To be mindful is to be present in the moment. Mindful listening means being present in the conversation, without assumptions or conclusions, and without trying to anticipate what your partner is going to say, or without ‘reading into’ the conversation (assuming things that weren’t really said). Mindful listening is a practice that involves fully focusing your attention on the speaker […]
Mindful Communication Skills
Family Resilience Worksheet
The Family Resilience Worksheet lists the 7Cs of Resilience and asks you to rate yourself and your family on each of these resilience factors. This worksheet targets areas for improvement. Once these areas of improvement have been identified, you can concentrate on building your skills in areas where you need help. The 7Cs of Family Resilience The 7Cs of Mindful […]
Externalization: Experiencing the Person, not the Problem
One way to live a life of compassion is to see the person, not the problem. This is done through externalization. If we are able to take the viewpoint that the person is separate from the problem, then we are able to experience the person, and not the problem. Such a perception sees the person as separate from the problem. […]
Don’t Lose Your Marbles!
A fun way to practice mindfulness is the “Don’t Lose Your Marbles” exercise.The purpose of this exercise is to become aware of how many times throughout the day we have negative thoughts about ourselves and our families. As we become aware of that pattern of negative thoughts, we can replace them with positive, more compassionate thoughts. Those positive thoughts lead […]
Living in True Self
The humanist psychotherapist Carl Rogers spoke of the ideas of Self-Image and Ideal Self. This Self-Image, sometimes referred to as the Perceived Self, is the way we perceive ourselves to be. The Ideal Self is the image we have of how we would like to be. Living in True Self means consciously choosing to be your Ideal Self as much […]
7Cs of Natural Eating ON SALE for the Holidays
Regularly $29.99 ON SALE through December for ONLY $5.99 CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE THIS COURSE If you’re like me, you’ve had a life-long struggle with your weight. You’ve probably tried most of the popular diets. They worked for a while, then sooner or later the results tapered off and soon you were back to your old eating habits. It took […]
Creating a Positive Reality
“Focus on the doughnut, not the hole!” -Dr. Garry Landreth The way to be compassionate every day is to create a positive reality around you. Instead of focusing on the ‘hole’ of what you don’t have, focus on the ‘doughnut’ of what you do have. One way to do this is to create a positive ruminating cycle by identifying a […]
The Mask of Anger
At this time of year we like to dress up and often wear masks. But there are other kinds of mask that we sometimes wear to hide our emotions. One of these emotional masks is anger. Anger is almost always a mask for deeper emotions. When we are angry, that anger is usually the result of failed attempts to express […]
Acceptance vs. Change
“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.” -The Serenity Prayer of Reinhold Niebuhr Many of us are familiar with the Serenity Prayer. It deals with the dialectic of Acceptance vs. Change. This dialectic may be illustrated as follows: One of the skills […]
Being Effective
Mindfulness is the art of being effective. This simply means doing more of what works and less of what doesn’t work. As you continue to hone your ability to focus only on one thing at a time, this skill can be extended to problem-solving. When you become mindfully aware of a problem with the idea of solving it, you have […]
Translate »