In previous articles, we have discussed some tools that help strengthen relationships. Some of these topics have included tools for gaining a stronger sense of self, tools for confrontation and using your voice, tools for getting free of relationship gridlock, as well as tools for understanding the neurochemistry of the brain in committed relationships. Sometimes applying the tools to improve our relationships can be challenging. If you struggle with putting your relationship tools into action with your loved ones, try adding empathy to your relationship toolbox!
So what is empathy anyway?
Webster’s Dictionary defines empathy as “the feeling that you understand and share another person’s experiences and emotions: the ability to share someone else’s feelings.”
Psychologist, author, and researcher Brené Brown describes empathy as the ...READ MORE HERE
By Dwain Sliger, MDiv, MA, LPC, CRAADC
"This is the day the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it."
--Psalm 118:24
I want to start with a question: Do you greet the day or does the day greet you? What was your first thought? Maybe a little explanation on my part is needed by using an example: when the alarm clock sounds, some may think, “Oh, good morning!” Others may be more likely to change the emphasis and think, “Oh, good. Morning!?”
When I was stationed in Iraq from 2007-2008, I learned to look at my days, not as hours and minutes on a clock, but as a concept, a process, and even an event to be explored and measured. Of course, the quantity of time held importance; otherwise I would have missed flights traveling from base to base or on convoys in staging areas or, heaven forbid, the flight home! Time became not so much a quantitative measure as a qualitative one.
I began to explore more often, how did I feel, how did my run go, how was the mission, how is morale, what are the stressors, what’s for dinner? Otherwise, one would spend the days looking at the calendar or the clock slowly peeling away time as to mock our expectations. This may be a hard concept to grasp in our time-conscious, minute managed world, but it helped me cope with the stress, the fear, and the boredom which naturally ...READ MORE HERE
Did you know Agape offers group counseling?
We have social skills groups for kids, divorce support groups for kids, boundaries groups for adults, and more!
