For most people, and especially I believe most Southerners, "Thou shalt not hurt thy neighbor’s feelings" is right up there with the Ten Commandments, except higher. They would much more freely admit to lying, coveting and idolizing than to saying or doing something they knew would hurt someone’s feelings. The problem is that the truth […]

Reader: My pastor says I’m a peacemaker, a good thing. My friends and doctor say I’m a sponge for stress, a bad thing. How could making life easier for others be wrong? Is physical pain a good thing? It doesn’t feel good, but it does good. It draws our attention to the problem that’s causing it, and motivates […]

Recently the Virginia Tech massacre once again filled our news and talk shows with one of their favorite enemies of the people, terror. We all need to know how to cope with fear, so I’ll give you here my favorite enemies of fear. Those who study and rehearse these can keep them handy as an emergency tool […]

Perhaps the number one killer of mental and relational health in America is the refusal to go through the learning experience of emotional pain.  But I believe our next biggest mental health buzz kill is our refusal to forgive others and ourselves.  I just have to take a stab here at trying to reduce this […]

The key to managing worry and fear is learning how to change the channels in your mind. We learned last time how to switch awareness from the involuntary nervous system that takes feelings TO the brain, and give it to the voluntary nerves taking messages FROM the brain out to the muscles. We also learned […]

  NATURAL QUIET AND SIMPLICITY INSPIRE ACTIVE INVOLVEMENT August 2022 At midlife, I had been building and launching both my family and my career for over 20 years.  I was stressed out from trying to make ends meet.  My business supported employees and counselors, but during its last years, I reached a point where I […]

It seems to me that most Americans have one or more people somewhere in their family or friends that they just can't get along with. The way it feels is like, "I just don't feel comfortable around them. I can't be myself. They make me feel and act crazy, so I prefer to avoid them." […]

Last fall we mourned the passing of my mother, Betsy Hanna Schmidt (she’d insist, “Mrs. Craig Schmidt”).  On what would have been her 85th birthday this month, 20 family and friends gathered to celebrate her life.  I was amazed at how her life seemed to have impacted her grandchildren as much as us children.  I see now that spending time with […]

We learned last week twelve ways that emotional bullies and master manipulators dump their pressures and problems onto us. Assuming now that you can identify these stress-inducing behaviors that will trigger your bogus pressure alarm, how can you keep people from throwing you under the busload of stress that they carry around? How do you […]

Perhaps you’ve got someone in your life that year after year you just can’t get along with. Let’s call this person "Pat". You might want to ask yourself these questions: 1. Do other people have the same problems with Pat? If some people do not, find out how they get along with Pat, and imitate […]