ground beside that roller coaster with their feet on the ground while keeping track of the other person’s ride. That way, they could be present with the other person while also taking care of themselves. I also recommended this grounded technique for experiencing the constant up-and-down roller coaster of the news.
Do you see other new conversations in today’s blog post?
.
Maybe I’ll have some new conversations about baldness, barbershop music, and beans n’ franks today.
For the past week, I’ve been doing a version of my Coping and Healing groups for staff where I work. My group supervisor shared this very helpful thought with me: “For your co-workers, these groups are not therapy, but they still may be therapeutic.”
A Coping and Healing group, no matter who it is for, includes a mindfulness exercise, a check-in where each person gets to say whatever they choose without interruption, a focus on the shared common experiences in the room, and the chance to get a good enough sense of closure at the end of the meeting. Members of the groups say they find this format therapeutic, and so do I.
Are any of my recent photos therapeutic?
That Chilean sea bass with ginger and garlic was SO therapeutic last night.
It was also therapeutic for me to read these comments about that YouTube video:
Tamara Munk
1 day ago
So sad he’s left us, but he’s left an indelible legacy, and made his mark on me. His music has lifted my soul. Thank you Lyle.
JSkalman
1 day ago
This. So fittingly honoring on this day to remember decades of enjoying one of the greatest collaborations in the history of music. The last note belongs to Lyle.
.
Sherif Shaalan
1 day ago
It was 1978 when as a young music student, I first heard Lyle Mays play piano and keyboards with the Pat Metheny Group in concert on the campus of Wayne State University in Detroit. I was astonished! He immediately became my favorite pianist of all time, and has remained so to this day.
His composing, arranging and piano/keyboard playing combined melodic sensitivity, harmonic richness, rhythmic diversity, and a remarkably fluid technique, all firmly rooted in both classical and jazz musical traditions . . . are entirely innovative.
While I never met him, I read many of his interviews and watched hundreds of his videos and remain awestruck by the modesty and humility of someone with the genius to evoke such thought, emotion and tranquility through his own music . . . music so complete in its usage of nearly the entire spectrum of compositional and improvisational elements available to musicians.
I loved and admired both Lyle’s solo work and his best known collaborative work with the great jazz guitarist, Pat Metheny, beginning in 1974. Their final collaboration as the Pat Metheny Group was in 2005.
Since then, I, along with millions of other fans all over the world have longed for a PMG reunion, but unfortunately with today’s news, we have already enjoyed our final “Pat Metheny Group” recording, which makes me quite sad.
But what a profoundly beautiful and soulful musical legacy he left.
.
Pamela G.
2 days ago
Goodbye Lyle! See you on the other side – I know you’re adding to heaven’s light with your beautiful music.
What is therapeutic for you, here and now?
I hope you know that gratitude is also therapeutic, so thanks to all who help me create these daily posts, including YOU.
