Learning to Forgive - By Kimberly Swanson, MS - Psychology, CNA

Sometimes people have hurt you in your life and it can leave an open wound.  It may not be a physical wound but a mental and spiritual wound.  Holding on to past hurt can cause the wound to continue to fester and linger.  Or even worse, the wound can spread and get bigger when you continue to allow the same type of abuse or by inflicting more harm to yourself than good.

Often time these mental wounds stems from past pain because we have not yet learned how to forgive and let go.  These hurts can come from  intimate relationships (e.g. husband, wife, boyfriend & girlfriend) or family (e.g.  mother, father, brother, sister, etc.), or friends and neighbors.  Holding on to grudges is not healthy.  Take the time to reflect, clear out, and meditate, and move forward. Forgiving is a process.  Knowing that these feelings are there and having the will power to change your thought patterns is the key to healing and moving forward.

Learning to Forgive v-log on the Kimberly Purpoz Channel.

Copyrighted 2013-2016 (Messenger Publishing, Inc.) all rights reserved.

Starting Your New Year With a Bang!

By:  Kimberly Swanson, MS - Psychology, CNA

Oftentimes, people start their year with a New Year’s resolution.  Starting a new year is a great time for reflecting and re-evaluating your life decisions.  This is a chance to see what decisions made a great impact in your life (success) and which ones were not  (failures). 

A person’s New Year’s resolution can include many aspects of their life.  A study was done  on New Year’s Resolution Statistics and published in the  Journal of Clinical Psychology.  In this article, they list the top ten New Year’s resolution for 2014.  The top two were weight lost and getting organized (Journal of Clinical Psychology, 2013).   A news year resolution is when you set new goals for yourself  and chart a new path towards achieving them.  These life changing goals can range from improving your health to furthering ones education.

There are five steps you can follow in pursuing your goals and they are:

•  Reflect
•  Evaluate
•  Envision
• Set goals
• Take action

The first step is to reflect. With this step, you think about your past and look at what has been done.  You see if your last year’s goals have been met.  And you get a chance to see how much you have grown  or lost from where you have started.

Next, is to re-evaluate your life  and take a good look at all of your options.  You should put all  of your cards on the table and see what has work and what has not worked.  For example, let say you were laid off from work  because you were in a field that is no longer viable in the job market.  So you may have to go back to school to improve your skills  within your field or you may have to take a totally new career path.  This is your time to think about what you have done for the last year and see what you can do to make improvements.

Another step is to envision your future.  You begin to think about where you want to be.  This is the time you get a chance to brain storm and expand your horizon.  Where do you see yourself in the next few years?

The fourth step is to set goals.  Unfortunately,  for some people they do not follow through on New Year’s resolution and bring  their goals into action. Why does this occur?  The answer may be that sometimes people set their goals too high.  The goals may be too difficult to obtain in a short period of time and may take longer or need more steps.  It is so important to set  realistic and smaller goals that may ultimately lead to your bigger goals of higher pursuits.

And the last step is to take action.   Once you have figured out your goals and charted your path, then you are ready to start turning these goals into realities.  Having the willpower and being able to overcome life’s obstacles is the key to succeeding and making your dreams come true.

Reference
Journal of Clinical Psychology. (2013).  New Year’s Resolution Statistics.  Retrieved  from http://www.statisticbrain.com/new-years-resolution-statistics/.

Copyrighted 2013 by Kimberly Swanson (Messenger Publishing, Inc.) all rights reserved