Elizabeth Wood Consulting

10/07/2024

Between Us contributor, Tony Brown, shares a powerful story about how group memberships help us survive while creating lots of conflicting emotions.

08/06/2023

Sunday read: This is a beautiful piece by Sunita Puri about the importance of speaking honestly about what CPR can and can’t do. In it she writes that “reversing a death is not the same as preserving a life.” This might be one of the most profound observations in medicine.

The brutal procedure can save lives, but only in particular cases. Why has it become a default treatment?

01/30/2020

There are no perfect victims, and none of us is equal to the worst thing we've done. This is important to remember in the days after someone has died. When is it right to speak ill of the dead? - https://mailchi.mp/9fe1516a22cd/when-is-it-right-to-speak-ill-of-the-dead

08/14/2017

I've been thinking a lot about the importance of the term "white supremacy" in conversations about the violence in Charlottesville, and in broader conversations about injustice in the United States. The term makes many whites uncomfortable. My message: It's important to name the problems we are trying to change, and it's important to be willing to be uncomfortable. Change is an uncomfortable process.

Therapists commonly tell their clients that you need to name a problem before you can fix it, and this is just as true for social change as it is for individual change. Still, discussions about whi…

11/21/2016

I did this backwards today, sharing from my personal account first. Here is this week's "3 Things" post. If you are having a hard time talking about and thinking about the recent US Presidential Election, these are three things I read this week that have helped me think and talk, and that I offer, with brief comments, in hopes that they'll help you do the same. https://elizabethwoodconsulting.com/2016/11/20/three-things-112016-identity-and-the-election/

This week I’ve ben thinking a lot about identity and the election. No surprise, I’m sure. Identity politics has been at the forefront of many election analyses in the couple of weeks. R…

11/12/2016

Are you having a hard time talking about the US Presidential Election this week? Me too. Here are three things that helped.

My initial reactions to Tuesday night were, in order, disbelief, anger, and hopelessness. Over the last couple of days I’ve listened, watched, and participated in a number of conversations ab…

03/10/2016

Most of us don't want to die, but when we think hard about it, most of us do have preferences about how we'd want to die when that time comes. This article is useful in thinking about the conversations we need to have with those who will be helping us make decisions, or communicating with our caregivers when that time comes.

Saying no to extreme interventions is hard to do, but it may mean a more peaceful death.

03/09/2016

Planning requires a destination, and sometimes all we know is that we need change, but we don’t feel like there’s a clearly acceptable destination ahead.
http://elizabethwoodconsulting.com/2016/03/09/what-happens-when-planning-is-precipitous/

In my previous post, I wrote about planning and patience as distinct from waiting for good things to happen. What do you do, though, when you don’t have a clear goal? Planning requires a dest…

03/06/2016

Do you get Sunday night anxiety about the coming week? Here's a message from The Latest Kate to help get you through. Remember, you're a badass!

02/27/2016

Inspiration came to me today in the form of this quote from Paulo Coehlo's novel, Aleph: Life is short. Kiss slowly, laugh insanely, love truly and forgive quickly.

The quote was printed on today's page in the planning journal I'm trying out. How lovely to think about planning a life of slow kisses, that is also full of laughter, honesty and forgiveness.

(En Español: La vida es corta: besa despacio, ríe bien alto, ama intensamente y perdona rápido)

02/21/2016

Is patience a virtue? Do good things come to those who wait? Only if patience is combined with planning!

Yes! Absolutely they do. But here’s the catch: Those good things that come while you’re waiting? They aren’t always the good things you were hoping for. The vacation you patiently waited for someon...

01/19/2016

Talking about the kind of life we want is relatively easy. Talking about the kind of death we want is harder. This very moving article details the conversations and planning that an Australian couple engaged in with their daughters and others so that they could live and die as they wished. Need help framing and navigating those kinds of conversations in your own life? http://elizabethwoodconsulting.com/how-can-i-help/approaching-death/

Scientists Pat and Peter Shaw died recently in a su***de pact. Their daughters tell the story of their plan - and their remarkable lives.