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About McDowell Graham
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Blog postNamaste and Welcome. I’m McDowell Graham, founder of Cracks in Consciousness, where the world is more than we know.
For today’s thought shifting session, I want to talk about self-isolation and its effects on our well-being – physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.
Right now, countless blogs, videos, FB Live sessions, and Twitters are available that talk about the need for social distancing and self-isolation. I’ve seen lots of recommendations and suggestions for how to a -
Blog postReprinted in honor of my soulmate, Kona, who passed away six years ago today.
From 2002 to 2012, I shared my life with the love of my life: a plush-coat Czechoslovakian Shepherd named Kona. He meant everything to me, and I couldn’t imagine my life without him.
He wasn’t the dog I was “supposed” to get. I wanted a solid black male. When the litter that I had placed a deposit on was born, there were two males, and one of them was all black. See, I told myself, it was meant to be. I had -
Blog postThe author, Christiane Northrup, said this: “Our souls design many potent wake-up calls to get our attention back on track.” As it turned out, it only took one potent wake-up call for me to figure out how to extricate myself from any situation. Because everything I needed to know about finding my way out of any situation I learned by locking myself in a barn on New Years Day, 2005!
I’m going to begin by sharing with you a story from one of my favorite TV shows, “The West Wing.” Leo McGarry -
Blog postThere is a very good first-person article today in the “Perspective” section of the Denver Post. Headlined, “What it means to have been born on Sept. 11, 2001,” it is the perspective of a young woman who was born on this day 15 year ago, and how people react when she tells them that, yes, she was born on 9/11.
I have another perspective of this day, one that I would title, ““What it means to have your beloved sister pass away on Sept. 11, 2015.”
One year ago today, I was in the middl -
Blog postQuestion: What are the two most offensive words in the English (or any other) language?
I’ll give you two hints:Neither word is on George Carlin’s famous, “Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television.”Unlike George Carlin’s Seven Words, both words are never censored, either on television or anywhere else (and, taken together, they should be).Answer: Age Appropriate
Age appropriateness is generally defined as “suitable for people of a particular age.”I once subscribed to a magazine t -
Blog post#ThoughtHealing Quote for the Week: We can change the quality of our lives by changing the context in which we view our circumstances. Ernie Zelinkski
I can’t prove it, but I think there's a pool they started up at work when I returned last month after my 14-month "sabbatical": Pick the day when McDowell will stop looking refreshed and start looking like she did when she left here at the end of 2014.
I’m not sure what kind of odds I’m getting, but in the immortal words of B -
Blog post#ThoughtHealing Quote for This Week: “You must learn to respect the wisdom of your natural instincts, because they are probably superb when it comes to weaving everything you need into your life.” Barbara Sher
Last month, I wrote about how I found, and then, surprisingly, left the perfect job.
Now I want to share how this came about. I still believe that the Universe did, in fact, manifest the perfect job for me. I simply needed to come to understand why it was perfect for me—and why -
Blog postWhen I decided to return to the workforce last June, I, wisely, turned to my very own book, Getting What You Wish For: A Short and Sweet Guide to Manifesting the Sweet Life!, for guidance in securing the “perfect” job: “Your desires must be focused, specific, and stated in such a way as to be given the answer you are looking for in order to bring about positive changes in your life.”
(I have to say, it’s terribly fun to be able to quote yourself!)
At the time, my #1 priority was fin -
Blog post#ThoughtHealing Quote for the Week: “Life is simple. You just have to stop trying to figure it out.” Marty Rubin
Question: What do you do with a blue monster?Answer: Cheer him up!
This is one of my favorite jokes, told to me by a former co-worker over 30 years ago. Obviously, I’ve never forgotten it.
Why? Because it cheers me up, every time, even when I’m not blue. And because it reminds me how easy it is to make things far more complicated than they really are or need to be. A -
Blog post#ThoughtHealing Quote for the Week: “It’s never too late to be what you might have been.” George Eliot
Here’s your two-minute history lesson for the day: George Eliot was the male pen name of Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880). She was an English novelist, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She is the author of seven novels, including Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861), Middlemarch (1872), a -
Blog post#ThoughtHealing Quote for the Week: “Both abundance and lack exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend… when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that’s present — love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature and personal pursuits that bring us pleasure — the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience Heaven on earth.” Sarah Ban Breathnach
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Blog post#ThoughtHealing Quote for the Week: “You never really know a man until you understand things from his point of view, until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” Harper Lee, “To Kill A Mockingbird”
I got a copy of my sister’s death certificate yesterday. Near the bottom, in box 25, “Immediate Cause,” there was space for up to four causes of death, preceded by this explanation: “Conditions if any which gave rise to immediate cause stating the underlying cause last.” Unfortunately, -
Blog post#ThoughtHealing Quote for the Week: “Expecting is the greatest impediment to living. In anticipation of tomorrow, it loses today.” Seneca
At this time of year, people spend a lot of time focusing on the future. What resolutions should I make for the coming year? What changes do I need to make in my health care enrollment for next year? How much money will I owe, or might I get back, when I file my taxes next year? What might the new year bring me? What might Santa bring me?
I certain -
Blog post#ThoughtHealing Quote for the Week: “Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.” William Arthur Ward
I don’t know about you, but among the many things I’m grateful for are tools. Duct tape and an electric screwdriver are a homeowner’s best friend. A set of diamond drill bits are among this girl’s best friends. And, don’t even get me started on how much I love my Sawzall—no overgrown tree on my proper -
Blog post#ThoughtHealing Quote for the Week: “All we are saying is give peace a chance.” John Lennon
Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve talked about living an examined life—looking at our motivations, our feelings, our thoughts, and our beliefs in order to see what is at the heart of our true selves.
Given the tragedy in Paris, and throughout the world, over the last few days, this exercise takes on a very personal poignancy for me—and, perhaps, for some of you as well.
I’ve shared wi -
Blog post#ThoughtHealing #MotivationMonday Quote for the Week: “The truth of a thing is the feel of it, not the think of it.” Stanley Kubrick
Last week, we talked about the value of self-examination, and how knowledge of oneself can be the first step towards wisdom and a more satisfying life in which you are true to yourself.
So now, let’s assume that you’ve taken that first step towards “true-ness”: you’ve examined yourself and you now have a wealth of information at your fingertips.
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Blog post#ThoughtHealing #MotivationMonday Quote for the Week: “This above all: to thine own self be true. Hamlet Act 1, scene 3, 78–82
“To thine own self be true” is Polonius's last piece of advice to his son Laertes, who is about to head off to Paris for his gentleman's education (and who, by the way, can’t wait to get away from the old man, if for no other reason than to avoid being preached to with such pithy platitudes).
By “true” Polonius means “loyal to your own best interests.” Take c -
Blog post#ThoughtHealing Quote For The Week: “If you don’t want to be scared, stop telling yourself ghost stories.” Sheri Holman, “Witches on the Road Tonight”
When you head out on the road of life each day, how do you plan your route? Do you look for monsters lurking under the bed and things that go bump in the night? Or do you prefer the happy ending, cup-not-just-half-full-but-overflowing approach to life?
Our limiting thoughts and beliefs are like the ghost stories we tell ourselves. Limi -
Blog post#ThoughtHealing Quote for the Week: “It’s not only moving that creates new starting points. Sometimes all it takes is a subtle shift in perspective, an opening of the mind, an intentional pause and reset, or a new route to start to see new options and new possibilities.” Kristin Armstrong
We all know that the three most important words in real estate are location, location, location. In my experience as a personal transformation coach, I have learned that when we decide to embark on radica -
Blog post#ThoughtHealing Quote for the Week: “At my age of 63, there are a lot of things that are no longer likely or possible. I’ll probably never go up Mt. Kilimanjaro or run another marathon. I won’t spend a winter crewing on boats in the Caribbean. Won’t learn to play the piano. Might learn another language, although that’s a long shot. But I’ll tell you one thing that is possible. You can walk across Scotland and put your feet in the sea.” David Brown, excerpted from “Sea to sea: a hillwalking ‘chal
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Blog postThis week's #ThoughtHealing inspiration comes from a post by Dr. Amy Johnson who described far better than I ever could how important it is to learn to let go. Please check out this insightful #MondayMotivation post: http://tinybuddha.com/blog/let-go-of-control-how-to-learn-the-art-of-surrender/
I’m a black-or-white, everything-tied-up-in-a-neat-bow-that-I-tied kinda gal. The outside-of-my-control gray area is the quintessential definition of a bad neighborhood for me: don’t go in alone an -
Blog post#ThoughtHealing Quote For The Week: “‘Someday’ is a disease that takes your dreams to the grave with you. If it’s important to you and you want to do it ‘eventually,’ just do it and correct your course along the way. Tom Ferriss, The Four-Hour Workweek
I admire people who live their lives by the “Just Do It” Nike credo. And, apparently, Mr. Ferriss counts himself among that elite few, happily exhorting the rest of us to embrace this motto. We all know people like this: the one -
Blog post#ThoughtHealing Quote For The Week: “Don’t spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door.” Coco Chanel
Are there times when you feel a little overwhelmed, but you can’t figure out how to separate the important stuff from the ordinary noise of your everyday life? Are you at a place in your life today where you can’t figure out how to get from where you are to where you want to be? Have you ever found yourself at a place where you honestly believed you had no way out of? -
Blog post#ThoughtHealing Quote For The Week: “No matter how qualified or deserving we are, we will never reach a better life until we can imagine it for ourselves and allow ourselves to have it.” Richard Bach
For most of us, giving ourselves permission is challenging. For many reasons, we can’t or won’t allow ourselves to put ourselves first. Instead, we simply put one foot in front of the other and gut it out.
Part generational, part genetic, part upbringing, there are many reasons why we n -
Blog postThought Healing Quote For The Week: “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” Yogi Berra
The definition of a crossroads is “the place where roads intersect or a place at which a vital decision must be made.”
Clearly, Yogi Berra knew a thing or two about being at a crossroads. There are two significant elements of this definition that Yogi has managed to capture (and in a much funnier way than I ever could).
First, a crossroads involves options: this road or that road, th
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