Tag Archives: Worry

What Are Your Priorities?

Is there a difference between making New Year’s resolutions and setting priorities for the year? I believe there is. The first, is usually made with the idea that it is more wishful thinking than anything else and New Year’s resolutions, more often than not, are broken. The second, requires an act of will and really looking at your life, where it is headed, what you want to achieve and sitting down to set those goals and priorities. How many times have you heard someone say they wished there were more hours in a day? Perhaps you have even said it … Continue reading →

Coping with and Getting Through Worry

When it comes to parenting and family life, worry tends to come with the territory. I have been told that the worry doesn’t stop the moment the kids become adults either—it seems that we parents are susceptible to worrying about our children forever! I think there are ways to temper that worry and learn how to cope, though, and ways to get ourselves through those particularly long nights of worry and concern… If possible, it helps to try to keep things in perspective. While worry may come with the territory, we don’t have to let our imaginations run wild and … Continue reading →

“Mom, I Was Worried About You”

In most cases, my kids could pretty much set their watches by me. While my personality is definitely spontaneous and I am willing to take risks and try new things, family life has also made me a rather reliable and loyal sort. I make plans, leave notes, and have tried to set an example for my kids of basic respect of time and commitments. The downside to all this responsibility is that when I do shake things up a bit and change my schedule—my kids get a bit worried! It is an interesting flip of karma for me since my … Continue reading →

Don’t Give In To “What If”

I think that “what ifs” can be the downfall of many of us—but they can really get a single parent off track. Getting caught up in worry, anxiety, self-doubt and wondering “what if” over everything that happens can keep us from being productive and happy in the way our lives are now. What if the child support payment doesn’t come? What if I have to work overtime? What if my child gets sick and can’t go to day care? What if I have to take that transfer? What if I can’t get into the classes I want? What if I … Continue reading →

Waiting For the Day When I Won’t Worry So Much

I am a worrier. I think I was a worrier before I became a mom, but I definitely know that motherhood has fueled and inspired my ability to worry and I have taken it to great heights and proportions. I keep hoping that the older my kids get, the less I will worry. And, while I’ve developed some coping mechanisms for living with the worry and concern, I’m finding that the further they go out into the world, the more I actually DO worry about them! I was talking with a friend recently who has small, preschool-age children and she … Continue reading →

A Pearl of Great Price

Posted on by

During the period when we tried to assess Regina’s potential disabilities and decide if we could parent her, we wondered what effect raising a special needs child would have on our family life. Would we have to totally change our lifestyle to accommodate a rigid schedule of appointments and daily care? The image I persistently recall from this time in my life is the biblical parable of the Pearl of Great Price, the pearl of such surpassing value that the merchant was willing to sell all that he had to obtain this pearl. Could I give up my image of … Continue reading →

Is Your Home Business Keeping You Up at Night?

Stress is a fact of life—especially in this fast-paced, high-pressure modern world we all are living in. But, it can sometimes seem like taking on the challenges of a home-based or small business compounds those stressors ten-fold! Is your business stressful? Or are there realities and concerns that are causing you worry? Is your home business keeping you up at night? It is probably reasonable to expect that there will be some things about our businesses that keep us up at night—we might be worried about how to meet an order or how to negotiate a contract, or we might … Continue reading →

Stuck in Between–When We Have to Wait for Answers

There’s a strange and awful place that we sometimes have to go when we have a child with a developmental delay or chronic illness. It’s like a halfway point between two doorways: The “everything’s going to be alright” doorway, and the “my world and my child’s world is shattered” doorway. And we stand there, in limbo, waiting to see which one will open. The Agony of Waiting We find ourselves in this in-between place when we’re waiting for the doctor to call with results from our child’s blood test or biopsy. Or when we’re waiting to hear the psychiatrist’s analysis, … Continue reading →

Do you worry about what other people think?

Do you find yourself changing your behaviors based on what other people might think? Do you rush off to put make-up on just because someone has phoned to say they’re coming over? Do you decide to get the “good” cups out for an unexpected visitor or do you just use the regular ones in the cupboard? Did you choose your profession because of family expectations? Did you marry the wrong guy because, on paper, he was “more pleasing” to the people that mattered? While it is normal human behavior to adapt our behaviors to certain situations, sometimes we can become … Continue reading →

Seven Goals for Good Mental Health

Posted on by

Feeling less positive than you’d like? Lost that spring in your step and the joy of living? Is depression and anxiety starting to encroach on your day-today life? It could be time for a mental and physical tune-up! 1. Get Moving Our bodies weren’t designed to sit around all day, so even if you have an office job take time out to stretch and walk around. The more we exercise, the more our bodies produce feel-good endorphins, chemicals that make us feel great to be alive. The exercise doesn’t have to be exhaustive: just a daily walk of 30 minutes … Continue reading →