Leave It Behind You

It's Monday, decide to leave fear behind this week.  

Push forward, take the first step.  

You can do this.

Sinking Your Mind

Above everything, guard your thoughts and your heart to keep your life moving in the right direction.

Anhedonia Epidemic

Can you lay your phone, iPod, tablet down for more than a few minutes?  Do you have to be continually checking your social media sites?  Do you need constant connection and noise?  Do you get easily bored?  Do you lack energy and motivation?  Can you be self absorbed, placing yourself before your family?  Do you lack critical constructive and creative thinking abilities?  Does it seem that your level of entertainment and excitement constantly needs to be at a higher level to keep peace in your home?  Do things that used to interest you no longer interest you?  Does your family face a critical level of boredom?  

There is a cause to these problems.  It is a condition that is running at epidemic levels in our society. It is called Anhedonia.  

I first learned of anhedonia two years ago when I took an online class from Dr. Archibald Hart.  He wrote a book called Thrilled to Death.  I would highly recommend this book to nearly everyone.  

Anhedonia is deeply affecting our society, our home lives, and our relationships.  Anhedonia is a destruction of the pleasure center in the brain that doesn’t allow a person to experience pleasure or happiness from the things of life that should bring us happiness and pleasure.

Anhedonia is now an epidemic level in our society because we think we need to be constantly connected, doing numerous things at once, and the need to be continually entertained.  Dr. Archibald Hart states that anhedonia affects at least 80% of the American public. 

Our need to be continually connected and always filling our brains with information, excitement, and images, is destroying the creative and critical thinking parts of our brain.  We lose our ability to have constructive thoughts, so much that we cannot think for ourselves but rely on the internet and social media for the ‘facts’ to base our decisions off.  We have lost the desire to think for ourselves, figure out situations and problems with critical thinking, and we often do not think through situations but go off what is popular on our social networking sites.  Unfortunately, for the most part, our feeding off of continual connection to electronic devices has stopped our rational thinking.  People think it is ok to threaten other people because they don't agree with them, and social media has escalated this new form of bullying.  

Our brains were not designed to be continually in motion. Our brains need rest.  They need relaxation.  They need to disconnect.  

“Today, we are certainly more informed as a people–more than any time in history. However, we are losing our ability to do anything productive with the information we have acquired, because of our propensity for pleasure-seeking activities–opportunities proliferated by growing numbers of digital devices.  It’s really like any other addiction.” ~Philip Telfer from his documentary “Captivated”

What are the affects of anhedonia?  We are a society that is stressed out, tense, on edge, unhappy, depressed, self-centered, disconnected, who has lost the ability to enjoy the simple things of life.  Think about these questions and answer them honestly:

When is the last time you sat down with your family and had a meal together at the table without continually checking your phones, or having music or the TV on?  

When is the last time you just sat at a lake and listened to the water, the birds, and observed all the nature around you and enjoyed the quiet?

When is the last time you  turned your phone and electronics off, and just truly relaxed?  Can you do that without wondering what’s happening on your social media sites?  

When is the last time you sat and talked with a friend without checking your phone every few minutes?  

When is the last time you went for a walk, without headphones in your ears?  

When is the last time you spent time just talking face to face with your kids or your spouse, all electronics turned off?  

When is the last time you felt real happiness and joy, and didn’t feel you were missing out on something or needing more to be happy?  

When is the last time you enjoyed a book, writing, photography, painting, drawing, something creative without a form of electronics involved, or next to you? 

If you are easily bored, have lost your creative edge, have a difficult time discerning right and wrong, feel numb emotionally, are overwhelmed with sadness, need to continually be connected to your phone or the internet, have lost interest in things you used to enjoy, don’t enjoy affection and have strained relationships, you are dealing with anhedonia.  

There are ways to overcome it, if you want to get your life back.  

First and most important, intentionally disconnect.  Take more time in your day to enjoy relationships, resting, and quiet time than you do on your phone, texting, and social media sites.  Enjoy real life, not a virtual life.  Play basketball with your kids, not a game on your phone.  Talk, in person, face to face, and build real, intentional relationships.  

Second, make sure to intentionally be quiet, rest, relax.  Our bodies and minds were not designed to go at the pace we force them to go.  Find ways to relax your body and your mind. 

Third, be creative.  Creativity brings healing.  We can’t be creative if we spend all of our time online, gaming, or multi-tasking.  Remember what you enjoy doing that is creative and start doing it again, or find something that you would enjoy doing, and try it.  Work with your hands, and think creatively again.

Use your mind to think....anhedonia takes away our critical thinking.  We have great minds, let’s start using them to think and reason. 

Lastly, I recommend reading Dr. Hart’s book Thrilled to Death: How the Endless Pursuit of Pleasure Is Leaving Us Numb.  He provides many more insights into this epidemic, and how to heal and overcome anhedonia.  

Need help with this issue?  Please contact me at respirelifecoach@gmail.com.

It's A Choice

Each day we have choices to make about how we will handle the day and what  we do with our time.

What will you choose?

Fears

Sharing a blog post on facing our fears:

What Are You Afraid To Face?

Worry

Worry robs our lives of joy, and causes health problems. 

Let. It. Go.

The Dance

I don’t want to miss the dance.  I get hung up on so many things in life,  worrying about what I will never do or achieve or have. But I don’t want to miss the dance. I want to love my spouse, care for my kids, and give life to my friends. I want to do the work God made me to do. I want   to love God and the world he made. I want to do my part to help it flourish, for my spiritual maturity is not measured by following rules. “The me God made me to be” is measured by my capacity to love. When we live in love, we flourish. That is the dance.

– John Ortberg, The Me I want to Be

How many times do we miss the dance? 

How many times do we turn away, quit trying, because we’re tired,  lonely, or forgot why we                         even cared in the first place? 

The world can be a difficult place to live at times. We need each other.

God wants us to love each other, serve each other.  He is asking us to dance without fear, so take                     the first step and enjoy the dance.

Battle For The Mind

Most of the battles in life are won or lost in our mind. To overcome those battles, we need to learn to control our anxiety, fear, and negative self talk.







Our beliefs affect how we act. We first need to examine what we believe, and make changes where needed. When we change our thinking, changing our behavior will come much easier.

Overcome or Overwhelmed?

Which handle do you grab for each morning?  We all have a choice to either be overwhelmed or to overcome.  

It's The Thought That Counts

"It's the thought that counts..."  

Your thoughts really do count/matter because what you think is usually what you become, what you achieve.  Toxic thoughts often hold us as prisoners and affect our life and our relationships.  You can overcome those thoughts by replacing them with Truth.  Truth that you matter.  Truth that you were created for a purpose, by a God who does not make mistakes.  

Let. It. Go

Worry strips away joy.  Worry puts us in a false reality, often making things worse than they truly are.  Worry destroys our lives.  

Today, decide to let worry go.  Push it out of your life, and close and lock the door behind it.  Work hard to keep it out of your life.  As soon as you find worry creeping back in, actively take steps to overcome it, and send it out of your life.

Focus instead on joy, love, laughter, and gratefully live every moment of this life you are given. Live with purpose and passion, and leave loving footprints on the lives of everyone you encounter.    

Uncertain Or Difficult Times

Dealing with difficult or uncertain times? 

"A surgery may fail, but God’s compassions will not. A treatment may fail, but God’s compassions will not. A relationship may fail, but God’s compassions will not. A dream may fail, but God’s compassions will not. My friend, no matter what you’re facing, God cares for you and will carry you. It may not be OK, but, because of the Lord’s great love, you will be OK..." - Jennifer Rothschild


Great blog to read:  

You Will Be Ok 

Dealing With Depression or Anxiety?

Feeling down or depressed? Need to overcome your depression, sadness, overwhelming anxiety?  A few simple steps are guaranteed to ease those feelings.  

Unplug. 

Take a break from Facebook, Twitter, the news, social interactions and discussions, people who cause much unneeded drama in your life.  Instead, take time to focus on good things in life, the things that bring you joy.  Go outside.  Read a book.  Go for a walk.  Have a true face to face conversation.  Enjoy a hands on hobby.  Go for a drive and enjoy the beauty of nature.  It will change your mood and your outlook on life.  

Worry Less, Give Thanks More

Worry less, give thanks more.

Word Challenge, Overcome

The first word I am going to use in this new challenge is OVERCOME. Share with me what this word means to you, how you have overcome, whatever comes to your mind when you see this word. 

At the beginning of the year, I took a challenge of 'pick a word for the year that you want to be your theme,' and I picked overcome.  It has definitely been a theme for me, and I have overcome quite a few fears, challenges, attitudes that held me back.  I still have things to overcome, which has become very obvious the past few days, such as anxiety over unknowns or what if's, but I have overcome a lot in the past few months that used to hold me back.  

Here are three examples of things I have overcome this past year.  There are many more, but these are the big ones:

I started to work out, something I hadn't done at this level in years!  I had walked, done some hiking and bike riding, but I am actually going to the gym 3-4 days a week. The walking and hiking we do have become much easier and much more enjoyable.

There have been some past hurts that I have overcome, and by doing that, I have been more open to letting new people in my life, made new friends, and torn down walls around my heart.  I have become more outgoing, speak up more, and have been blessed with some wonderful new friendships because I overcame the past hurts and scars others left on my heart.  

On my birthday, I went across a narrow, swinging bride that ascends from rock to rock over the Kootenai River in Montana.  Fear had kept me from taking more than two steps on this bridge before.  I don't like heights, although that fear is going away, but heights over moving water, on a narrow, moving bridge was not my idea of fun.  I climbed the steps, determined to overcome this fear, took the first few steps, which are high up, but I was over rocks, not water.  I took a few more steps, slowly, clinging to the cable as tight as possible, and fear swept over me.  My husband and niece were part way across, cheering me on and waiting for me.  I froze for a bit, and just stood there.  I looked up at my niece, who is 8, and did not want her to think it's ok to quit something because of fear, so I took a few more steps.  At this point, one of the three boards under my feet moved, escalating my fear, but kept me moving forward!  When I got about half way across, the fear left, and I enjoyed each step of the journey across that bridge.  It was beautiful.  I felt very accomplished when I hit the stairs on the other side.  I felt free from the fear that had held me back so many other times before.  The trip back across was now easy.  I had overcome by putting fear behind me, and taking a risk to move forward.  With each step moving forward, the fear grew smaller and the confidence grew more and more, and I overcame a barrier that held me back for so many years. 

This only shows about 2/3 of the bridge, it is a long one!  

Walk Through It

Do you need this today?  I think most of us do at some level.  

Don't Miss the Adventure

What are you willing to risk today to go after something you want to achieve?  Why wait?  Start now. 

If you need some help getting started, contact me at respirelifecoach@gmail.com and I can help you go after your goals and dreams.  

Replacement Plan

Let it go, and let God replace what stops you and brings you down, to a life of faith, purpose, and endless opportunities.  

Want To Improve Your Week?

Start your week off with some laughter!

Laughter helps to relieve stress and anxiety, so enjoy a good laugh today, and every day.  

Is Your Life Overwhelmed, Or Have You Overcome?

What worry is weighing you down?  Worry destroys our health, our quality of life, even relationships.  Worry comes and seeps in to every part of our being that we ALLOW it to invade and consume.  It can be stopped, however.  We can stop it from overpowering our life, but it has to be a choice.  Some days, it's a minute by minute choice when we face overwhelming circumstances, or circumstances that appear to be overwhelming.  

As someone who has struggled with this, I understand how it can destroy health-body, mind, and soul.  I understand how it seeps into every area when allowed to do so, and weighs life down.  I also have experienced how it affects relationships, both because I was worrying, and because another was overwhelmed with their own personal anxiety so much, that they quit living life.  Thankfully, I have learned how to identify worry, stop it before it invades, and let it go.  There is great freedom in letting go of anxiety and stress.  

In what ways have you learned to overcome worry?   If you are currently overwhelmed by worry, what one step can you take today to let it go?