The Lifeworks Group, Inc.

By: Dwight Bain USA Today Newspaper asked readers  “What do you want the most?”  and the most common answer was to be happy. While this sounds reasonable, it’s actually quite a puzzle because happiness is very individualized and hard to broadly define. What makes one person happy may not have much effect on another, or might even annoy them. While the formula of what creates happiness is elusive,  (think of Thomas Jefferson’s writing about the “Pursuit of Happiness”),  the physical and psychological benefits of happiness are easy to track. Here’s a short list of the benefits of being happier. Happy people are better liked Happy people have more satisfying relationships with others Happy people have 13% fewer fights and arguments Happy students are 20% more likely to get “A” grades Happy teens are 10 times less likely to start smoking Happy people have an income that is roughly 7% higher Happy people have 10% fewer stress related illnesses Happ...

By: Christine Hammond, LMHC I must admit that when my friend shared she had cancer, it evoked vast amounts of fear mostly because my understanding was lacking in this area. But now with the advancement of many medications, surgical procedures, types of chemotherapy or radiation, various treatment options, and many cases of cancer survivors, many forms of cancer are no longer as intimidating. Yet walking through this with my friend for the first time was daunting. While each experience with cancer is unique, having a base of what is nice, hard and informative to a patient is very useful. Here are a couple of tips from my friend, the conqueror. Some nice things that happened during treatment: Friends and family traveled from out of town to spend time and just sit. The meals offered to the entire family were a huge blessing and an enormous help. She was fortunate enough to have a supportive spouse take on additional responsibilities and give large amounts of grace. The...

Anyone who is a parent knows it is the hardest job out there.   Being in charge of another human is the most terrifying yet rewarding experience. From the time they are babies, parents are the sole provider for this tiny life that they have created.   Being able to care for and instruct one’s children is a blessing, yet in the same respect can be a trial.   Parents are the ones they look to for guidance, the ones in control and who have things under control.   Parents control what they eat, wear and do from an early age.   That is until they start realizing that they have the ability to say yes or no and start challenging their parents’ instructions and decision-making.   The average child’s frontal lobe does not develop until they are 25 years old, so it makes perfect sense that parents would want to remain in control of the decision-making process. Ultimately they are trying to prevent their kids from making mistakes that may alter their lives in a h...