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Brain Food for the Good Life Blog

Teaching Youth About Right and Wrong (Part 1)

By Dr. Paul Schmidt  on September 11, 2021
If you’re like most American adults, you are concerned that some of the youth in your family are going to mess up their lives by bad habits and choices on some moral issue. The ones I hear about the most are sex, money, family, religion, and drug or alcohol abuse. All too often, efforts to […]
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Four Circles

By Dr. Paul Schmidt  on September 10, 2021
  Four-Circle Sobriety Plan          Four concentric circles represent three important lists of behaviors, and one list of warning signs. These lists will be fluid, and you will need to add and subtract new items on a regular basis, at least from the boundaries list and the recovery behaviors below.   Use these lists to structure […]
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Parenting Rebellious Teens

By Dr. Paul Schmidt  on September 8, 2021
Sixteen-year-olds look completely different from the way they looked at twelve. Even more striking is the difference in their personalities. Parental influence has declined by roughly half, due to more influences from peers, media, hormones, boyfriend/girlfriend, and the huge internal need to feel grown-up by acting different from you. Yet parents do not adjust their […]
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Giving Sex and Love Education to Your Children

By Dr. Paul Schmidt  on September 7, 2021
How Relevant are Traditional Values in our Pornified Culture? by Dr. Paul F. Schmidt   Sexual energy, beautiful bodies, romantic love, and close relationships -- as much as they are idolized in our culture, there is nothing inherently good or bad about them.  They are all morally neutral resources, because they can be used for […]
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Acting on Feelings or Beliefs?

By Dr. Paul Schmidt  on August 29, 2021
THE BEST USES OF EMOTIONS AND BELIEFS A client recently taught me a helpful little verse: Feel your feelings,      and talk them out. Believe your beliefs,      and act them out. I can think of three ways we often violate this helpful little guideline. We neglect it altogether. When we mess up a situation, […]
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How to Work a Good 12-Step Program

By Dr. Paul Schmidt  on August 26, 2021
What exactly is a 12-step program?  It is the people, principles, prayers, and lifestyle practices of recovery from addiction that was started by Alcoholics Anonymous back in the 1930’s.  To work a program successfully, you need all four—the people, principles, prayers, and practices.  You can’t just read and learn at home, just go to meetings […]
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Is your Faith Toxic or Healthy?

By Dr. Paul Schmidt  on August 26, 2021
  IS YOUR FAITH HEALTHY?   What is healthy faith, anyway, and who am I to judge it? As a psychologist, I can tell when people’s religious beliefs and lifestyles are enabling them to enjoy life, be enjoyable to others, and leave the world a better place each day. No matter what a person’s religious […]
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Triangles Can Help or Hurt Communication

By Dr. Paul Schmidt  on August 26, 2021
Sometimes when we want to talk with someone, we assume they wouldn’t understand, or worse still, wouldn’t listen. Maybe they’d even fire back some criticism at the messenger so they didn’t have to deal with the message. So we send our message through a third party. This is called a ricochet message, or a bank […]
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Vampires and Zombies: How People Suck the Life Out of Each Other

By Dr. Paul Schmidt  on August 26, 2021
Have you ever wondered why vampires and zombies have become so popular in American culture?   I believe it is caused by the huge rise of addictions in America, and by so many parents over-protecting and over-indulging their children.  Both of these trends have produced people whose lives resemble vampires and zombies on the inside, because they love […]
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Dr. Paul F. Schmidt