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Fear: Three Crucial Types We All Need
Fear is almost a bad word in Christianity today. Reminders that the Bible has the words, Do not fear, 365 times between its covers have become a justification to eradicate it from our lives. And it is true that to live in perpetual anxiety is crippling. However, God gave us each of our emotions purposefully and for good cause. Fear has its place in our souls for several reasons. We would be wise to examine what we fear and why. The absence of fear is as much or more of a mental disorder than being flooded by it. Psychopaths and sociopaths are immune to stress, which is why they are…
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Five Predatory Forms of Manipulation to Cut Out of Your Life
Most of us are guilty of manipulation at times. We all want to have our own way and sometimes communicating our desires requires a skill set which we have not yet acquired. Or perhaps we have learned manipulation in our childhoods from parents who learned it from their parents. Manipulation in any form is an illegitimate way of getting what we want. Manipulation, at its ugly heart, is dishonest. The good news is that normal, well-intentioned people respond well to both honesty and genuine attempts at communication. After all, the main goal of real communication is to reach understanding, if not agree with another person. Learning to ask for what…
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Deflection: How to Spot and Stop It
Deflection is a go-to defense mechanism that started in the Garden of Eden. Adam deflected onto Eve and Eve onto the snake. I’m not the bad guy here. He or she is the bad guy! In order to avoid unpleasant emotions or realities in our lives, we distract ourselves and others from the source of the difficulty. We change the conversation to something else entirely. For some of us, being thought of as the bad guy is the worst fate possible. Anyone with children sees this in action daily. If Mommy reprimands Jimmy for hitting his brother, Jimmy will use deflection to draw the attention from himself. Mommy, but Billy…
Healing Through Art & Words
