The bottom line is that when people forgive, their thoughts, behaviors, feelings, and health become more positive. Deciding to forgive is a good first step. But, deeper forgiveness will have a greater positive impact on your mental and physical health.
Stress, Self-Care, & Your Kids
Practicing self care as a family supports the relational bond and is a constructive way to model healthy and effective skills to manage future stressors.
Know Your Empathy Limits
A healthy form of empathy involves striking an emotional and intellectual balance between self and another person. One has the ability to pay attention to another’s needs without sacrificing one’s own.
The Art of Comfort
Responding to another person’s grief can be incredibly difficult, not because we don’t care, but because we simply don’t know what to do. We can’t fix the situation, but we can be a presence that conveys care and comfort to those dealing with grief.
Being Present With Grief
Grief is best served when witnessed by a loving presence. This is the ointment needed to soothe the wounds of a grieving person, according to renowned grief specialist, David Kessler. Just being present with grief means more than we know.
Grief That Doesn’t Fit In: Part 2
If you have experienced a grief that is disenfranchised or if you recognize that others in your life may have, it is vital to find a way to make space for open mourning.
Often, when grief is disenfranchised, it is a result of beliefs about the way things should work and how people are supposed to relate to their world.
Grief That Doesn’t Fit In: Part 1
Disenfranchised grief is the category that covers grief that doesn’t have a socially accepted place to be recognized or expressed.
Basically, it is grief that people feel they have to hide because others won’t understand it, will dismiss it as trivial, or may actually get angry about.
Learning to Grieve Your Loss
By the age of forty, most people have experienced some form of loss at least fifteen times. The journey takes courage. Grief is not an easy path to negotiate and simply taking the next step forward is often fraught with overwhelming feelings. Is recovery from loss possible? Yes – although the definition of recovery may need some explanation.
Time for Change
One of the biggest challenges is recognizing when a change would be helpful. Here are a few things that may prompt you to consider a change.
Goal Setting for the Real World
What if, instead of holding ourselves to insanely high standards and seeing anything short of that as a failure, we started goal-setting in realistic ways?
What if we celebrated our small successes as valid, gave ourselves props for any forward motion, and cut ourselves slack for the moments we’re less than perfect? How might that impact our long term success?
