Author: Kim Hermanson

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When you’re grieving or need to rest, work with the metaphor of ‘heavy’

As I was packing up my mother’s nursing home room after her death, I found a little heart-shaped stone that said ‘serenity’ on it. I took it back to California with me and I hold it frequently. It’s heavy, it has form, it feels soothing, and it reminds me of her. I love the weight…

We need mystery for the expansion of our knowing to happen.

Keith Haring said, “If there is no mystery, there is only propaganda.” While we may think learning is about knowing, I think it’s more about not knowing. The ancient Greek philosopher Epictetus said, “It is impossible to begin to learn that which one thinks one already knows.” When you know something in your mind to…

Learning requires a pleasurable environment – my article with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“It would be difficult to see how a species as dependent on learning as we are could have survived if we didn’t find the process of making sense of our environment pleasurably rewarding.” ~ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Kim Hermanson ~ From the article “Intrinsic motivation in museums: Why does one want to learn? by Mihaly…

Spirals take my client on a journey into depth.

In my coaching work, a client’s deep metaphoric patterns will come through as a primary shape. Most commonly, these are line, circle, square, triangle, and spiral. (They can also show up as “no shape”–like vastness or flow, or an entirely unique shape.) Squares (clarity and good boundaries) and circles (wholeness, individuation) show up frequently, but…

A focus on beauty will replenish you, enhance your work, and keep you awake.

When Dostoevsky said, “Beauty will save the world,” he didn’t mean surface beauty. He meant poetic beauty. Or as James Hillman said: “the way in which the Gods touch our senses, reach the heart and attract us into life.” THAT kind of beauty will save the world. No matter what you do, focusing on beauty…

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