Self-Care Archives

Anticipatory Anxiety and Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop

Are you waiting for the other shoe to drop? It’s called anticipatory anxiety, but you can find release and the anxiety can go. You know it’s going to happen; it’s just a matter of when. And in that waiting, in that zone of tension, you sit. How do you hold […]

Faith & Mental Health

Do you Feel You Have to Try Harder?

They wanted me to try harder. But when you’re in a dark hole of depression, or you don’t have the skills, energy, or even understanding, it can feel like yet another stone of struggle to carry. Confusion reigns, and the self-loathing chatter begins. It cycles around and around in the […]

Anxiety & Stress

You can only do so much. Spoon Theory

Life can drain you. You can only do so much. The spoon theory is a wonderful metaphor to help us understand our limits. I wondered why I was so tired. I hadn’t done much I thought during the day, but upon reflection I realised I had given a lot of […]

Trauma & Recovery

Better to Live in the Corner of a Roof

Contention and stress can become too much. Some times it’s better to live in the corner of a roof and the simplicity of nothing than the complexity of strife. I don’t think I will ever get the image out of my memory. She was a battered woman. Maybe, in some […]

Relationships & Connection

Can you Live with a Narcissist? Six Suggestions

Can you live with a narcissist? Yes, but it might just kill you. Or it might just starve you from savouring life to the fullest. One of the most interesting quotes I have come across about stress is this one from French journalist Jean-Louis Servan-Schreiber What I fear most about stress is […]

Relationships & Connection

Even If It Does Me Harm

We give and give, even if it does us harm, but what if we learned the limits and established a line? People have said to me in the past ‘You need to set better boundaries’ I look and them and think. ‘Thanks for the encouragement. You really haven’t listened […]

Anxiety & Stress

An Empty Love Tank

You’ve got nothing left. An empty love tank, weightless and vulnerable. But you want love. Who and what will fill the need? The water tank was empty. I opened up the lid on the tank and immediately I could smell the residue of silt lying on the bottom of the […]

Spiritual Practices

The Five Best Practices to Restore the Soul

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 […]

Mental health Spiritual Formation Spiritual Practices

What Restores the Soul: The Three ‘P’s’

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. […]

Anxiety & Stress

When the Stress is Too Much

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 […]