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Posts Categorized: Emotions

The Cost of Unchecked Anger

8 Warning Signs of an Anger Problem | focuswithmarlene.com

Anger, like all emotions, has a purpose.

It can help us survive, can motivate us to take action and make appropriate and necessary changes. It protects us when life threatens us psychologically or physically.

But when anger becomes habitual, it can be harmful.

When used repeatedly as our typical response to things that irritate us, we end up with an anger problem that can be catastrophic over time. That’s because, when we’re angry, we tend to be reactive. We no longer think rationally.

In this article (with accompanying audio), I’ll help you understand anger and will suggest practical things you can do if you are feeling constantly angry.

Challenge Irrational Thinking

Adjust Your Focus: Reframe Your Circumstances | FocusWithMarlene.com

It means making an assumption or hypothesis and testing its validity through objective analysis.

How accurate is my thinking? How can I prove or disprove that? Can my thoughts be modified or expanded? What are the underlying beliefs?

Unchallenged, our first automatic thoughts to potential catastrophes can keep us in a fear, anxiety, or panic mode.

Challenging our thoughts allows us to get out of highly charged emotions while affirming our ability to be flexible, roll with the punches and believe in ourselves. Read on…

Information Emotions Give Us

emotions

Imagine not being able to experience the joy of holding your baby, or that feeling of confidence over a job well done, or the excitement you feel cheering your favorite sports team. Life would be dull and robotic if it weren’t for those wonderful moments of joy and excitement and contentment.

Every day we experience emotions enabling us to enjoy life.

Emotions help us respond appropriately. They warn us of danger as well as bringing us incredible joy. But it’s not situations themselves that create our responses so much as it is our interpretations of what is happening.

I invite you to try the exercise in today’s post. It will help you identify patterns of emotional thinking and responses that might be working against you.

A Deepening Peace: Discovering Peace in Tranquil Settings

secret garden

Once again I gather my cup of coffee, Bible and journal and step out onto my deck brimming with potted plants. The orange and yellow nasturtiums along with green vines and shrubs create a privacy screen, a secret garden. This is my oasis, a place of solitude and quiet where I come to find renewal.

The sounds of the bubbling water fountain soothe my heart and bruised spirit. The questions about an uncertain future melt away like the early morning mists and I feel strength and confidence returning.

Peace.

Laughter is a Lifestyle: 5 Ways to Make Humor Part of Your Life

Laughter is a Lifestyle: 5 Ways to Make Humor Part of Your Life | focuswithmarlene.com

As soap is to the body, so laughter is to the soul.

— Jewish Proverb

Laughter is not a once-in-a while event – it is a lifestyle – a way to look at life.

Laughter allows you to see the good in the midst of our troubles. It helps you move through difficult times. It allows you to focus on things to be thankful for.

Laughter and humor take the edge off any crisis or adversity you are facing. It allows you to see a bigger picture.

Humor: My Teachable Moment

Humor: My Teachable Moment | focuswithmarlene.com

At any moment in time, things can happen that will disrupt our day. But we can learn valuable insights during such times. Disruptions can become profound teachable moments. Such an event occurred to me.

I was washing clothes, preparing for our family to leave the following day on a camping trip. The water flow going into my washing machine was exceedingly slow. I had been improvising by attaching a hose from my laundry tub faucet to my washing machine to fill it.

When the phone rang in our office, I didn’t bother to shut off the faucet, thinking I would only be a minute.

Breath of Spring

Breath of Spring | focuswithmarlene.com

With each season there are new expectations.

Fall brings bright new colors as leaves turn red, yellow, and orange before falling, creating a lush carpet on the ground around them. The trees are preparing for hibernation to survive the cold of winter.

When winter arrives, we snuggle into our comforters or ski jackets when outdoors, enjoying hot chocolate and cookies.

Then, as the days get longer, the ground wakes up, and bulbs planted in autumn push their way up through the hard ground to add new color that promises a bright spring.

Throughout life we experience different seasons – not as predictable as the seasons of nature, but they are there.

I Cried – He Came: God’s Presence in the Midst of Grief

I Cried – He Came

Grief is a journey requiring time and an open mind as we grasp the significance of our life, both before our loss and for what lays ahead.

There will be moments when we acutely feel the need of understanding and comfort, and if we can be open to those moments, we will be rewarded with not only comfort but a greater understanding of life itself.

Turn Your Gravel Pit Into a Beautiful Garden

Turn Your Gravel Pit into A Beautiful Garden | focuswithmarlene.com

Can something ugly and scarred be turned into something beautiful and inviting? Let me share with you a true story about a real gravel pit.

A gravel pit is a piece of land where bulldozers and huge earth-scooping machinery have removed the soil to extract gravel and other ingredients needed to build roads, make cement, gather building rocks, etc.

What remains, after all the extractions, is a huge scarred and pitted hole in the ground with unstable and crumbling sides, water seepage from underground springs, stagnant pools of rainwater, huge, discarded pieces of rock and other un-usable mounds of earth. Debris is scattered everywhere, discarded by individuals who consider this a worthless piece of land; a place to throw away their pop cans, beer bottles or candy wrappers.

Spiritual Gifts to Guide You After Christmas

Spiritual Gifts to Guide You After Christmas | focuswithmarlene.com

Christmas: a shining star – a break from the tedious schedules in which we find ourselves. A time to gather and connect with friends and family.

But Christmas is more than a nice diversion – a blip on the radar screen of our hectic lives.

  • For a moment in time we escaped drudgery, pressures, anxiety, and uncertainties.
  • For a moment in time we humbly knelt before the Christ Child whose birthday we celebrate.
  • For a moment in time we laid down our heavy burdens of doubt and fear and unanswered questions and savored the blessings of Christmas.