Over the past few weeks, I’ve returned again and again to my ever changing understanding of grief. I’ve had conversations about mortality, death, and the uncertainty we have no choice but sit with. Sometimes these conversations happen at a time of my choosing but usually, grief moves to the forefront because I’ve just encountered a sudden loss. 

The first time I heard the phrase “highly sensitive person”, I was on a trail run with my friend Emily. She’s a social worker and a psychotherapist who works with highly sensitive people in the LGBTQ+ community in the San Francisco Bay Area. Emily is also a badass ultramarathon runner. 

In the past few weeks, I’ve found myself having conversations with my clients and colleagues about an inspiring talk by Graham Weaver, a lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Business and founder of Alpine Investors. I’ve listened to the lecture, which Weaver calls How to Live your Life at Full Power, several times on YouTube. I’ve sent it to a few of my clients who live and work in the San Francisco Bay Area to get their take on it. And I’ve discovered a few things about myself through the process.

Yesterday I ran in the Tamalpa Headlands 50K in Marin, California. It’s known to be a demanding race with plenty of steep climbs, single tracks covered in rocks and roots, and the challenge of running downhill while weaving through packs of hikers making their way to Stinson Beach. This year’s conditions featured thick fog, mist that rained down on us throughout the day soaking our clothes, muddy trails, and chilling winds. In graduate school, I learned that one of the best ways to get to know someone is to ask about their “favorite kind of day”. This is mine.

In my work as a psychotherapist, I teach my clients how cognitive distortions can get in our way and shape how we perceive ourselves, the world, and the future. We have tens of thousands of thoughts per day that contribute to a hum of background chatter. We weave these thoughts together to narrate the story of our experiences and our lives. Many of our thoughts are accurate appraisals that aren’t worth much attention. When we’re well resourced, most of us can be quite thoughtful, kind, and optimistic. At the very least, we can see things with clarity and make an accurate appraisal about which action we can take next. When we’re stressed, however, one wily thought can create a spiral of negative thinking that can leave us feeling unglued.

Interactions with parents and teachers have a profound effect on a child’s view of creativity, process of exploration, and evaluation of self. In a time of shifting priorities and budget cuts that could remove programs that foster creativity from today’s educational system, this research attempts to locate epiphanies, turning points, and disruptions in the lifelong development of creativity by collecting childhood narratives involving parents and teachers from seven adults.