empowerment Archives

Getting Well Staying Well Helping Others

The Healing Nest of Kindness and Compassion

I need a nest that I can call home. Actually, digging down a little further, I need a grouping of relationships that know me, love me, and have compassion and kindness when I get things wrong. The other day I was pruning a vine and there high above my head […]

Depression & Low Mood Faith & Mental Health

When You Find Yourself in a Dark Hole, Start Digging

When you’re in a dark hole, it can feel like there is a loss of hope, but you can dig yourself out with some wisdom and encouragement. It was a hole that I had fallen into. I was in a deep dark hole where the sun didn’t seem to reach. […]

Getting Well Staying Well Mental health

You’re so angry and it’s going to help you

Why you get so angry can give a clear direction about who you truly are. It’s a matter of the heart. Your anger can indicate what you hold most dear. As they became more whole, the anger started to simmer, then boil, and then it flowed over the containment of […]

Getting Well Staying Well Mental health

Can anything good come from this?

Can anything good come out of that time, place, or person? Only if we take a risk and explore. We are invited to ‘come and see.’ I was raised on a farm near a small town called Wellsford. In fact, my ancestors settled there in the 1860s, migrating from England. […]

Helping Others Mental health

Building a New Confidence from the Ash

There was no self-confidence. It was gone like vapor from ash. But something reignited when we looked at the pebbles and not the mountain. It was like I was looking at an empty shell. They were there in the room with me, but there was very little confidence within them […]

Getting Well Staying Well Spiritual Formation

There’s a Gum Tree Shadow Hanging Over Me

We can live warped lives because of a shadow hanging over us, but that shadow can be removed if we face what’s causing the shadow and allow the light to flood in. Have you ever walked in a shadow? Of course you have, but you probably didn’t take much notice […]

Getting Well Staying Well Helping Others

Am I My Brothers Keeper? Guilt-Trip Anyone?

It was the feelings of a guilt trip and the words of being a ‘Brothers Keeper’ that triggered me. But was it genuinely helping me and them to think this way? Something needed to change. Some people seem to be able to push the manipulation guilt trip button every time. […]

Getting Well Staying Well Helping Others

Breaking it down before you breakdown: David and Goliath

Stress can add up to be too much, and we can have a mental health breakdown, but when we break it down like in the story of David and Goliath, we can find a way through the chaos. Stressful times can feel like a massive avalanche of overwhelming pressure. The […]

Getting Well Staying Well Helping Others

You’re doing OK in the Face of Resistance

There is a resistance we all face into, but with the presence of others, we can know hope. So let’s listen. It felt to her that she was the only one having struggles. Every day, as her eyes peeled open, there was an instantaneous thought ‘Can I do this’? As […]

Getting Well Staying Well Mental health

How to Build an Inner ‘Bulldog’ Resilience for your Mental Health

Storms of life can hit hard against our mental health, but we can learn to stand firm and even advance. Developing resilience is a practice of strengthing your inner Bulldog. It was quite something as I watched this little goat headbutt a Bulldog. Repeatedly it launched itself at the Bulldog, […]