Post Holiday Blues

It’s mid-January. Our Christmas trees and decorations down. A few stragglers still have some work to do here, and some just don’t want it all to be over so soon. This was a short Christmas season. Thanksgiving came at the end of the month rather than at the end of the third week, and that…

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“You Say” by Lauren Daigle

This song is one that I find to be very powerful.  She is a Christian artist. I was surprised when I heard this song being played on a secular radio station.  As I listen to this song I think about how much it not only applies to my life but how much it could apply…

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Will Depression Ever Go Away?

Short answer: Yes! Long answer: eventually!   When you are struggling with depression you can’t see this proverbial “light at the end of the tunnel.”  That light just doesn’t exist. It’s easy to begin to believe that this state of depression will never lift.  But guess what? It will!!   This season of depression that…

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Silent Depression

A lot of individuals struggle with this thing I like to call silent depression.  Sometimes you can look at someone and just know that they are depressed. Other times, you can look at someone and think to yourself, “Wow! They have it all together! Their life must be awesome!”  Little did you know that the…

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Lonely on Valentine’s Day

Another Valentine’s Day has come and gone. Couples everywhere this day is celebrated have hired babysitters, dressed up and went out to eat, and then, at home or in a hotel or resort, made passionate love. But not you. Single, widowed, divorced, a recent break-up – for whatever the reason, you were alone. There is…

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The Holidays:Part Six – What to do After the Holidays

It is not uncommon for people to get depressed after the holidays.  Sometimes we are on a rush from the holiday season, and when it is over in a blink of an eye we can become depressed.   Sometimes the holidays can bring on a lot of hurt, maybe your family or friends said or did something hurtful, and…

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Bullying

  Bullying is something that some of us are all too familiar with. Bullying can affect someone’s life in a way that is so incredibly hurtful that it is almost incomprehensible. Bullying stays with someone for a very long time. It is possible to get through it but it always stays with us. Individuals and…

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Mental Health Is All About WHO You Know

Recently it seems like every other commercial on T.V. is for some sort of DNA testing service or ancestry discovery.  For a few dollars you can discover if you are Italian or Icelandic or whether have a lineage of lederhosen.  The trend seems to hold several practical purposes like discovering if your genetic code carries…

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Of Barrenness and Burning: When Life Seems Bleak

As far as the forest is concerned, the season has switched from fall to winter.  The branches are bare, and the forest floor is evidence of a year gone by.  The other day, as I arrived at the trail I like to run on (first time since fall was in full foliage), I was surprised…

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Mental Health and Running

It’s a chilly Oregon spring day, and an 11-year-old boy is about run his first competitive race, in all his 6th grade glory; the 800-meter-dash. The short shorts and tank-top barely cover his slight frame which is subsequently covered in goose-bumps caused by chill and nerves. Through the crackly bull-horn comes, “Runners take your mark…”…

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