In addition to finally getting the practical help I needed, I also made the surprising discovery that embracing the reality of my limited number of days on earth has been key to unlocking the peace I had been longing for.
Category: Mental Health
The hidden benefits of kitchen therapy
When I was at my lowest point with my anxiety and depression, it took all of my mental energy to convince myself to get out of bed and move through my day. Most of my days I went through the motions of getting the kids off to school, working my secretary job, and being back home in time to welcome the kids home from school. Outwardly, I did my best to hold myself together when inwardly I was vacillating between wanting to cry in the dark or scream into a pillow.
5 Ways to Combat Stress and Improve Your Mental Health
Feeling overwhelmed? Get tips and tools to reduce stress, improve mental health and maintain balance in your life. Learn more here!
You are more than your feelings
We can either choose to follow our feelings of overwhelm, procrastination, and fear that are telling us that we can't handle the day, that we're not up to the task, and we are a failure. Or, we can dip into the toolbox for anxious days, remind ourselves that our feelings may be real, but they may not always be true, and take some practical steps to address our anxiety.
Combating Anxiety in the Power of Small Intentional Moments
You know time is precious, and you don’t want to waste it. You desire a life that has meaning and purpose. But your day is filled with dishes, laundry, carpooling, the nine to five, texts to respond to, soccer practice, and bedtime routines. You say you want a life that matters, but how do you do that in the middle of … life?
Do not lose heart.
The world gives us more and more reasons to divide ourselves from other groups who don't think like us and there continues to be media sources that use fear instead of facts to inform, and our mental health is paying the price. It can become so easy to focus on what is going wrong in the world and begin to worry and fear for the here-and-now and for the future. Just one news article or passionate pessimist conversation can derail our whole day. What do we do about this? How do we combat the enemy and all the lies that he throws at us on a daily basis?
New year, new you?
God doesn't ask for perfection, or that we crush every goal we set. And failures and set backs from our human perspective may actually be setting us up to be exactly where God wants us to be.
For the times when life feels weary
Every Christmas season it seems that a different song ministers to my heart. And each year it's something I hang on to for the Christmas season, using it to help me keep focus and even learn a different perspective on this season that we think we all know so well by now.
Hope anchors the soul – a thought on Advent
Before we get too far ahead of ourselves with the final week's preparations, let's take a moment and prepare space in our thoughts for Him. Have we left room in our thoughts for Him? Or are we more prone to fill it with lies we tend to think are truth, thoughts about ourselves, or thoughts that look down on others? Are we filling our mind with to-dos and what ifs and should-haves instead of promises and truth?
Ditch the ‘just’
We play the downgrade game all the time. If someone is doing it better, more efficiently, more profoundly, and being recognized for it, then we feel that we have lost the chance to take the title for ourselves as well. We often downplay it by putting the word “just” in front of it.
