by Aren Henry | January, 2022 | Clarity is . . ., Grit/Grace/Gratitude, Karen Henry, Light Life, Noetic Nomad, Uncategorized
This journey into our 2022, the light life is curious. But I’m also wary, which makes for an eclectic mix of questions at this juncture in the journey through our positive psychology. The parts of ourselves that were rattled with grief, remain pain points for us to focus our healing. The unconscious became conscious on several fronts, throughout our journey. Everything about our language, our worldview and even our friendships shifted and changed. Those of us who live in the United States have also realized how very divided many of us are about our fundamental belief systems, and/or systemic ideals on what the world should look like. Be curious Curiosity about the thoughts or actions of others seems to be a solution. Curiosity about why people got away with despicable things, while also boasting about being above all others. Curiosity about our core sense of self in relation to others became more defined. ‘Why’ is a question I found myself asking, time and time again. A character on the TV show, Gray’s Anatomy had a line that I personally, felt aligned with as I defined my purpose here. “I lost myself for a long time.” Christina said, as she awoke from a pattern of wholeness that felt inauthentic. So many of us woke up to want more for ourselves. We realized how much of our decision making was based on settling just to fit in, or, nesting under the wing of the more powerful, just to survive the collective way we now work, as we nested during this pandemic. Ted Lasso (another TV show award winner), had a great speech...
by Aren Henry | December, 2021 | Clarity is . . ., Grit/Grace/Gratitude, Karen Henry, Light Life, Noetic Nomad
Rhianna has a song that reminds us all to, “Shine bright like a diamond in the sky …” encouraging her listeners to be the glow up of their own choosing. All the challenges in the world can’t take your light from you, but they sure do try from time to time. 2021 reminded us of the darkness we all experience, some more than others. It was a tester year for millions of people around the globe. It was one of those years that gave us challenges, upstarts, grief, sadness, and in some cases, trauma. Some people experienced post traumatic growth, and positive affirmations, but not all. The song of our choosing When we put together our year end playlists, we think about the whole of our lives in review. The positives and the negatives. We say goodbye to those who have left us and hello to new ideas, or adventures we wish to take in the new year. We reflect on where we are, and where we wish to go. Who we have in our lives that ignites our passion for living our best life is intertwined with those who hold us back. We are human after all. Complete with flaws to compliment our successes, there is nobody on earth who is purely good fortune all the time. If that were true, this field of psychology would not exist. Diamond or Star particles? We know now that we’re all part of the star particles that emanated from the very formation of our planet all those billions of years ago. When we’re faced with the challenging years, we can always...
by Aren Henry | December, 2021 | Clarity is . . ., Grit/Grace/Gratitude, Karen Henry, Light Life, Noetic Nomad
The light life energizes us to be open to living our best life. But, that’s not the only way to be. Have you ever felt like you don’t have any energy left? 2021 drained a lot of people of a lot of energy. We were tested with healing on multiple levels this year. December is the end of a lightning-speed journey of living this year. At least, that’s the way it felt to me. How did you do? We lost people. All of us did. In my pet world, a lot of us also lost our dogs this year. Maybe I’m more aware of it because my own 16 year old buddy passed away not that long ago. A long battle with a terminal illness. Death Energy was on my mind this year. I felt his energy leaving him long before he actually died in my arms. The moment he did, I also felt his energy (soul) leaving his body. I felt his spirit set free. In that moment of his last breath, I felt relief that he wasn’t suffering in tandem with profound sadness that my one and only constant companion during this pandemic was now gone. We are not all sunshine or bright, incandescent lights of love all the time. We can’t possibly be balanced, happy, healthy humans without also experiencing grief, suffering and sadness. The balance between the dark and the light is the key to the art of living. We will have wonderful upsides that lean toward joy. Surrounding ourselves with people who will support us no matter what we experience is also a pillar...
by Aren Henry | November, 2021 | Clarity is . . ., Grit/Grace/Gratitude, Karen Henry, Light Life, Noetic Nomad
In our work, we must not forget to honor the shadows. Life is not always full of light and love, nor is it full of shadows or darkness. The balance sways in one direction or another over the course of our lifetime. On any given day, we could be weathering a storm that rages all around us, yet we feel a kindred spirit to it. We feel a solid grounding in our own personal ability to bounce back from anything. Our needs are met, our social status has a solid foundational sense of belonging, giving us confidence in who we are. Shadow side There are some people in our world who want the light, as much as the next person, yet hardship plagues us. We don’t seem to align with all the positives being shared with the world from our esteemed colleagues in our industry. We see the shadow side of the industry itself. We are different somehow in the life events that shadow our lives, compared to those blessed with abundance, wealth, strong relationships, educational connections and social ties that launch our careers easily into the land of plenty. We have never felt the pain of crisis that knocks us back as waves of grief or despair interferes with our joy. One’s resilience can only take so much before we have to hit the reset button. Today’s work in vulnerability gives the world permission to feel our more painful emotions. All emotions are valid, real and important. To ignore them would be an injustice that is out of touch with reality. Nature and Nurture play their part...
by Karen Henry | September, 2021 | Clarity is . . ., Grit/Grace/Gratitude, Karen Henry, Light Life, Noetic Nomad
To Flow up is to glow up. I love pop culture references in synergy with the positive psychology terminology. When we glow up, we are reinventing ourselves in the best of ways. I’ve decided to reinvent the reinvention and call my own journey a ‘flow up’. To engage with flow, as defined by our field while crafting my third act in life with the balance between what is traditional and what is new, is to glow up. Post traumatic growth offers us power. It takes time to get used to this feeling when we have never felt it before. What is light while also dark and to age with grace, while embracing the audacity to be happy with our imperfections, rather than trying to correct them ~ is flowing with the natural aging process. Glow Up When we live in a post traumatic growth, we find our voice and when we learn to advocate for our own truth, we create a ripple effect in how we choose to use our instrument ~ our body, ourselves. When we decide to create the life we want to live, doing the thing we love most for a living, while aligning with all the right people for us, we are glowing. We are saying to the world, ‘this is my best version of myself’. Social media gives us the opportunity to show off our goods and wears. We applaud people who have overcome obstacles against all odds. We feel power in our new version of self because we finally found that synergy between our light and dark; our inner truth and outer awareness...
by Aren Henry | September, 2021 | Clarity is . . ., Grit/Grace/Gratitude, Karen Henry, Light Life, Noetic Nomad, Uncategorized
Life is a series of transitions. It skips a beat sometimes. Whenever we have a legal holiday on a Monday, I spend all day Tuesday, thinking it’s Monday. Today, is such a day. When we’re going through transitions, our routine has hiccups. My decision to create HappinessNoir.com was a call to balance out the light life but, it’s also a return to my roots in the whole of psychology. The positive psychology movement had pure intentions to help us balance out the abundant focus on what was wrong with humanity. When Seligman boldly challenged the field in the late 90’s to also remember to focus on what was right, there was an industry wide stir that seemed, a bit dramatic. The Beat Goes On All transitions have a heart beat. Since our specialty within the field took an interesting twist toward consumerism along with social media famous practitioners, we’ve been off kilter. Finding the healthy good news as a professional focus became a tag line for many people. As new generations of practitioners began to generate new approaches to delivering content, we witnessed the monopolization of the field. Life is skipping ahead 2020 felt like a demand that we change and change now. People made abrupt changes. We jumped on definitive band wagons or, we took the leap of faith, digging in to what brought us the most joy. We as a collective, have seen major disruption in our daily routines. Millions of people had to say goodbye to their loved ones. Millions more, like myself, have made professional transitions that were disruptive to our lives. I myself have...
