Like you, Hungyphil has many dimensions and manifestations: Wobblyogi and now Angstytherapist. This blog started as a way to retain and share food experiences, it grew to add yoga and mindfulness, and now counseling and therapy. Like the Very Hungry Caterpillar, Hungry Philosopher is munching away at life one leaf at a time. Not sure… Read More Cooking is my coping skill
I am an extra. I am a non-speaking character in a coffee shop background sipping coffee and staring at my laptop. There are raindrops on the windows, a blade of grass moving in the wind outside, cars moving past on the road, murmuring conversations, a large orange sculpture, a concrete floor, a sneeze, a ding,… Read More Being Extra: the sauce of life
It was Valentine’s Day, 2013. I had waited all day in fear, as fellow tenure-bound colleagues celebrated with online posts conveying relief and joy. When I finally got the evening call from the dean of liberal arts, “I’m sorry, there just wasn’t enough,” he said. That was it, a quick and sudden death of my… Read More Advice from a Recovering Academic
An OSCE (Objective structured clinical exam). For, “social work?” you might be asking. Indiana University uses the OSCE exam to assess student’s clinical assessment ability. It is a way to document and measure how responsive, intentional, empathetic and helpful, I can be as a social worker. Of my first four classes in the MSWD program,… Read More An Architect, a Philosopher, and a Social Worker walk into…
“The art of listening is the marriage of ear and space.” – Remski interpretation of Patanjali’s sutra 3.41 In my Theory and Practice Course for Social Work, we are learning the art of interviewing. Step one involves achieving a compassionate and empowering balance between attending and reflecting. Here is an ancient yogic way to develop… Read More Attending, listening Yoga-style
Yoga helps, “the seeker excavate the tensions of inner life in a self-directed manner” (Look inside) us be responsible for our own spiritual health (Be responsible for your own peace) “relocate the unseen within us, invites us to introvert, to open our eyes to why we are who and how we are.” (See your hidden… Read More Self-Examination, Yoga style
Haven’t we all suffered nights of restless sleep? I still do sometimes, but now without the added anxiety and self-judgment. I don’t feel like a victim of my restless thoughts, emotions, and imagination. Knowing a few relaxation techniques gives us tools to try while lying in bed, eyes wide open, instead of stirring up anxiety… Read More Yoga for Grief 4 (Off the Mat) – Insomnia
The course, Introduction to the Social Work Profession opened with a module, not about the glories of the profession, but rather the demands and the emphatic need for self-care. Symptoms of “compassion fatigue” as one of the embedded TED talks warned was to be monitored on a daily basis. Compassion fatigue unlike burn-out characterized by… Read More Social Work Warnings and Yoga
Living forces honesty. Answers are seasonal, losing their sense precisely as they become scripture. You will die: this is the first meaning. The world around you seems to bear helpless witness to your wandering. Other people suffer in the same way, and yet this seems to increase loneliness. But you can welcome despair like gravity,… Read More Exploded view of my now
It is a bit unusual for someone with a Ph.D. to go back to school, right? Yet, here I am. This is my first-week attending IUPUI’s Masters of Social Work program online. I don’t find my status odd or contradictory. Given my graduate work at the New School School for Social Research, a pursuit of… Read More Hungryphil starts an MSW
