Our Blog
Coping with Anxiety: Why is my body so reactive and jumpy?
Anxiety is your body’s response to stress. It’s natural in many ways. But, if you suffer from an anxiety disorder, it can completely take over and make you feel overreactive. The symptoms of anxiety include everything from sweaty palms and trembling to a racing heart,...
5 Ways to Ease into the Empty Nest Transition
There are plenty of stereotypes about what people go through when dealing with the empty nest transition. When you last child leaves the home, it can feel bitterswewt. Of course, you want them to “leave the nest” and create a life for themselves. But, for many...
Suicide Awareness & Prevention Month
September is National Suicide Awareness Month. None of us want to think about losing someone we love due to suicide. Unfortunately, it happens all too often. On average, one person commits suicide every 16.2 minutes. Two-thirds of the people who commit suicide suffer...
Key Benefits of Gratitude Practices: More Than Just Positive Thinking
Gratitude practices are tremendously beneficial to our mental heath and well being, but are often misunderstood or thought to be the same thing as positive thinking. There are certainly benefits to thinking positively and getting rid of negative self-talk, but...
Good Mourning – Understanding Grief
Aug 30th is Grief Awareness Day. Most people think they know what grief is. But, there are so many stereotypes surrounding the process that it is often misunderstood. Grief is a normal, healthy process people experience after a loss. While you might tend to associate...
7 Everyday Ways to Build Social Support & Make Friends
Friendships are crucial to everyone’s well being. Having a social support system, whether it’s in your church, your community, etc., can help to reduce stress, anxiety, and let you know you’re not alone. But, it’s not always easy to put yourself out there and make new...
Social Media and Mental Health
Whether you think of it a good or an evil, social media is a large part of our lives in the 21st century. Most of us are on it more than we’d like to admit. So many social interactions happen through our screen these days. In some ways, this is a blessing: we can stay...
Rules of “Fair Fighting”
We all know that good relationships don’t just happen - they take work. Whether the relationship is brand new or you have been together for years, you will still have times where you disagree and have conflict. This doesn’t mean that the relationship is doomed....
Self Care Strategies – More Than a Luxury Spa Day!
When you think of the term “self-care,” do images of spa days and bubble baths come to mind? While it’s true that self-care can definitely include pampering yourself from time to time, self-care is about a lot more than treating yourself to a luxury day. You need to...
What to Do When Faith isn’t Enough to Prevent Suffering
As much as we might hate it, suffering is a part of life. The scriptures even tells us that there will be much suffering throughout our lives, and it can be used to draw us nearer to God and increase our faith. But, that doesn’t mean it’s always easy. Wen you’re in...
How To Cope When A Diagnosis of Cancer Changes Everything
Hearing the words “you have cancer” can make it seem as though your whole life has come to a screeching halt. Those words confirming a cancer diagnosis affect you and the people who love you profoundly. Instantly, you are faced with challenges and decisions that no...
How Heaven Helps You: 5 Key Benefits of Living Your Faith
Being a Christian is often misunderstood, even by our own expectations. Sometimes we expect that having faith means life will be easy. The reality is, it isn’t supposed to be “easy” to be a Christian. But actively living your faith allow Heaven to lighten the load....
Why Self Care is a Necessity, Not a Luxury
The phrase “self-care” gets thrown around a lot lately. So much so, that many people think it’s a luxury. Self-care can take many forms, and is vital for a balanced life. It is especially essential for those with chronic stress, illness or pain, who feel...
National PTSD Awareness Day
June 27th is the National PTSD Awareness Day. It is a day to recognize the effects that PTSD has on the lives of everyone affected by it. This day was chosen in 2010 by the United States following then-Sen. Kent Conrad’s efforts to designate a day of awareness as a...
Tips to Save Your Friendship if Anxiety Makes You Cancel Plans A Lot
We can all sympathize with a friend who cancels plans because of a sick day. Few people expect a sick friend to show up for coffee! Anxiety, unfortunately, doesn’t always work the same way. When we need to cancel plans because we feel anxious, it can be easy to worry...
Retired – Now What?
Congratulations on your retirement. After working for so many years, you’ve earned the opportunity to relax! But, for many people, retirement can start to feel overwhelming very quickly. If you’ve worked most of your life, you probably looked forward to this time....
Pointing Fingers of Blame
Who’s Fault Was It? As I talked about in this blog post, there are three broad reasons why bad things happen in our lives—the results of our choices, the consequences of someone else’s behaviors, and the natural effects of living in an imperfect, mortal world with...
Understanding Self-Blame
You’re unhappy, in distress, and trying to figure out how to move forward. It is easy to fall into the self-blame trap. Could this have been avoided if only you’d done something different? Was it someone else’s fault? Perhaps you were just a victim of plain old bad...
Heartbreak? Healthy Ways to Handle a Breakup
Dealing with a breakup is difficult at any age, and is almost always heartbreaking. Whether you’ve been with your partner for a short time or for years, it’s never easy to simply “get over” a relationship. However, there are some things you can do following a breakup...
Peace is Possible! 5 Tips to Cope With Anxious Feelings
Few things can destroy a sense of peace better than worry and anxiety. If you struggle with anxious thoughts and feelings, you understand the havoc anxiety can wreak on everyday life. Anxiety can affect all areas of your life, from work and career, to relationships...
We All Make Mistakes – It’s OK to Give Yourself a Break
When you’ve committed your life to the gospel, stumbling over the problems of life can sometimes be hard to accept. But, it’s important to understand that we’re all human. It’s in our nature to make mistakes - again and again. But we often equate having a struggle...
Coping with Chronic Illness – How to Maintain Positive Outlook
Whether you’re in constant pain or dealing with a prognosis that’s getting you down, it’s often hard to have a positive outlook when you have a chronic illness. People telling you to think positively probably doesn’t help, especially when they aren’t able to relate to...
My Chronic Illness is NOT All in My Head!
If you suffer from chronic pain or illness, you’ve probably developed a close relationship with your doctor (or even a team of specialists). Seeking out the help of a medical doctor should always be your first line of defense when it comes to treatment. As you go...
What is a Work/Life Balance?
It’s easy to fall into the trap of letting your job define your life. People are working longer hours than ever and allowing their work to come home with them. Finding a work / life balance is difficult. But, it’s important to prevent your career from defining who you...