Why Forgiveness?

Yesterday was National Forgiveness Day. I know this because it came across my Facebook newsfeed and Twitter feed. I thought that would make a great idea for a blogpost and turned to Google to research it a bit more.

Getting Unstuck

Every so often I start to feel stuck, like I'm just spinning my wheels and making no progress. When I start to feel stuck old patterns reemerge. Negative self talk dominates my inner dialog. And the darkness starts to creep back in. At these times I like to mentally review everything I have done in my life.

The "…" Challenge.

Last weekend I had the good fortune to attend Orly Amor's Public Speaking Bootcamp. The weekend was filled with laughter, fun, and enough great information on becoming a paid speaker to fit a college level course.

I learned so much from the great speakers and presenters Orly brought in, but one speaker made a great impact on me. Mark E Sackett talked about a bunch of things but the one that stood out to me was his "…" challenge to us.

Mindfulness and Depression

Depression could very often feel like a trap. It's a deep well that seems to get deeper and darker by the second. Very often medication can help bring about a return to normalcy, but it easy to get reliant on medication.

I was diagnosed with extreme depression in 2006 and started taking meds shortly thereafter. I took a variety of different SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitor) for many years. At one time I started to think of the medication as a maintenance medication and resigned myself to the fact I was going to be on these drugs for the rest of my life.

Mindfulness and Autism

Over the last few years I have become increasingly aware of autism and it's effects  on the family. Once only a word I heard at conferences it now gained greater importance to me as several of my friends' children were diagnosed with the disorder. They would call me and confide their fears and anger and confusion. We would sit and talk over coffee and they would share what they learned from their doctor or from an article they read or a conference they attended. As they learned, so did I. I was inspired to start researching autism for myself. What I discovered shocked me.  I saw myself and my childhood friends in the behaviors attributed to and found mostly in people on the autistic spectrum. I began to understand that all my friends and I were living somewhere on the spectrum but were never diagnosed. There is a lot more awareness towards autism today and tools for managing the disorder than there were in the 70s and 80s. This is a good thing.

Affirmations

If you a fan of Oprah Winfrey, Eckhart Tolle, or Wayne Dyer; or if you a practitioner of the Law of Attraction you have heard of affirmations. But what are affirmations and how do they "work?"

Mindfulness and Weight Loss

I stepped on my scale this morning and for the first time in many years I was under 170 pounds. The scale winked 169.5. This is no means my goal weight (that is between 140 to 145 pounds). But I am proud of myself.