The Lifeworks Group, Inc.

By: Christine Hammond, LMHC “Burn-out” is an understatement of what you are experiencing; in fact it happened so long ago that it is now stored in long-term memory.   What you are experiencing is beyond burn-out and feels more like a chronic condition for which physical symptoms of stress have become the norm. If this sounds familiar, then you might be suffering from Exhausted Woman Syndrome (EWS).   The symptoms are as follows: ·          Over-annoyed – little things set you off like people who can’t use their debit card fast enough at the check-out aisle. ·          Over-apologetic – saying, “I’m sorry” when you are not really sorry just to move past this item and on to the next one as quickly as possible. ·          Over-attentive – fixation on potential problems, trying to keep them from exploding into bigger ones to the exclusion of ...

  By Dwight Bain Little kids do it, senior citizens do it, Presidents and Prime Ministers do it… they worry too much. Do you let this common pattern steal your joy, if so you are not alone since worry affects everyone from 5 to 85. Women are especially prone to this emotion that steals so much joy from living. Women worry about many different things, from finances to body image to relationships to work or even to worry about their mother's approval, even if their mother is 90! Yet the same psychological drive is fueling this stressful emotion no matter what triggers it. I believe the real source behind the worry most women feel is control. Not control in the sense of being a manipulative monster, (like Jane Fonda's character in the chick flick film "Monster-in-Law"), rather it's the need to know what's happening around her so she can feel empowered, safe and in control of her emotions and environment. Think of it this w...

By Chris Hammond, MS, IMH There are many definitions of marriage today with different states and churches adding their own definitions to the mix. You, like I, are each free to follow our own definition of marriage within the laws of our state. But as for me, I choose to follow the Biblical model of marriage which is a man and a woman united together in a covenant from God (Genesis 2:24). This unity is the beginning of a family unit to which children may be added in the future but it is also a departure from your family of origin. It is in its’ very nature a formation of a new relationship, a new bond, and a new unit. To better understand a Biblical marriage, some ground work needs to be laid. In His Image. Ever wonder why God created man and woman in His image (Genesis 1:27)? Could it be that He created man and woman in His image because we are to model Him here on earth? Several times Jesus tells us that we are “a light” to the world (Matthew 5:14). Our light does n...

By Chris Hammond, MS, IMH What? How could you ask such a question? Are you kidding me? Don’t you know that mistresses are evil? While this may be true in some circumstances, I rather prefer the title of “Mistress” and often use it in my communications. The word originates from the French word “Maistresse” which is the feminine version of the word “Master”. In addition, the “Mrs.” in front of so many female names is actually short for “Mistress”. The definition is of a woman who is in a position of authority, who in control over something or someone. The term later came to mean a kept woman by a married man, but I rather prefer the original meaning and abbreviation. So what does the original question have to do with the definition of the word “Mistress”? Quite simply put, everything. I imagine that “Mistress” is exactly what God intended when He created Eve. She was created to be a helpmate to Adam, to bear children, to work the land, and to rule over creation alongside her h...

By Dwight Bain, Nationally Certified Counselor & Life Coach Women worry about many different topics, from men to body image to relationships to their mother's approval; yet the same psychological drive is fueling this stressful emotion no matter what triggers it. I believe the real source behind the worry most women feel is control. Not control in the sense of being a manipulative monster, (like Jane Fonda's character in the film "Monster in Law), rather it's the need to know what's happening around her so she can feel empowered and in control of her emotions and environment. Think of it this way. When control goes up, worry goes down because the more a woman can understand the more she will automatically feel a sense of security and confidence inside. However, as a situation begins to feel out of control, worry dramatically increases, leading to more serious conditions like Social Phobia, Generalized Anxiety Disorders or even Panic Attacks if left untreated...

Linda Riley, LMFT & Certified Sex Therapist The Greek philosopher, Sophocles said, “One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life. That word is love.” The Russian novelist, Fyodor Dostoevsky’s definition of hell is the “inability to love.” The apostle Paul says, “Without love we are nothing.” Life without love is an empty meaningless experience. God has designed us with both the need to give and to receive love. The capacity to love is a gift from God as love is a Divine energy. Our world seems to be moving, away from love for God and for others towards self-love. As a result of this shift, we are experiencing great difficulty creating healthy loving relationships, both emotionally and sexually. Love is what brings meaning and depth to sex. Helen Singer Kaplan says, “Love is the best aphrodisiac.” God designed sex to be an awesome experience; magical, mysterious, romantic and most of all passionate. It was intended to be a powerful means of unity and pleasure. But ou...

by Mark Victor Hansen Our minds are all we've got. They are the source of who we, both personally and professionally, are. They determine our success or failure. They are our strength and our weakness. With the quality of our entire lives resting on our minds, it's unbelievable that we choose to fill them with so much garbage. The amount of negativity from television, newspapers, tabloids and other media that bombards us on a daily basis is amazing. We would never think to fill our bodies with only junk food, right? Heck no. We know that if we ate nothing but French fries and ice cream we would experience negative consequences like skin blemishes, weight gain and rotting teeth. But with mental junk food we don't see the physical consequences right away. When our minds are constantly filled with negativity and bad news, our minds begin to decay. That's why we need to develop a strong, Herculean-esque mind. Developing your mental muscles will give you the power to accompl...

By Mary Gardner, for the Orlando Business Journal I just finished up a workshop for the unemployed and the biggest take away came as such a shock to me, since I’ve been an entrepreneur for 16 years. It’s the fact that many of the people who are unemployed have been “company” people their whole career, some of them at the executive level who got early retirement, and they have never given any thought to starting a business, freelancing or temporary work. They had seen themselves primarily as an employee and now are feeling stuck because some of them had sent out nearly 200 resumes and hadn’t gotten but a few phone interviews. According to The Bureau of Labor Statistics most jobs are never advertised and are found through personal contacts. One source mentioned that 80% of jobs were found through their own network and not through job listings via the computer. The two largest job listings of Monster and Career Builder receive thousands of resumes per job listing the chances are slim t...

by Jim Rohn Now, here's the second law that changed my life forever to understand sales and marketing. I learned the law of sowing and reaping. And in the law of sowing and reaping is also the story of the law of averages. Jot this down…the story of the sower. It comes from the Bible. I am an amateur on the Bible, but this is such a useful story. Here's what the story says, and take notes, because the drama's in the details. The sower was ambitious. Evidently, he was ambitious. When you read the whole story you'll conclude yes, this was an ambitious sower. Here was number two. He had excellent seed. The sower who sowed the seed had excellent seed. And the excellent seed could be an excellent opportunity, an excellent product, an excellent story. So we've got an ambitious sower with excellent seed. But now here are the rest of the details of the story. For your information, for the drama of your life, so you can understand things better, learning some of this is ho...

By C. Dwight Bain One of the strategies our family has used for over ten years to solve stress and save money is to work off of a weekly shopping list. It's a simple process of printing out a weekly sheet of paper with the type of products that our family typically uses. We fill it out as a family throughout the week to prevent forgetting something, or buying too much of the products we already have on hand. It keeps us organized, and saves a lot of stress by following a plan, which also helps us to budget our spending before we get to the store. Once we make the list and review it by looking into the fridge or pantry to make sure that nothing is missed, then we grab a yellow marker to identify the products that we have coupons for, since we save about twenty dollars per week by using the manufacturers coupons from the local newspaper. It may sound complex, but it's actually a simple process to solve stress by planning ahead and working together as a family. Just take our l...

by Jim Rohn, Master Coach While most people spend most of their lives struggling to earn a living, a much smaller number seem to have everything going their way. Instead of just earning a living, the smaller group is busily working at building and enjoying a fortune. Everything just seems to work out for them. And here sits the much larger group, wondering how life can be so unfair, so complicated and unjust. What's the major difference between the little group with so much and the larger group with so little? Despite all of the factors that affect our lives - like the kind of parents we have, the schools we attended, the part of the country we grew up in - none has as much potential power for affecting our futures as our ability to dream. Dreams are a projection of the kind of life you want to lead. Dreams can drive you. Dreams can make you skip over obstacles. When you allow your dreams to pull you, they unleash a creative force that can overpower any obstacle in your path....

By C. Dwight Bain, Nationally Certified Counselor & Certified Life Coach Why do so many people lose love and sex while losing their marriage? Research shows many different factors that lead to relationship failure but let’s make it personal and explore some hidden reasons that move couples from ‘happy ever after’ to over to shattered dreams and hatred. Jessica and Phillip have been dating six months. They spend long nights together talking about how good things are for them. It feels like they have shared their entire life’s history with each other, so Phillip eventually asks Jessica to marry him. They feel so “in love”, that she instantly says “yes”! Soon they are off to see their pastor for premarital counseling. They discuss finances, children, careers, houses, and in-laws as they map out what it would be like as they begin their lifetime together. One summer day they stand before God and their friends in a little church to say “I do”. Ironically, less than a year later the...

Understanding the psychological dynamics of domestic violence By C. Dwight Bain, Nationally Certified Counselor & Certified Life Coach Her cries for help in the middle of the night startled us awake and when we turned on the lights and let our neighbor inside, the red welts on her arms and face shocked us even more. “How could he do this to you?” My mother asked, and all she could sob out was “He didn’t mean to do it, please don’t call the police.” That was my first exposure to domestic violence almost 35 years ago yet I can still vividly remember the look of terror in her eyes after being beat up by her husband, (who was so out of control that he had actually pulled out a weapon to use against her). She ran for her life, but an hour later as the police were handcuffing him for transport to the jail, she was begging them to leave him alone so she could take care of him. It was a long night for everyone, but the next day it was like nothing had ever happened, because it was never ...