The Lifeworks Group, Inc.

By: Christine Hammond LMHC After spending an afternoon conversing with her grandfather, Stephanie realized for the first time just how wise he was. His insight was amazing. He showed compassion and patience towards frustrating family members without losing himself. His perception of world market economics was eerily precise for a person who never worked in that field. And his ability to pick up on small, yet significant, nuances without overexposing a person was almost an art form. His wisdom was admirable, attractive, and enticing. For the first time in her life, Stephanie woke up to the benefits of being wise. Once obtained, she would stop wasting energy on things that don’t matter, know were and how to invest her time, stop exhausting herself emotionally, be more careful with how much she said and expressed to others, and reduce her obsessive thinking. Wisdom became something she sought after and desired. But how does a person get wisdom? Are they born with it? O...

By Chris Hammond, IMH He was only eight days old when he stopped breathing.   All at the same time, it was the beginning of the day and yet it was the end of the day because in one moment, everything changed.   He received a clean bill of health during those eight days from three separate doctors yet I knew there was something wrong.   When he fell limp in my arms, his face had turned completely blue and all signs of life had vanished.   So many emotions converged all at once:   fear that he was dead, desperation that he and I needed help, scared that I had done something wrong, and relief in knowing that my instincts were in fact right.   My first response was to cry for help to which my husband immediately responded but weirdly enough all of the phones in our house were dead so he ran next door to get help.   In the meantime, while I stared at my breathless first born child only three words came to mind, “God help me”. In a split second I...

By Chris Hammond, IMH, MS Spend some time in a nursing home and you will come across two very general types of elderly people: ones who are still happy and others who are still miserable.   If you listen to their stories, both sets have had their fair share of life tragedies, health problems, loss of loved ones, wars, disappointments, and successes.   Yet one group walks away with a sense of having lived life well despite all of the tragedies and the other with regret despite any successes.   How can this be? Erik Erikson defines the last of his eight psychosocial development stage as Integrity vs. Despair which begins around age sixty-five till death.   The outcome of the previous seven stages sets the standard for this last stage in life as a person who has progressed well in previous stages will most likely end well.   When a person ages, their ability to moderate thoughts, feelings and emotions diminishes so good habits that were formed earlier te...