Sozo Counseling Care, LLC

Good reminder!

Morning Blessing: May the peace of God—right now—calm your anxious heart. May the presence of God—this very moment—bring peace to your troubled soul. When anxiety surges and emotions swell, may you discern the source and grab hold of the truth. Sometimes the best thing you can do is to step out of your current frame of mind and do something altogether different. Dance. Sing. Watch a funny movie. Go for a walk. Better yet, worship Jesus with reckless abandon. You're not at the mercy of those moments. You don't have to stay there. So rise up from there and remember who you are. You'll get through the surge, and you'll smile again. You'll get to the other side and feel "normal" again. So don't let those anxious moments swallow up your day. You have tools in your toolbox. You have the living, breathing Word of God. And you have the Holy Spirit within you to guide you through every twist and turn of your journey. You'll get through this.

Philippians 4:6-7 (NLT) ~ Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

"Laura Failner is a SkyWest flight attendant. On July 7th, she witnessed this moment of kindness.
"I love looking for the good in the world! As I flew up to Washington today, I had this cute little 94-year-old lady get on my plane. She was frail and had a hard time getting back to her seat. There was a bit of confusion about where she was supposed to be seated. In first-class, this wonderful gentleman saw her plight and flagged me down. He said, "can you please get her and put her in my seat, and I will take hers." He walked back with me to get her and take her to first class. She was so touched. The woman gave him a big hug and said, "Never in my 94 years has someone done that for me. Thank you, young man." She had tears of gratitude. It was amazing how his thoughtful act changed the attitude of everyone on the flight. May we all look for the little things we can do to help others around us and show kindness. In this crazy world, let's all try to be the good."

When we unhealthily look to others to fulfill the needs we did or did not receive in childhood, we feel resentful, stuck, and caught in the trap of trying to figure out how to get others to meet them.

Resentment is the most common sign you are looking to others to meet a need you should fulfill for yourself.

Instead, become aware of what you need and how you’ve been keeping yourself from fulfilling these needs. Then devise a plan to meet them. Replace resentment with a feeling of self-empowerment.

Here are some helpful questions to get you started:💡In what situations do I feel resentment, frustration, or stuck?
💡Have I been caught in a hopeless cycle of trying to get someone to meet them?
💪What is the need, and how can I fulfill it?

Did you know that the immune system immediately adjusts to every emotion? In other words, your feelings can be a protective or damaging factor to your health. Scientists call this the emotional-immune response continuum.

Suppression of emotion also denies authenticity, which is the byproduct of your true self. You can't be securely attached without authenticity, and authenticity requires safety.

Credit: WholeHearted School Counseling

We need to be mindful of the importance of our interactions with others. Life is short!

So true!

💛 credit: Unknown

Just Because You Forgive, it Doesn’t Mean You Have to Trust Again Differentiating between forgiveness and trust can help you define the quality of safe relationships.

This is a good article on a very relevant issue at this time ...

Family Estrangement: 6 Ways to Reconcile with Adult Children Here are six ways of how you can build trust and reconcile with your adult children after a family estrangement has occurred.

Successful people realize that just because someone is unhappy with them does not require that they give up their purpose, fold their cards, or change. When we accept that every decision divides, we quit trying to do the impossible, i.e. pleasing everyone, and we begin making the right choices, knowing that our choices will divide.

Bonding is the ability to establish an emotional attachment to another person. God created us with a hunger for relationship – for relationship with him and with people. At our very core we are relational beings… No matter what characteristics we possess, or what accomplishments we amass, without solid emotional connectedness, without bonding to God and other humans, we will suffer sickness of the soul.

"Despite wanting to be seen and known, shame causes people to hide behind masks instead."

What role does shame play in your life and relationships?

On the Gottman Relationship Blog, Anna Aslanian, LMFT offers tips to help you process and step out of shame: https://bit.ly/3BMM2HR

Beautiful poem about real life. How does it touch you?

Life offers us changes ~

It might feel like an end to the world
but there is no end,
not really.
Only new places, new vistas
to see, and to experience.

Sometimes it is hard and we wonder how we got here.
Which doors we took,
which ones we were meant, or never meant,
to open ~

But it isn't in the doubting. Or in the questioning.
Rather,
it's in the full inhabiting of one's life.

The standing in where we are ~
With the wind in our face,
the sun bright against our skin,
and the darkness always at the horizon,
Waiting.

Here,
where we can take up the pen,
and begin to write our own story.

Perhaps it will be a comedy.
Maybe a tragedy.
As we step wholly into the pages of our life,
what will it be?

Perhaps we were idiots
or were betrayed.
Maybe we became full of pride, or victimhood.
Maybe we became lost, or grew full
of our own importance.

Perhaps we were masters for a time.
Fell in love. Joy. Bliss,
grief,
or into madness.
Maybe we made errors of judgment
whose hard lessons we now must learn,
or must pay for.

Or maybe, maybe
there is a harvest, shining,
rich and golden as we step up, to the precipice,
ready to gather its fragrant wheat into our arms
after so many long years,
of waiting.

This is Life.
And Life awaits our presence, not our safety.

Not our hesitation.

Between life's hard covers,
from Her Transformations of
Beginnings, to her end ~

Smile.
Embrace.
Give.

Do not live in fear,

Even as they tell us that is all there is.

Laugh.
Even in the darkness.
Even in the question.
Even through Her tears.

Live.
For we are here a short time,
and maybe it is a tragedy.
Maybe it is an opera,
(or just a Grand Comedy),

Or perhaps,
perhaps the story stands as a spectacular fall from grace.

But do not let it be nothing.

All these things mark our place in Time,
and are initiations into Wisdom.

Live it, (don't be afraid), and live it grandly.
Even the mistakes.
Even the cold and the lost alleyways.
Even if it means knowing that one slip
and our soul may go home.
(For one day, our soul must go home).

The Great Book of our Life, must be our life.
The Great Story of Being, our own.

Read it. Breathe it.

Write it.

Turn off the fear on the television
and turn in love
to those around you.

For this ~ this here is our Story -
every page, every spark
and word,
every breath.

For to our Souls ~

every moment is Fire.

~ Rachel Alana (R.A Falconer), Midwives of the Soul.

art | Fanning the Flame, by Tamara Phillips

The King of the universe, the one who spoke the galaxies into existence, is actually after something much deeper in us than our finite minds can conceive. And He’s always up to something we cannot fully discern, something we may not see the value of now. But we will later. Our God came to earth through the womb of a teenage girl to show the world His heart for the least and the lowliest by the world’s standards. He knew full well what He was doing, though it may take us our lifetime to fully comprehend it. God is in the process of conforming us to the image of His dear Son. He’s teaching us to grow comfortable with mystery. There will be some things we just can’t explain, formulas that don’t work, outcomes that make no sense in the moment. And He asks us to trust Him, to be tethered to His goodness no matter how much our temporary seasons shake us. Our process of transformation comes not from the path of ease, but from uphill climbs, raging storms, and enemy opposition. It comes from engaging our faith when our circumstances speak a contrary message. It comes from continual interaction with our Father, just as Jesus modeled for us. God guides and provides, corrects and directs; He humbles us, and He helps us. We need Him every hour.

“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:8–9