Welcome to the Under The Tenderness Tree blog, which we will add to frequently. We invite you to visit us often to read our blogs and hopefully comment. Topics will cover a wide range of appropriate subjects and themes. We will also offer guest blogs.
Welcome to the Under The Tenderness Tree blog, which we will add to frequently. We invite you to visit us often to read our blogs and hopefully comment. Topics will cover a wide range of appropriate subjects and themes. We will also offer guest blogs.
Why I Call My Blog ‘Under the Tenderness Tree’
Siddhartha, the young Prince who was to become the Buddha, renounced worldly pleasures and left the comforts of his home in search of true happiness. For six years he practiced asceticism to the point of starvation. Near death, he came down from the mountain top and sat under a big sturdy tree. A woman saw him and offered him a bowl of rice. Feeling stronger, he bathed in a nearby river and then sat in quiet meditation, grateful for the tree’s protective shade. Soon after, in community with the entire forest of trees and animals, he attained his enlightenment.
The nurturing provided by the tree had a great deal to do with Buddha’s awakening. Under the Bodhi Tree he was no longer alone engaged in self punishing practices, but open to the quiet support that the tree bestowed. His breath and the tree’s breath became one and it was relaxing and peaceful. Bliss followed.
We hope you enjoy some of the blog articles here and experience support and guidance for your own moments of awakening We especially encourage you to always be on the look-out for your personal tenderness experiences where you can stop, breathe deeply, take notice of what is around you at that moment, and feel enlightened.
Tenderness: An Rx For Troubled Times
/in Under The Tenderness Tree /by FaithThe Inauguration, The Trojan War, and the Tenderness Cure. By Faith Bethelard (From Faith’s article on ThriveGlobal.com) Watching the inauguration, after the terrible events of January 6, brought up an unexpected connection to a Greek Classics course I took in college, when we were reading Homer’s The Iliad. Written more than 2500 years ago, it […]
A Tender Way to Overcome Feeling Helpless During the Pandemic
/in Under The Tenderness Tree /by FaithIt’s all about paying attention to the small things in our lives that help us maintain stability and a positive outlook. By Faith Bethelard (From Faith’s article on ThriveGlobal.com) My work in the area of tenderness, as in “tending to each other and to ourselves,” is a kind of therapeutic intervention not terribly dissimilar to […]
Returning: Finding Tender Moments in This Unfamiliar City
/in Under The Tenderness Tree /by FaithA haircut and a clip from a war movie spark a deep desire for more familiar comforts and connections to help us maintain our well-being during these disconcerting times. (From Faith’s article on ThriveGlobal.com) Hair salons are normally hopeful places. We walk in with a need for improvement and come out looking much improved and […]
A Synchronicity of Words: Many Ways to Say What We All Need
/in Under The Tenderness Tree /by FaithTsewa, the Buddhist concept of warm-hearted tenderness, shines a powerful light on the way forward toward greater human connection and overall well-being. By Faith Bethelard, Psy.D. (From Faith’s article on ThriveGlobal.com) If you believe in synchronicity, as I do, and love to read, then you may have had this same experience as I did: the […]
How Our Tenderness IQ Can Help Us Cope With Stress
/in Under The Tenderness Tree /by FaithBy Faith Bethelard, Psy.D. D.S.S., Clinical Psychologist (From Faith’s article on thriveglobal.com) The time is more than right, right now, for us to define, examine and put into play a new type of intelligence that I call a Tenderness IQ—TQ for short. TQ, for me, is a combination of emotional intelligence and moral character. Specifically, […]