Hope and mental health. They seem quite linked, but what helps them both to dance together well? I recently had a picture pop into my head. It was a headstone, in a cemetery, and engraved into the old tired stone was the name of the deceased – Hope. Not […]
Mental health
209 posts
We carry so much load, but what if we were unburdened? Perhaps the donkey might learn to dance light and free. It’s an image that tells a story. The story of a heavy laden down camel carrying a load of straw and the little proverb ‘the final straw that broke […]
Our brains can keep reminding us. ‘My Sin is Ever Before Me’ writes the poet, but what if we had a purifier? It’s ever before me. It’s in my face. If there was a common theme, I get from many of those who email me it is the sense […]
We all have painful experiences in life, but redeemed pain is more impressive than removed pain. What good can be found within in our pain? Sometimes I am given a gift voucher. It has no value tangibly in itself. It is but a piece of plastic the size of […]
The practices of your week and day may drain your life, but what practices restore your soul? ‘Oh, that’s so good for the soul’ Sometimes I hear people say that. Sometimes I say it myself. It’s that moment when you feel a restoring of something drained out of you. You […]
Life and activity can drain our mental health, but there are places to restore. Take notice and soak in them. There is a place I want to go to. The gardens are beautiful. Full of colour all year round. Fruit trees are full of ripe fruit ready to be eaten. […]
Some people can help you restore. Some you need to put out of the room. What are six qualities of people that restore the soul? Life can give you a battering at times, but there are some people that seem to be able to come alongside and help you restore. […]
The soul can get completely drained, but what restores the soul? What can bring it back to life? People, places, and practices. Life can be draining. Too much going or too much has gone on. Now it feels like the energy tank is on ‘E’. Empty, Exhausted and not Enough. […]
The stress load was too much to handle, but they knew what to do, so they took action and calmed the stress load down. It was just getting too much, and I could feel it in my body. This was the experience from last weekend when I had a […]
I want lived truth. Truth that will help me in my everyday life, but so much of what I receive is unlived truth. Please stop trafficking unlived truth. I’m trying to limit my contact with a lot of unlived truth. Open up social media and most of its fluff and […]
The world is full of words, but how many do we miss because they need to be heard? There is something about audio. I have books. Lots of them. Books have filled my life for a long time. From an early age, I had an insatiable appetite for reading. The […]
It takes energy to hold a closed hand, but with gentle movement, we find an open hand. In openness, we both give and receive. A few years ago, I noticed that my right hand was often clenched tight into a fist. Not a fighting fist, but more a fist […]
It can feel very lonely when we don’t experience love. A sense of abandonment. To know that ‘I am loved’ is like the permanent embrace of presence. To be loved and know it deeply is, I think, the quest of every heart. According to early Church writer Paul, it is […]
When the receiving of love has strings attached, then is it really love? Love is a Gift With no Strings Attached. In many of the gardens i visit they have garden hoses and for the last few years many gardeners have been installing retractable hose reels. They are quite a […]
There are all sorts of people in this world, and there are also all sorts of balls. If you could describe yourself as a ball, what type of ball would you be? Wrecking ball to table tennis ball. I have vague memories of the first ball I ever had. […]
We place value on things such as beauty, strength, power and riches, but there is something more valuable. I want wisdom more than silver, gold, and rubies. I couldn’t believe it. I was doing some research for this post and found that there is a website where you can measure […]
It wasnt so much a closed door, it was more a Christmas rejection. There is no place for you here. I watched him as he told me he wasn’t going to his family’s Christmas party. He had felt a lot of rejection from his family and now he couldn’t […]
They make me feel … (add in your emotional extreme), but there is a space between stimulus and response. Use it. I was watching the news the other night and the first item was about a mother complaining about how a politician made her daughter feel. She claimed that the […]
It’s a broken world where we desperately need hope, but God is compassion, and so we get to live again. The other day I found some mouse droppings in my kitchen. Concerned about the hygiene of the kitchen, I set a trap. Peanut butter would be the temptation that […]
Sitting with shame can suffocate life, but sitting in solidarity with someone in soul talk can break its control. It’s there if you want to hear it. A sneaky, whispery voice from the past. You hear it in others. They may have said nothing directly to you, but it’s […]