Mental Health Archives

The Parable of the Barren Fig Tree

We don’ want to be like a barren fig tree, but something has to change. Therefore, we submit to the wisdom of a master gardener. As a gardener, I often go to people’s gardens, and they ask me why a particular fruit tree is not producing fruit. I look over […]

Getting Well Staying Well Mental health Relationships

Who are the Five people you spend the most time with?

Who are the Five people you spend the most time with? They will be the ones who have the most influence over you. Her response to a betrayal of friendship has probably helped thousands of others to get a better group of friends. The other day I was listening to […]

Getting Well Staying Well Spiritual Practices

Your Rehearsal can Change your Mind

Our self-talk can keep us depressed and anxious, but we can learn new thinking tracks. Your rehearsal can change your mind. I always marvel at how the experts seem to effortlessly do something that I would difficult. My earliest experience of this was watching shearers shear our sheep on the […]

Uncategorized

Don’t be afraid, for you are very precious to God.

We see things, hear things, experience change, and become afraid. But when we know we are precious to God, a deep peace can come and flood us with strength. It was only a couple of words, and I felt stronger. Words can cut, hurt, and harm, but they can also […]

Mental health Spiritual Formation

To Reap in Joy you Need to Sow in Tears. Psalm 126

The only way there is through. To reap a joy, we sow a tear, but it’s work, hard work, so we don’t travel alone. We journey with safe others. I knew there had to be an ocean of loss behind the lifestyle mask they were wearing. For all the stories […]

Mental health Spiritual Formation

God is Going against the Grain and it’s Terribly Good

There is a grain or a pattern to our thinking that needs to change, but we are stuck, so God gently comes against the grain and changes it from the inside out. It goes against the grain of self-protection to let someone in, especially when we have been hurt. But […]

"A conceptual image illustrating the 'inward curve' of the soul, representing the struggle of being locked within one's own thoughts and ego."

Faith & Mental Health

What to do with your Curve – Incurvatus in se

There is a self-centeredness to ourselves, a turned/curved inwardness, incurvatus in se, but there is one that shows how to break the gravity, the pull of the curve. There is a pull on me all the time. It’s in the lyrics of the eighties pop hit. What about me, it […]

Relationships & Connection

How to Stop Being the Scapegoat. Six Keys

Are you tired of being the Scapegoat but don’t know how to stop it? Six key steps to stop being the dumping ground of other people’s rubbish. She felt like they were making her a scapegoat. They were saying she was responsible for all the terrible things that had happened. […]

Getting Well Staying Well Relationships

Five Actions to Take when Someone Rains on Your Parade

Some people seem to like to rain on your parade, but we can learn how to hoist an umbrella and continue on. They couldn’t help themselves. Anything my friend did was negated. Any attempt at doing something special, creative, or different was criticized and smashed with harsh words. Sometimes an […]

Helping Others Relationships

Listen. You’re on Sacred Ground

There was a single tear, and I knew we were on sacred ground, but there was a decision to be made. I chose to linger and listen. I was talking with a man in his eighties the other day when I noticed a tear forming in his eye. I knew […]