Almost every couple that comes for marriage therapy describes the problem of poor communication in their relationship. It may be expressed by a man as, “she does not listen to me” or by his wife as, “he never tells me how he really feels.” Frequently, most of these couples have an unclear idea of what good communication actually means, so it seems like a good idea to take a brief look at how we can more effectively talk to one another.
The Importance of Being Useful
Many times, people complain that they no longer feel “useful.” Perhaps a father has injured himself on the job and can no longer work regularly. A mother who, because of illness, cannot attend to her children as she would like may feel guilty. Someone might express having no purpose simply because they have retired and no longer think of themselves as “productive.” All of these individuals believe that, if they do not see themselves performing a function, they also have no value or purpose. I thought it might be worthwhile to look at this belief more closely.
Improving Our Resilience to Stress
Most of us have heard the old adage that goes, “into each life some rain must fall.” Well, the saying really is true. Everyone goes through periods of adversity in their lives, experiencing trauma, or living through times of high stress. The range of these experiences varies from automobile accidents, to the loss of jobs, to severe personal illness or illness in our family, to the deaths of loved ones, to the extreme shock of incidents like nine-eleven in 2001 or the Virginia Tech shootings in 2007. We can expect traumatic events to occur in the course of our life and those of people we love. Remarkably, though, most of us never develop intense stress symptoms because of these experiences.
The Importance of Intention
We frequently hear about the importance of meeting goals. On the job, many of must meet such a requirement on a weekly or even daily basis. Today, I am suggesting an alternate method to approach what we want to accomplish in our personal lives, a perspective on our hopes and ambitions. Actually, it involves two ideas: setting intentions and letting go of the outcome. These two concepts are closely related.
Exercise and Emotional Well-Being
Greetings and welcome to our blog!
Everyone has probably heard the incessant chatter from self-help TV personalities or anyone on the Oprah Network about the benefits of daily exercise. While I’m not one to hop on the bandwagon of every trend that’s compelling enough for a soundbite on your nightly news, the advice about exercise has merit. Research is very consistent about the benefits of exercise on mental health. I know a lot of you probably have questions about the link between exercise and mental health so here are some answers.
