Insights from the 'Reader's Questions' Category

In Answer to Reader’s Questions

July 2nd, 2008

Our new series of posts is in response to questions submitted by our site’s readership.

The most recent is Power of Your Words–Is it Reality?

The first 7 in this series are listed further down the page or in the Reader’s Question Category:
Handling the Fear of God’s Rejection
Responding to Abusive Relationships
Defining Harmful Behavior
Does Love Have to be Earned?
How to Show Love to Those in Crisis
A Collection of Your Questions Answered
Thinking Yourself to Health
Characteristics of Father God
Recognizing Controlling People

Also, please enjoy a moment by interacting with the new poll in the right column on your main sources of stress.

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The Power of Your Words–Is it a Reality?

July 2nd, 2008

Reading Level: Gratifying

In spite of the wave of interest in the Law of Attraction philosophy that is going on in recent years, many people still struggle over whether or not there is truth in the concept of the Power of Your Words.

If you have Googled the Law of Attraction recently, or even searched through the Experts at SelfGrowth.com (Their Experts are 1000’s of people whose careers focus on various types of self-improvement. I have a webpage there connecting to this site under the Spirituality category.), you will find scores of people in the secular realm who say that they were bankrupt and had lost everything only to have it restored by following the principles of the Law of Attraction. This philosophy is based on a quote by Jesus, though most of the people who appear to use it benefit from the Scriptural principle of the power of their words apart from any close relationship with God. In other words, the power of speaking positively over the needs, goals, and desires of your life to the point that it changes your thought patterns is such a powerful natural and spiritual law that putting it into practice has even turned around the lives of people who do not seek close association with God. It has turned destitute lives to states of healthy lives physically, relationally, and financially.

Let’s briefly look at the basic principle of how positive words create a healthy chain reaction in your life.

When your thoughts are consistently focused on the negative state of various situations in your life, several things occur: Immerse Yourself in the Full Healing Contemplation Here »

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Recognizing Controlling People

July 1st, 2008

Reading Level: Very Impassioned

How do we recognize controlling people to stop the infringement of personal boundaries?

This is in response to a reader’s question. People with compliant personalities ( basically a personality that feels guilty for standing up for itself) are often “run over” in life by people with controlling personalities. Often the compliant person doesn’t even realize why he, or she, struggles with so much guilt and resentment, guilt for not wanting to do what the controller says and resentment for giving in and doing what is against his own conscience or goals. Since a compliant personality feels compelled by guilt to give in to the aggression or manipulation of the controller, he doesn’t always even realize that the other person is creating these problems. Other times a compliant does realize it, but just doesn’t have the emotional strength to stand up to the person. A compliant person must learn to deal with his or her own weaknesses and the lack of determination to stand up for his boundaries; he must determine to be true to the person that he is and how he wants to live his life, making his own decisions and taking responsibility for them. I needed to give you that background on the compliant personality to understand the relationship between a controller and a compliant. However, since the reader question was on identifying controllers, that will be the focus today. My definitions of the 2 types of controlling people and other illustrations are taken from Cloud and Townsend’s “Boundaries” book, pp. 54-55. Full book information is at the end of the post.

Controllers are people who cannot hear a “No” answer.

The example Cloud and Townsend use is of the phrase common to sales training, “No” means “Maybe” and “Maybe” means “Yes.” This attitude can make an effective salesman, but it is quite harmful to personal relationships. The primary problem of a controller who refuses to accept another person telling him, “No,” is that he is refusing to take responsibility for his own life. He is continually controlling others in various ways to convince them to take care of responsibilities in life that he should be taking care of himself. Immerse Yourself in the Full Healing Contemplation Here »

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Thinking Yourself to Health

June 20th, 2008

Reading Level: Leisurely

A couple of readers asked about health problems stemming from past hurts and how positive thinking brings healing, so let’s touch on both today!

There is an endless stream of little things happening everyday which can irritate you if you allow them to, but they are not even worth the negative thoughts and resulting physical consequences.

The first main point here is “little!” For most of us, it is allowing little situations to consistently irritate or worry us that ruin our health. Medical studies have shown that up to 80% of physical illnesses are caused by emotional issues. Some of us may be experiencing health problems due to living in an emotionally and/or physically abusive environment; if that is the case, health cannot come without a change “in” the environment or “of” environments. (If this is your case, please go to the Cloud Tag in the side column and click on “boundary violations” for posts to help you with that type of situation.) The majority of us, however, allow our health to be ruined by instances that actually come down to a matter of our own choice of thoughts. We can be the cause of our own poor health by allowing a multitude of small instances throughout the day to create irritation or anger or worry. Because we allow these negative responses so often, harmful chemicals such as cortisol are continually being released into our bodies. Studies show that cortisol, a chemical released by stress, increases irritability, depression, anxiety, insomnia, and is associated with numerous diseases (1).

The little things that set you off will vary with your personality. For example, what negative thoughts come to mind when: Immerse Yourself in the Full Healing Contemplation Here »