Do You Believe in Miracles?
10 Exercises to Stay Spiritually Fit
20 Scriptures That Bring Hope to Any Situation
5 Ways to Revive Your Dream!
7 Ways to Plant Seeds of Greatness in Your Life
20 Powerful Declarations to Fight Discouragement
5 Ways to Stay Healthy This Summer
5 Tips for Better Sleep
7 Top Health Issues Facing Today’s Women
Celebrities Who Won't Back Down
Words of Wisdom from Dr Joyce Brothers
A Conversation with Minnesota Wild Center Matt Cullen
Yes, Gratitude Works!
10 Ways to To Handle Life Changes With Courage
The Fruits of Desire
Nurturing a Healthy Marriage
10 Ways to Get Over a Hurtful Past
Ten Things Every Dad Should Tell His Son
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I have decided to dedicate a post on Thursday to therapy, and offer you the many tips I have learned on the couch. They will be a good reminder for me, as well, of something small I can concentrate on. Many of them are published in my book, “The Pocket Therapist: An Emotional Survival Kit.”
My daughter, Katherine, is very farsighted. Her adorable, coke-bottle glasses correct her vision well enough for her to be able to color fairies, bead necklaces, and watch “SpongeBob SquarePants” on the tube. However, you take away the glasses and she panics.
Hyperopia, the technical term for farsightedness, is an inability to focus on near objects.
Although I don’t wear glasses or need contact lenses, I totally understand this vision problem because I have great difficulty seeing the things that are right before my eyes. Instead I concentrate on signs 100 feet away. I take a project, a goal, a dream, and I view it 20 years away.
Not surprising, then, I get overwhelmed before I even start.
So, as a cognitive behavioral exercise, I picture myself wearing Katherine’s coke-bottle glasses, and try to focus on something that’s less than three feet from me. I take a few steps around the base of the mountain I’m trying to climb, or piece off a mere slice of the task I want to accomplish … like recognizing and untwisting one of 2,345 distorted thoughts in my head, or attempting three minutes versus three hours of mindful meditation, or saying no to just one thing that I don’t want to do but feel like I should because I love that word, should, so much.
Forget about all that stuff in the distance, I tell myself, and focus on the fairies.
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posted February 10, 2011 at 1:37 pm
Oh how difficult to focus on the tree in front of me, and not get overwhelmed by the “forest.” Thanks for that. Thanks also for the book Beyond Blue. I am nearly finished reading it and don’t quite want to let go of the sense of solidarity that it provides, and so this website is welcome.
God Bless you and your family and your blog readers,
Paul
posted February 10, 2011 at 8:51 pm
I really enjoyed this book! I love the near sighted analogy! Nice work on the book and blessings to you and the family!!
Ciao bella!
posted February 10, 2011 at 9:08 pm
Just what I needed to read at this moment. Thank you, Therese!
posted February 11, 2011 at 10:10 am
Thank you for your daily wisdom and insight. It’s always helpful to me.
posted February 11, 2011 at 10:20 am
I will add this book to my “must buy” book list! This post today was
such a beautiful statement for staying in the moment..at least that’s what it meant for me…thanks friend!!
posted February 11, 2011 at 10:38 am
far·sight·ed? ?/?f?r?sa?t?d, -?sa?t?d/ Show Spelled
[fahr-sahy-tid, -sahy-tid] Show IPA
–adjective
1. seeing objects at a distance more clearly than those near at hand; hyperopic.
2. seeing to a great distance.
I’m nearsighted… I only see things close up.
posted February 11, 2011 at 3:04 pm
I haven’t been checking in on Beyond Blue, for quite some time. It’s not that I didn’t need to. It was my busieness of making right decisions so everyone around me was happy or content.
So today, I opened this and found the wisdom I was missing. I am out of town, visiting my gravely ill sister. For all the time I spent on my suicide plans, here I still am and sitting with someone ill enough to die. Getting out of the horrible winter weather and coming to a sunny place has made a huge difference in my mental health. WHAT DEPRESSION????????
Thanks for being there.
posted February 12, 2011 at 9:33 pm
I remember wearing “coke bottle glasses” as a toddler, because I was so far-sighted (20-200). I love your analogy about concentrating on the “closer” things in life. Today, I will stop and smell the roses (figuratively), and make time to spend with my 2 cats, both of which have health problems. Does God care about companion animals?? I hope he does, because they give “agape love” unconditionally, and I hope I turn into the person my kitties think I am
posted February 13, 2011 at 10:03 am
Hi, SuzanneWA,GOD HAS BEEN SO GOOD TO YOU BY PLACING THAT FEELING /SEARCHING OF UNCONDITIONAL LOVE.BUT IF YOU ONLY GIVE THIS LOVE TO YOUR CATS? GOD WANTS US HUMANS TO HAVE THAT AGAPE LOVE FOR ONE ANOTHER. SO LOVE YOUR FELLOW MAN AS GOD LeOVE YOU. PS TAKE A HINT FROM THE CATS. CORINTHIANS 13:4-8. 1 JOHN 3:10-23. 4:17-20 THESE VERSES SUMS UP GOD”S WORD.