Power For Positive Living

Why Lie to Your Counselor?

Truth and lies tend to come in various shades and degrees.  Individuals tend to choose to interact with themselves as well as with others by following personal beliefs, values, beliefs, feelings and behaviors on how they see themselves and their world.   Many people choose to assist other people with their life journey.  Regardless of being self-defeating, some will choose to interact with these helpers with a degree of untruthfulness.   Many will go to great lengths to present themselves in a positive way to others to avoid personal responsibility for their life choices.   Working through these distortions of dishonesty can frequently be a major challenge of the counseling process.

 

Understanding My Personal Counseling Choices   There are many factors to consider when we seek counseling assistance for some of the emotional challenges each of us faces during life.  Whatever choices we make, each will bring its own 'price' to be paid.  The more information we have on ourselves and what we are seeking, the more likely a positive outcome will occur.

I Have the Choice!   One of the cornerstones of wellness psychology is acknowledging the power of choice that each of us implements every day of our lives.  A key to a better understanding of who we are is learning how we choose our attitudes, expectations, and create our personal definitions.    We also make choices on deciding what we do with certain feelings and situations. Your host's experience with Hurricane Jerry is offered as an example to consider in reminding us that each does have the 'power of choice' in our lives; choices that fit the individual we are.

I Would Be Happy If You...   Accepting responsibility for the personal choices that we each make in our lives can be one of the most important aspects of creating positive mental health for ourselves.   When we recognize and accept that each of us has this personal power to select options that either increase or decrease our happiness, we tend to be healthier in relating to ourselves and to other people.  This acceptance of personal choosing increases my ability to appreciate and enjoy the diverse relationships I have with myself and others.

Making Healthy Life Choices   As a child, our individual choices for living life are often made by others.  Some continue to give that power to others as we become adults.   Each of us eventually develops our personal cost/benefit process of choosing what does/does not work for us as we each choose how to live this gift of life.    We can ask ourselves introspective questions such as: What gives my life meaning and value today?   We may eventually reach a point where the quality of life is more/less important to us than the quantity of life for certain situations.   Hopefully avoiding the burdens of perfectionism, we each can make healthy life choices for today and tomorrow while realizing that we each retain the power of re-decision as our situations evolve.  

Change and Choice   Each day of our lives brings some type and degree of change in our world.  This is a constant of living with each breath that we take.   The personal challenge each of us faces is how do we decide to manage our reactions to this constant parade of change.  What choices will each of us make to have the most healthy outcomes in our lives?  Will we allow ourselves to believe that we truly are in charge of what choices we make?   What degree of responsibility are we willing to accept for our choices?   Can we learn from previous choices so that future ones are healthier and support a positive lifestyle?  

 

Making Resolutions Which Are Real

Many individuals begin the new year with wishes and hopes that the days ahead will be better and a change from their past.   Year after year, these resolutions become little more than "wish lists" and very little changes as the days pass.   This podcast series believes that "If you do what you have always done, you will get what you have always gotten."  Change is our lives requires us to actually make changes, not just wish and hope for them to take place.  

 

Gifting Self

 Whatever personal values and beliefs we each have on the process of giving to others or ourselves are conveyed when we create a gift.  Whether our gift is concrete or is a thought, feeling, or behavior, we tell ourselves and others who we are as unique individuals by the gifts we choose to give.  Gifting ourselves can often be the most personal, important, and valuable gift we are able to create and give.  

What Do You Want From Me?

Many people like to see themselves as helpers for others in their world.  For this gift to be maximized, it can be important for the giver and receiver of any assistance to understand the expectations of each so that the gift does not come with 'strings' and can really be a win-win relationship.

Is Helping Being Helpful?   Most of us encounter times and situations where we do benefit from various types of assistance from others.  We also are presented with many opportunities to assist others in a wide variety of ways with their diverse life difficulties.   There are a number of areas for each individual to consider when they make the choice to offer help to another.  Questions can include one's willingness and ability to help another in ways that are beneficial to them.  Or, is one's help being given to only reinforce my own generous perceptions of self?  What are the many expectations we each have in the giver-receiver relationship?       We each also have options to consider when we make the choice to open ourselves up to receiving help from others.  What types of limitations do I place on others and myself when assistance is sought and offered?   Have I communicated clearly what I am seeking?   Are ulterior motives present or is the communication honest and open?