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Despair: The Aim of the Abuser
Despair is not often discussed, though it is considered a dangerous psychological condition. Psychology Today describes despair as: … profound and existential hopelessness, helplessness, powerlessness, and pessimism about life and the future. Despair is a deep discouragement and loss of faith about one’s ability to find meaning, fulfillment, and happiness, to create a satisfactory future for oneself. The goal of an abuser is to produce the elements of despair in another person. In speaking with the victims of this abuse and having suffered as one myself, I am always surprised at how difficult it is to admit to the intentionality of emotional abuse. Victims often invent excuses for their…
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How to Get the Most out of Your Suffering
Suffering in some capacity is inevitable. My shoulder aches from a car accident three months ago. I am a little down from lack of sunlight in the three and a half hour Alaskan winter days. I could go on, but you get the point. You have your list too, I am sure. But so much of the time, our suffering is a hamster wheel. We can get worn out trying to run from it, only to end up at the same place. Only now we are exhausted from running without purpose. “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as…
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How to Find Your Why
All successful salespeople recognize the importance of the why. After all, one must have a powerful why in order to make cold calls that result in rejection far more often than not. I often ask my students why they are in college. And a few have an answer. Most just shrug their shoulders and when pressed, admit that they are there because either they have nothing else to do with their lives or because their parents made them. Sometimes students enroll in college, enter into debt, and then flunk out, simply because their why was weak or worse, nonexistent. Finding the words that explain the meaning for your life can…
Healing Through Art & Words
