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How to Restore Your Relationship With Food and Never “Diet” Again
There’s a reason most people who lose weight through dieting eventually gain it back. It’s because their relationship with food was unhealthy. After all, an unhealthy relationship with food is what leads to unhealthy eating habits. Conversely, a healthy relationship with food leads to healthy eating habits. The key to…
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Self-Esteem Part 2: How Does Our Self-Esteem Develop? A Roadmap to Increasing Self-Acceptance and Reducing Guilt, Shame, and Regret
“Self-esteem is usually a subtle feeling that begins in childhood and is continually reinforced by cultural conditioning…Changing our feelings about ourselves entails a major revision of our awareness.” Building Self Esteem, 6 There are two major ideas in this excerpt: 1. Awareness and 2. Cultural Conditioning. So what are they?…
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Self-Esteem Part 1: Understanding the Foundation of it All
Saying that self-esteem can mean life or death might seem a bit melodramatic. However, it’s stated quite plainly in Barksdale’s Building Self-Esteem. And he does make a good point. Self-esteem is not just how we see ourselves. It plays a critical role in things like our emotions, reactions, life decisions,…
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Only You
Of the estimated 100 billion people who have ever lived, it’s fascinating to think there has only ever been one you. Even identical twins aren’t completely identical. Although they share the same DNA and may look exactly the same (especially at a young age), the fact that their parents and…
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Anxiety Part 3: So Now What? Using Our Understanding of Anxiety to Develop a Personalized Plan
Before we can address any problem we first need to understand it. That’s what Anxiety Part 1 and Part 2 tried to do. In Part 1, we looked at the difference between stress and anxiety. In part two we talked about anxiety developing from either a cumulation of mini-traumas or…
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Walking By Faith
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. (NIV, Hebrews 11:1) For we live by faith, not by sight. (NIV, 2 Corinthians 5:7) If you noticed the lack of sight in both of these verses, then you might understand why having…
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The “Happier” Alternative to Pursuing Happiness
Do you want to be happy? If you pose this question to anyone, the response will most likely be a “yes” accompanied by an expression that reads: Duh, who doesn’t? Why are you even asking? The truth is, we are all pursuing happiness in almost everything we do, from the…
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Defining “Self-Care”
For most of us, the phrase “self-care,” brings up images of things like washing our hair, brushing our teeth, shaving, or getting enough exercise and rest. Basically, we think of all the things we can do that are considered taking care of self; most often, taking care of our body.…
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It’s Ok to Feel Sad…for a Moment. The Truth About Unresolved Emotions
It’s an obvious statement that unfortunate life events naturally cause a person to feel sad. We’ve all felt sadness at some point in our life from things like rejection, loneliness, the death of a loved one, or just seeing the injustice and suffering of others on tv on the nightly…
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Seven Things We Forget to Be Thankful for Each Day
Gratitude and contentment (as in satisfaction, not apathy) are the key ingredients to a more positive outlook on life. Such emotions take the place of envy, jealousy, dissatisfaction, and feelings of inadequacy, which have no bearing on a healthy state of mind, body, and soul. But feeling grateful and content…
