emotional health

  • invisibility
    Anxiety,  Emotion,  emotional health,  False Refuges,  Identity,  Shame & Guilt

    Shame Free: Taking off the Invisibility Cloak

    Anyone who spends a good amount of time longing for invisibility has a struggle with shame and/or anxiety on their hands. I should know. I still occasionally wish that I could slip through life unnoticed. Invisibility can seem so safe, especially for a survivor of abuse.  Whenever conflict rears its ugly head, my mind and body still kick into flight mode. Some people are fighters and launch themselves into the fray. Others, like myself, turn to invisibility to minimize the attention of those around us. We freeze like the bunny wondering if the wolf has caught its scent. I want to look at the emotional roots of this phenomenon because…

  • language
    abuse,  abuser,  emotional health,  language

    Language: 5 Types of Abuse and How to End It

    At first, I was going to write about the various layers of healthy boundaries we have, beginning with our skin and ending with our renewed spirit. But I got stuck at language. Most of our boundaries are either created or destroyed by language. We forget that language is first and foremost a creator of reality. It is through language that we discover and articulate our identities. Language, too, is the creator and sustainer of relationships, creating bridges of understanding between people. Redemptively speaking, how we speak and the words we use, even the tones we employ while we communicate, are in their best sense, intended to create community. The end…

  • emotional health,  narcissistic kids

    How to Avoid Raising Narcissistic Kids

    Narcissistic Kids Disclaimer: This article is not about how to prevent your child from becoming a narcissist. Narcissistic Personality Disorder starts early in life and is often a defense against chronic neglect and emotional or physical abuse. However, we all have narcissistic tendencies that need to be dealt with so that we become healthy, whole people. For more details, see https://poemachronicles.com/traits-narcissist/ . We love our children so much that creating an environment ripe for nurturing narcissistic tendencies is easy. But the lifelong consequences of narcissistic kids can be devastating for the children and your family. Narcissistic tendencies include the following traits: a fragile ego, low self-esteem, bragging, inability to be…