Newsletter

Spring 2016

Click here to view our Thriving Spring 2016 Newsletter in PDF

The Serious Importance of Play in Our Lives

If it feels like you have less leisure time and fewer unstructured “play” hours in your life, you’re not alone. Consider these statistics:

• The average married couple works 26 percent longer each year than similar working couples did 30 years ago.

• Leisure time among children ages 12 and under has declined from 40 percent of a child’s day in 1981 to 25 percent of a child’s day in 1997, and about one in four American adults reports no leisure-time physical activity.

• A landmark Surgeon General’s Report identified lack of physical activity, including during leisure, as a serious health threat in the U.S.

Healing from Trauma: Putting Yourself Back Together Again

Two individuals are robbed at gunpoint. One experiences overwhelming helplessness and has a hard month. But by the end of that time, he has pretty much resolved and integrated the incident into his life. The other person experiences intense rage. Years later, she is still struggling with the negative, life-changing aftermath of the trauma.

As seen in the above example, not everyone reacts to trauma in the same way. Just as pain thresholds di er, so do trauma thresholds. But as William Shakespeare wrote in his play Othello, “What wound did ever heal but by degrees?”

10 Ways to Stay with Today

“Most of the time, we are lost in the past or carried away by the future,” says Thich Nhat Hanh, a Buddhist monk and poet. Staying present will bring a more peaceful, joy-filled life. Try these 10 ways.

1. Pay attention to the details:
Notice the food you eat, the sun on your back, the quality of the light; literally stop to smell the roses.

When Your Buttons Get Pushed, How Well Do You Manage?

When you have an automatic, negative response to something, this often indicates a hypersensitivity that’s referred to as “getting your buttons pushed.” Usually these sensitivities have developed due to hurtful childhood experiences, such as repeatedly being criticized, rejected or controlled.

For example, if your parents were very controlling, when someone tells you to do something you may resist—often subconsciously.

Answer the following two sets of questions to discover how well you manage your buttons being pushed.

A Letter From Rick Yaverbaum Spring 2016

When we struggle in our relation- ships with others, we often work over- time to get them to change their ways. However if they are unmotivated or seemingly unable to change, we can easily get frustrated.

Our wish for them to change may be for selfish reasons (how their actions affect me) or it may be that change would primarily benefit them (they would function better at home, work or school).

We need to remember that we cannot change others; only they can change themselves. However, what we can do is change ourself. We can change how we behave or interact with that person. We can change how we think about certain situations and different ways to react or speak to the people around us.

Claiming the Empty Spaces

The Importance of Idle Time in a Fast-Forward World

You’re about to leave for your dentist appointment when you receive a phone call saying the dentist has been called out on emergency and will have to reschedule your appointment. Congratulations! You are the winner of one unexpected free hour! What will you do with your winnings?

Winter 2016

Click here to view our Thriving Winter 2016 Newsletter in PDF

10 Ways to Love ...Fearlessly!

Let’s face it: love is messy. With its magnified highs and lows, love is unpredictable and never what we expect—so much so that we might be tempted to cower in fear. But if we approach love with the courage of a warrior, we can have relationships of heroic proportions. Here are 10 ways:

1. Be yourself. If we want to be loved for who we truly are, why put on an act?

2. Don’t believe your stories. Our interpretation of events and feelings is, in fact, just one possibility for what is actually true. Focus on what IS to get closer to the truth.

Taming Fear, the Little Word with a Big Voice

Fear talks to people. And when they listen, this is what can happen:

Sheila K. loved to dance but she wouldn’t go out on the dance floor for fear she’d look clumsy and ridiculous.

Arnie M.’s fear of going into business to sell the jewelry he loved to design kept him from quitting a job he detested; his continued unhappiness constantly spilled over onto his family.

Delia B. was so afraid of rejection by the son she gave up for adoption that she never called the number she had discovered for him.

Personal Growth

Loss

Eating Disorders

Coping Mechanisms

Relationship Issues

Emotional Distress

ADD/ADHD