Some thoughts on developing the grit, toughness, resilience, and fighting spirit necessary to endure and push through when under pressure and pushed to the limit. --------------------------------------------- Attributions : "Lulerain" from the album "Lost in the Right Direction" by Etherwood. "A Song of Ascent (Reprise)" from the album "A Song of Ascent (Deluxe)" by Emilie Weiss. --------------------------------------------- My Wellness Friend website: https://www.mywellnessfriend.com/ Free 14-d...
Aug 11, 2023•11 min
A brief look into a key element related to what it takes to bring about transformation. "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." (Romans 12:2) "Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it." (Proverbs 4:23) "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things....
Jul 10, 2023•14 min
We're all trying to do a little better, improve some things, and help ourselves to do that, aren't we? That's good. Keep moving forward, upping your game, and course-correcting as needed. But there's one self-help hack that is a can't miss, results-guaranteed method that you can start right away and it doesn't require anything more than being open and willing to try it. ______________________________ Attributions: "Portrait Gallery" from the album "Sun, Cloud" by Luke Howard. ___________________...
Jun 29, 2023•7 min
The Japanese art form known as kintsugi (金継ぎ), which translates to "golden repair" and is also referred to as the "art of precious scars," takes a broken object and repairs it with a precious metal such as gold, silver, platinum, or lacquer dusted with powdered gold to bind the broken pieces in a way that increases its value by preserving and even highlighting its imperfect history. Each expression of kintsugi is unique because of the random nature of fractures. The practice is related to the ph...
Jun 23, 2023•4 min
Today more than ever there seems to be a pervasive and almost unrelenting call for total devotion to self. Who I am, what I am, what is my life's purpose and meaning flows from within me. Where I fit into the grand scheme of things (who has the right to say what that is?) is up to me and how I feel about things. This strikes at the very core of our concept of being what/who we are. What is a human being? One's answer to that question serves as the foundation for an understanding of why we exist ...
Jun 21, 2023•11 min
"Trigger results that optimize outcomes." Whether it is nutrition, exercise, sleep hygiene, stress reduction, or any other aspect well-being to be addressed, the strategies used should be designed to produce a result that leads to the best possible outcome. What can I do to cause the effect that optimizes my hoped-for outcome? What am I doing right now in some of the most important areas of my life? Patterned behavior is the blueprint for results, whether good, bad, or somewhere in between, so t...
Apr 13, 2023•9 min
When it comes to dealing with our flaws and frailties that can lead to or result in compulsive overconsumption, shame can be a tricky concept. Shame can provide the impetus to stop the behavior but also the means for perpetuating it. How do we reconcile this paradox? Let's start with a look at shame. What is it? The psychological literature today identifies it as an emotion distinct from guilt. The thinking is that shame makes us feel bad about ourselves as people, whereas guilt makes us feel ba...
Feb 08, 2023•10 min
Here's something interesting to ponder: Research by experts in the field of neuroscience reveal that our behavior can act as a catalyst for various neurotransmitters that manage emotions, overall mindset, and how we respond to stress. One behavior in particular is worth noting since putting it into practice triggers the release of the wellness hormones dopamine and serotonin, and reduces levels of cortisol, the stress hormone. What behavior, exactly? Gratitude. A consistent gratitude practice ca...
Jul 18, 2022•5 min
Trials, tribulations, difficulties, and problems—life’s stressors. We all must deal with challenging situations and people, which includes that person in the mirror. However, another way to look at it is that the amount of stress we feel has more to do with how we relate to our challenges and problems than it does with the actual problems themselves. In other words, how much of a problem do we make our problems? When we accept some of these challenges as an inevitable part of life, when we view ...
May 11, 2022•8 min
Making it part of your weekly routine to observe a brief period of a self-imposed fast from working or even thinking hard - allowing yourself to be bored for a time and not resisting it - can have a rather surprising effect. When you make that decision and just let things go for a while, feelings of boredom can be replaced with a heightened state of inner peace and relaxation. Yes, this will require an intentional effort for those who are wired to become anxious at the very thought of purposely ...
Apr 29, 2022•5 min
Instead of spending so much energy "sweating the small stuff" and losing touch with the wonder and beauty all around us, be strategic to apply your focus tending to your physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being to better enable you to then help others tend to theirs in certain ways. You'll then find that you are becoming a kinder, more tranquil peacemaker in all aspects of your life. You're worth it. Your loved ones are worth it. Your neighbors (in the community, at work, in the public doma...
Apr 19, 2022•6 min
Flipping the script on the poem "Pretty Ugly" by Abdullah Shoaib. I'm very ugly So don't try to convince me that I am a very beautiful person Because at the end of the day I hate myself in every single way And I'm not going to lie to myself by saying There is beauty inside of me that matters So rest assured I will remind myself That I am a worthless, terrible person And nothing you say will make me believe I still deserve love Because no matter what I am not good enough to be loved And I am in n...
Apr 13, 2022•7 min
James 3:13-18 "Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such 'wisdom' does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then pe...
Jan 25, 2022•8 min
The church is not a group of people that merely thinks up ideas; the church is to be a declarative statement of what God has revealed through the teachings of Jesus Christ and the apostles as recorded in the Bible. What is true about God's nature and our nature, and that sin is a moral issue that stands between us and God, are established by God himself. The church as a group of people joining together across every conceivable social divide represents the supernaturally restored human race in re...
Jan 17, 2022•19 min
The primary evidence a Christian can present to the world that the teachings and truth claims of Jesus Christ and the apostles are true is in demonstrating the kind of love he exemplified, described, and called for in his teachings. The Bible teaches explicitly that being right in the vertical relationship is expressed in our horizontal relationships; there is a necessary link. How best to apply this in our day to day life? ____________________________________________________________ Attribution...
Jan 11, 2022•31 min
The total system of unified Christian teaching states that I have been created by an infinite yet personal God, created truly outside of himself. So I know who I am in my being, which is a person bearing the image of God, and therefore my existence is validated on a deeply personal level as opposed to chance or randomness. And when it comes to perhaps the greatest of fears, which for most is the concept of non-being that death would seem to bring upon us, the Christian perspective provides the o...
Jan 06, 2022•26 min
Having looked into our thought lives in part 9, we will now examine what Christianity has to say in regard to the various psychological challenges we all experience from time to time. This involves addressing some rather complex concepts that may sound a bit technical or even foreign to most hearing these ideas for the first time. However, the payoff is a deeper understanding of the unparalleled explanatory power of the Christian belief system in terms of how it not only accounts for all aspects...
Dec 21, 2021•35 min
True spirituality always begins within the thought-world. The internal is central and first. The spiritual battle is always fought in the world of our thoughts, which is why living the Christian life necessarily involves actively and intentionally setting your mind on and making every effort to live out the teachings laid out in the Bible. _________________________________________________________________________ Attributions: Schaeffer, Francis A. (1971). True Spirituality: How to Live for Jesus...
Dec 07, 2021•28 min
Thus far in the series we've been considering freedom from sin's power to hold us down and keep us in bondage to things and attitudes that harm us. Now we're turning to consider the question of freedom in the present life from the results of sin's bondage. And this is where we come into very sharp conflict with modern intellectual thinking, and we'll see what Christian teaching has to say to this. ________________________________________________________________________________________________ At...
Nov 30, 2021•28 min
Christianity teaches that the answer to humanity's fundamental problem is that the central relationship that makes all other relationships most meaningful is that of the Creator and the creature, which is restored when I accept Jesus Christ as Savior and then approach life following his teachings and example. When this happens, I am to be in my appointed position, in the proper place and in a personal relationship with God. This is what I was made for in the first place. And when I am functionin...
Nov 22, 2021•20 min
The Christian concept of salvation isn't just about past events, including Christ's death on the cross and when I accepted him as Savior, and a future destiny on into eternity, but how life is to be lived in the here and now. It is engaging life in all dimensions by faith in God and being strengthened by him to live moment by moment as one following the teachings and example of Jesus and the apostles. This is true spirituality. ____________________ Attributions: Schaeffer, Francis A. (1971).True...
Nov 15, 2021•20 min
The message of Jesus Christ (the gospel) includes the call to live in the reality of the supernatural. Holding to the right beliefs in terms of theology and doctrine is important, but it is not an end in itself. There is to be an experiential reality, moment by moment. And the glory of the experiential is that we can do it with all the intellectual doors and windows wide open. We aren't just after some spectacular religious or ecstatic experience requiring a dark room, certain types of music, or...
Nov 08, 2021•23 min
Having concluded in part 3 that the Lord tells us to live as though we had died, gone to heaven, seen the truth there, and then come back to this world, he is not asking us to act on just some psychological motivation, but on what really is, what is ultimately real. Therefore I am to live now by faith, grounded in three space-time realities: what has occurred, such as Christ's death and resurrection; what exists right now in the unseen realm; and what is to come, including my future bodily resur...
Nov 01, 2021•24 min
We have up till now highlighted the important negative aspects of the Christian life: rejected, slain. Now we turn our attention toward the positive, without which the other two cannot represent a true, balanced spirituality: raised. ____________________ Attributions: Schaeffer, Francis A. (1971).True Spirituality: How to Live for Jesus Moment by Moment. Tyndale House. "Hope" and "Dawn" by Kazukii. https://soundcloud.com/ohthatkazuki https://ohthatkazuki.bandcamp.com "Nycterine" from Echo Grid. ...
Oct 26, 2021•19 min
Practicing the willingness to say no to ourselves and to things in order that the command to love God and men may have real meaning is a tremendous challenge for us due to our fallen nature. We all experience the natural inclination to focus on ourselves and what we want, and not to deny ourselves. Since the fall of humanity, we are inclined to do everything we canto put ourselves at the center of the universe. This is where we naturally want to live. And this is precisely the environment that w...
Oct 20, 2021•25 min
This is the first of a thirteen episode series based on the ideas expressed by Francis A. Schaeffer in his book, True Spirituality: How to Live for Jesus Moment By Moment that was originally published in 1971. We'll be following his basic chapter outline and summarizing his key thoughts on living the Christian life within a modern context. It is well worth noting that even though it's been decades since the first publication, the ideas are perfectly relevant to where we are well into the 21st ce...
Oct 14, 2021•17 min
There is an interesting self-improvement practice that harnesses one of the most powerful tools available to us: humility. It has to do with imagining that everyone around you is playing an important role in your life as a coach or instructor. Some may even go as far as to say that one way to take this little exercise up a notch is to imagine that everyone around you is enlightened while you're the one in need of their teaching or guidance in some way. It's not about thinking poorly of yourself ...
Sep 21, 2021•4 min
One of the most important elements in terms of living well has to do with guarding yourself against being drawn into quarrels and struggles that do not warrant your full involvement. Our time, talent, and energy are scare resources that must be managed properly. _____ Scripture references: Like one who grabs a stray dog by the ears is someone who rushes into a quarrel not their own. (Proverbs 26:17) The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty. (Proverbs ...
Aug 26, 2021•10 min
It's easy to fall into a pattern of viewing day-to-day life as just a dress rehearsal for a later performance when things are just right and then we can finally experience peace and happiness. What's the best way out of that? Attributions: "In My Eyes - stripped" and "Headspace - blnkspc_ Remix" from the album "The Color of Nothing (Reprise)" by .ford. https://fordsounds.bandcamp.com https://soundcloud.com/ford
Aug 03, 2021•10 min
A simple strategy to deal with those negative thoughts we all have from time to time. Attributions: "Drifting" by Dontcry, Nokiaa, Yasper. https://dontcrymusic.bandcamp.com/releases https://soundcloud.com/dontcrybby
Jul 14, 2021•4 min
