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Seeing Happiness…Can You Learn To See It?
I’ve been wondering the past few days… If you’re good at being sad, can you get good at being happy? Can you get good at seeing happiness? Looking back at my childhood, I’m aware I learned from my father to look for sadness. He had a very tragic early life with many huge losses no child or young adult should have to bear. I don’t believe he meant to teach me to look for and find sadness, but it happened. I learned my lesson well, and I got very good at finding sadness. Couple that with my predisposition for depression, and it was the perfect storm. I’ve lost all five…
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Healthy Ways to Handle Anger
Healthy Ways to Handle Anger How do you feel about anger? Did you know all anger is not the same? Did you also know there are both unhealthy and healthy ways to handle anger? Sometimes it’s good to get angry about something; it’s just the right thing to do in response to an event. Positive change can come from being angry at injustice or inequality for example. Righteous or justified anger from being mistreated can be a great motivator for change. The challenge and the inner conflicts come if you’ve had bad experiences with handling anger. For instance, if you had less than healthy role models in your childhood, you…
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Fear of Prediabetes
Is prediabetes scaring you to death? about your future? If the prospect of becoming a full-blown insulin-dependent diabetic scares you, believe it or not, that’s a good thing; you should be afraid! It’s an even better thing if you use your fear of prediabetes to motivate you to take steps to pull yourself back from a diagnosis of prediabetes. When you get your diagnosis, you’re standing on the threshold of what could be the beginning of the end for you or the beginning of a new life. It can be turned around. We did it for my husband Rob about nine years ago, and I’ve played a part in helping…
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Limiting Beliefs and Self Confidence
It’s just a fact that holding onto limiting beliefs negatively impacts your self-confidence and your self-esteem. It’s helpful to look at the following list of limiting beliefs and then work toward replacing them with empowering ones. Treat yourself kindly and learn to reframe the things you say to yourself. How you speak to yourself has a huge effect, either negative or positive, on your future! Always be mindful of limiting beliefs and self-confidence. Here’s one example: “I’ll never be able to learn this because I’m not smart enough” is better as “It may take some extra time, but I’ll find a way to learn the things I need to learn…
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Digital Detox
Over the past few years, the term ‘digital detox’ has become increasingly popular as people discover the benefits of turning off their electronic devices and just living life with a bit of quiet for a day or two. Doing a digital detox once a week is a fantastic way to restore your mental health and calm your soul. It’s true we live in a digital age, and millions of people are glued to their mobile phones, tablets, laptops, etc. The other day I was noticing in the grocery store how many people were talking on their cell phones while pushing their carts through the aisles. I also noticed how they…
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6 Ways to Kick Negative Thoughts to the Curb
None of us really wants to have negative thoughts, but we all seem to deal with them at some point. Whether the negative thoughts are about yourself, the things you’re doing, your job or other people, sometimes it’s really hard to get rid of negative thoughts once they take up residence your mind. Here are some techniques you can use to help stop negative thoughts. Practice actively stopping negative thoughts – If you feel that you’re about to start thinking negatively, stop the thoughts before they have a chance to really kick in and take over. If you’ve already started thinking negatively, actively change the thoughts to positive ones. I know,…
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Self Sabotaging Thoughts that Hinder Happiness
We all live through many different kinds of experiences; sometimes we can get in the way of our own happiness because we focus on thoughts that hinder happiness. We focus on what’s wrong, what’s missing, or on the negativity of a situation. If any of the following thoughts are running on a loop in your head, take note and then take steps to make some changes. I Don’t Like People – Many people, especially introverts, tend to focus their decisions on how many people will be around. They tend to make decisions that aren’t necessarily in their best interest because they’re not comfortable with themselves in a group setting. Turn that…
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Ways to Deal with Critical People
Constructive criticism is fine, but some people are so relentlessly negative they can suck the joy out of life. No matter what happy news you might have, they are guaranteed to find the cloud to fit your silver lining. Here are a few ways to deal with critical people. Here are 6 strategies you can use to deal with hypercritical people. Don’t Take It Personally Until you find out otherwise, assume it’s not you; it’s them. Some people just love being negative and surround themselves with it on a daily basis. It colors their view of the world. They criticize everything because that’s the way they go through life. While…
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Discover Your Purpose
To discover your purpose and calling in life is a thought-driven process. To discover your purpose, it’s important to simplify things and dig down to get to your authentic self. The key to doing that is to ask yourself questions that help you discover or re-discover who you really are. We often wear masks when we’re out in the world, and we never get in touch with who we really are. The mask we wear may be all we know… and we act and think as we believe we should. By digging deep and asking yourself the questions that matter, you’ll discover what it is you truly want in life.…
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How Does Positive Thinking Reduce Stress?
How Does Positive Thinking Reduce Stress? You’ve heard positive thinking can have an amazingly powerful effect on your life, but maybe you’re not buying into all that “good thoughts” power stuff. You need proof. Exactly how does positive thinking reduce stress? What really happens inside your body when you adopt a positive as opposed to negative way of thinking? Let’s take a look at positive thinking and stress. The Mayo Clinic reports that using positive thinking as a stress management tool can lead to the following benefits: You live longer Instances of depression and anxiety are reduced Your natural defense system is boosted You do not catch as many colds…
