Mental health Archives

Why Male Depression feels like being Impotent and Weightless

Underneath the depression of a male is a feeling of being impotent and weightless. The man has lost connection with his potency, and the spirit has been crushed. ‘Have I made a difference’? and ‘Has my life mattered?’ are two questions that sit behind the stage curtain of many men’s […]

Mental Health is ... Giving Grace to Failure and Rethinking Expectations

Getting Well Staying Well Mental health

Give Grace to Failure and Rethink Expectations

When we have realistic expectations, we can build resilience and an internal wisdom that is gentle with our humanity. We can grace ourselves and others when there is a failure to meet expectations. What caused the breakdown? Was it a genetic weakness? The piling up of expectations? Lack of sleep, […]

Getting Well Staying Well Mental health

Mental Health is … Accepting the Pain to Get the Gain

If you want long-term gain, you need to accept short-term pain. We want ‘quick-fix’ solutions and instant gratification but reaping never comes before sowing. When my counselor said we would have to go through this unbearable feeling, I felt a kind of pulling back. Did I really want to go […]

Getting Well Staying Well Mental health

Mental Health is … You Taking Ownership of You

When we take ownership of the choices, we have made and their resulting consequences we can take a huge leap forward in our mental wellness. It’s called self-determination. We discover we are indeed the captain of our own soul. It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments […]

Getting Well Staying Well Mental health Uncategorized

Wallowing in the past won’t add to your future

There is a time for everything, but wallowing in your past will create an endless rut of misery. Isn’t it time to allow God, who knows all, to take the unknowns and allow you to walk in today? I always like a good wallow, don’t you? It’s like a warm, […]

Getting Well Staying Well Mental health

Isn’t It Time to Banish the Bookkeeper? Forgive

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Are you struggling to forgive yourself or others? The bookkeeper keeps score and builds a case against yourself and others. Let’s banish the bookkeeper. Underneath the kitchen bench in my childhood home was a drawer where we kept scissors, pens, paper, and the red Collins ledger book. My mother would […]

The Reason Why So People Walk the Camino de Santiago

Mental health

The Reason Why So Many People Walk the Camino de Santiago

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Three hundred thousand pilgrims walked the Camino de Santiago in 2017. These ancient pathways in Northern Spain have allured people from all over the world. But why? What is the reason that these trails have drawn so many pilgrims for such a long period? Camino means ‘Path.’ Just a little […]

How Forgiveness Cleans The Toxic Dumping Ground Of The Heart

Mental health Spiritual Formation

How Forgiveness Cleans The Toxic Dumping Ground In The Heart

Forgiveness cleanses the toxic places in our hearts. Those dumping grounds where we hold onto the resentments and hurts. “We throw all of the garbage we can’t burn or compost, like oil or old lead paint, over the hill in the back” she said to me. “But…then you can’t use […]

Mental health

How To Get Your Mind Off The Treadmill

Okay, I admit it! I like retro cartoons. The other day I caught a glimpse of the intro to the Jetsons – particularly the scene where George Jetson is walking the family dog Astro … on a treadmill! I still chuckle! (This is a guest post from Michael Rose) The treadmill idea reminded […]

four-signs-that-you-have-truly-forgiven-and-youre-not-stuffing-it-down

Mental health Relationships

Four Signs you have Truly Forgiven and You’re not Stuffing it Down

How can a person know when they have truly forgiven someone else. What is the difference between true forgiveness and simply stuffing down or sweeping under the rug your feelings? It is tempting for Christians to try to forgive quickly in order to ease their minds and resolve the conflict. […]