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Showing posts from May, 2012

Conquering a Move and the Excess Baggage of Life

By Chris Hammond There is nothing quite like moving to remind you just how much stuff you have in the hidden corners of your home.   Things seem to procreate over time and that one small pile of papers to review on your desk now has another pile on the dining room table and yet another in the kitchen.     The task of sorting, organizing and purging can be overwhelming and might even provoke a disagreement or two with your spouse. While moving is frustrating and is listed amongst the top life stressors, it can also be a time of purging your life from all of the excess stuff that has gathered.   The benefit of purging is a feeling of freedom from the responsibility to care for the stuff.   Oddly enough, our lives can become just as cluttered with excess activities, friendships, responsibilities or commitments and it too can use a good cleansing every now and then.   However, you must have a plan to attack either the stuff or the excess in your life.     Essential items.

How Healing Emotional Wounds is Like Healing Physical Wounds

By Chris Hammond, MS, IMH Physical wounds are easy to spot as they usually leave physical evidence of an injury such as a broken bone or blood.   They also leave emotional evidence such as anxiety or pain.   Emotional wounds, like physical, can leave physical evidence such as loss of appetite or sudden sickness.   They also leave emotional evidence such as depression or anger.   However they do not always leave evidence.   These wounds are much harder to spot because they have been hidden or denied for so long but far more devastating in the end if not properly addressed. To heal from a physical wound such as a large cut, you must begin by realizing that you have a wound.   Then you need to asses if it is a wound you can manage or if it is a wound that you need help managing.   Your next step is to clean out the wound, stitch the wound up if needed, and finally bandage the wound.   Failure to clean out the wound effectively can lead to infection.   Healing from an emotion

Positive Feedback About Dwight Bain's Book "Destination Success"

Adapted from Tumblr.com "God has the best way to make me understand things." I you had read my last post, you probably would think my day yesterday wasn’t good. In fact, totally bad. I don’t know why yesterday made me think several negative thoughts about myself, making feel miserable. That’s my mood swings. Little things made me feel depressed, and feeling depressed from the start would either ruined my day or ruined my day. Later that night, while wandering in my room (though I don’t have a big room, I still wander around, lol), I saw a book. It’s not a novel, a non-fiction rather. I don’t read non-fictions. Sorry for those who read it but I find it really boring. I feel like in doesn’t bring me to another world, like fantasies. But then because of my mood, I tried to read it. The title’s Destination Success. Maybe you find it weird, “why should I read this?” I’ve thought of that too actually. But the first pages makes me want to read more. It literall

The Power of Unforgiveness

By: Christine Hammond, MS, IMH College towns are hard to get around just on foot because of the distance between classes and dorms, so as a college student, I took up bike riding.   One day while riding in the street, granted I was riding in the opposite direction of traffic which is strangely prophetic of my college years, my wheel got caught in an old railroad track causing my bike to twist and overturn.   As my head was falling to the ground, I looked up to see a car headed straight for me.   Suddenly, my life literally flashed before my eyes with all of its highs and lows.   Thankfully the car stopped just before it reached my head and I suffered only a sprained ankle and a fractured arm. Take a moment and imagine the highs and lows of your life right now, what images or people would pop into your head?   More than likely there are high moments with people and places of great excitement, joy, and love.   More than likely there are also low moments that are still causing y

Want a Better Relationship? A.S.K. for it!

By Dwight Bain The key to a better relationship is a lot simpler than you think. In fact the key to a better life is also simple – it’s not being afraid to ask. The Bible teaches you have not because you ask not. (James 4:2). Consider the following situations that could have been easily solved… if someone had the courage to ASK. Think of how many times a student was struggling to finish a class, but was afraid to ask for extra time or extra credit. Or the shy guy in High School who thinks the cute girl in his English class likes him, but he is afraid to ask her out on a date. How about a woman who knows she is right for the promotion at work, but stays quiet, never asking for more responsibility or a raise to go with it. Or a husband who wonders if his wife still loves him, but never speaks up and then is trapped into a tempting addiction to cope with his loneliness that he didn’t have to experience… if he only had stepped up to ask. Y

Parents Need Agreement to Protect Kids in Ugly Divorces

By: Dwight Bain People ending their marriage through divorce still have a responsibility to be good parents. These are key issues to discuss in the process of protecting your kids from experiencing more emotional pain. Map out your thoughts, and then work together with the other parent of your children to create a reasonable way to be effective as parents, while not placing kids in the middle of parental conflicts. (Remember, while these are essential parenting issues to protect the emotions of your children this is not a legal action. If you have legal questions about how the divorce process affects your children, you should discuss them with an attorney). 1. How can the children spend time with their parents to avoid feeling rejected? 2. What schedule will work for the children to see parents on weekdays? 3. What schedule will work for the children to see parents on the weekends? 4. What schedule will work for the children to have connection as a family on holidays, school breaks

Why Are You So Angry?

By: Christine Hammond, MS, IMH It happens.   You are driving down the left side of highway slightly faster than normal because you are late and suddenly someone cuts right in front of you causing you to slam on your breaks and almost hit their vehicle.   Instantly, you are angry.   Or how about your spouse promising he or she will be home by a certain time and you have made plans based on that time frame but your spouse doesn’t show up, answer the phone or even call.   By the time your spouse arrives home all plans have to be canceled and you are angry. There are several bad ways of handling anger but according to Scripture, there are only two good ways of handling it.   One is from Psalms 4:4, “Don’t sin by letting anger control you.   Think about it overnight and remain silent”.   The second is from Ephesians 4:26-27, “And “don’t sin by letting anger control you.” Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a foothold to the devil”.   Either method wo