Life Changes
Healing Through Storytelling: Lessons from The Odyssey
The journey of Odysseus in Homer's 'The Odyssey' offers profound insights into healing...
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- Written by: Barry Vissell
Most of us know the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. It works fine in many circumstances. The problem is, however, that the Golden Rule often does not work with close relationships. For example...
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- Written by: Tom Sturges
by Tom Sturges. Here’s the problem: If you ever do become unhinged for a moment and say something unkind to your adolescent child, you can never take it back. Once said, it can never be unsaid. Although I am sure that there are more, here are five phrases that should never be spoken to an adolescent or teenager...
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- Written by: Tom Sturges
A father’s relationship with his daughter is the most important relationship that she will have in her life. It is, in my opinion, the basis and template for all the relationships that she will have with all the men in her life. Teachers, coaches, boyfriends, bosses, fathers-in-law, sons, and grandsons...
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- Written by: Ernest Quansah
Most people go into relationships out of love. The problem is that, later on, they find out they have selected the wrong person and now must break-up. There is a better way to ensure that you are selecting the right person for you so that your love relationship succeeds and does not become just another statistic.
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- Written by: D. Keith Cobb
When a parent dies, the surviving adults are often at a loss as to how to help the grieving child. Based on his experience helping families who are in deep mourning, Dr. Cobb offers eight guidelines that can help adults gently guide children through their difficult grieving process.
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- Written by: Barry Vissell
The only real hope for intimacy is through vulnerability. The only real hope of having a loving, fulfilling, dynamic relationship is through showing all of you – not just your strength.
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- Written by: Pamela Jo McQuade
Your heart will always lead you to where you are meant to be. Now, there are times when it becomes difficult to listen – especially when your heart feels like a tomato that has just been pulverized in a food processor. A broken heart...
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- Written by: Dr. Allan G. Hunter
You can’t choose your family, but you can choose your friends. So goes the saying. Ask yourself if that is true for you. Did you choose your friends, or did you allow them to choose you? It may be that in...
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- Written by: Ernest Holmes
Successful living can only occur when we are able to establish harmonious relations with all whom we encounter, whether it be in the home, the office, or on the street corner. The nature of our relationships with others rests upon what we think ourselves to be and what we think the other person...
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- Written by: Stephanie Dowrick
Beliefs, dogma, theologies — all the costumes of religion — vary dramatically through time and place. But the call to know love as the ground of our being, and to honor our gift of life through the way that we live it: this does not vary. Seeking, yearning, tasting and transforming are certainly heart, soul and meaning of...
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- Written by: Julie Holland M.D.
Psychospiritual exploration, soul-searching, communing with the self — these are normal and important components of the human experience. Adolescence is a prime time for this sort of exploration, and for questioning, testing limits, and defying both death and authority. The chances that your kids aren’t going to have to...
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- Written by: Lynn Woodland
The more we bristle at the idea of self-responsibility, the more likely it is that we were taught at an early age to feel shame. Blame and shame go hand in hand, one giving rise to the other. They both have to do with finding fault, pointing a finger of judgment, and defining something or someone as “wrong.”
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- Written by: Joyce and Barry Vissell
In a court of law, if both partners of a married couple claim they have irreconcilable differences, the court will grant them a legal divorce... Joyce and I, having worked with thousands of couples over the last 37 years, challenge that there is no such thing as irreconcilable differences. We have seen that...
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- Written by: Cassendre Xavier
Don't give in to what everyone else says they want in a relationship. You are unique in your wants and desires. Taking the time to find out what you really want in a relationship will more quickly draw your ideal mate to you, and in the best way...
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- Written by: Thubten Chodron
Many of us have a well-practiced habit of talking about the faults of others. In fact, sometimes doing this is so habitual that we don't realize we've done it until afterward. Yet, when we examine its effect in our lives, we quickly realize that this habit...
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- Written by: Alan Cohen
by Alan Cohen. I was surprised to receive a Facebook friend invitation from Eric Butterworth, a respected author and minister who introduced me to the new thought movement many years ago. The astounding element of Dr. Butterworth’s invitation is that he is dead. He passed away eight years ago. How he found his way onto Facebook is...
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- Written by: Marie T. Russell
I've never been a big fan of country music. I have found it depressing, sad, whining, self-pitying... Well, you get the picture. However, now that I live in northern Florida, when I'm in my car and I'm "surfing" radio stations, country music is mostly what I find. Now, I must admit, I've discovered that not...
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- Written by: Thom Hartmann
The following text, "Yesterday's Child" by Janie Bowman, was originally published in The Missing Piece (Winter 1993), the newsletter of the Learning Disabilities Association of Washington State. "After only three months of formal education, Yesterday's child walked out of his school in a fit of rage. ...Today's child would be in long-term therapy for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder..."
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- Written by: Celeste B. Longacre
by Celeste B. Longacre. Fairy tales are wonderful stories for young children. They give us a sense of place and a great deal of hopefulness for the future. Of course, someday my Prince (or Princess) will come and we will live happily ever after... What does happily ever after mean? Contrary to popular belief and, perhaps, our...
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- Written by: Marie T. Russell
A while back, in the spirit of wanting things to be "better", I rearranged the furniture in the office. The changes were a little unconventional, yet the layout was more efficient and would lead to a better functioning of the office. People often have a resistance to change, especially when the change is thrust upon them without giving them a chance to make a choice. So, the reactions of my co-workers...
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- Written by: Marie T. Russell
The question to ask ourselves is "Who are we becoming?" Are we living up to the child we were, or could have been? Loving, playful, wanting nothing more than to love and be loved. (I'm talking about very early childhood. Before we were tainted and "corrupted" by mind games, by competitiveness, jealousy, revenge, etc. etc.)
