Fears around end-of-life are common. Marylyn (not her real name) was a late-stage cancer patient with an end-of-life story that resonates strongly. She came into my office, shut the door and said, “No one will talk to me about dying. My family won’t talk to me; my doctor won’t talk to me. I need to discuss it.” 

When I work with clients about the benefit of flipping negative thoughts, my mother is often in the back of my mind. A good woman, but her nature was to respond critically and abruptly and sometimes get angry about little things that ultimately didn’t matter, especially when dealing with my father.

Before you read this blog, please allow me to add a disclaimer. I'm going to talk about gratitude, a subject that has been talked about so much that, in many cases, it is approached in general terms. That’s not where I intend to go with it. Gratitude is too important and too unique to generalize or tell someone what he or she should be thankful for.

A woman I worked with had become very depressed from what was literally a life-altering job change. Her passion in life was being a law enforcement officer. Being out in the community was where she felt she belonged. Then, an illness caused tremors in her hands to the point where she could no longer handle a gun the way she needed to

A gentleman I worked with was a returning war veteran whose job had been to be on constant guard for possible terrorists. It required him to be wired from head to toe with technology which helped him detect and follow suspicious individuals. This was how he spent his days.

The longer I work in the field of mind, body and spirit as a counselor, the more I am reminded of the power of our minds. The mind is so powerful that it can hold us hostage, keep us ruminating over things to the point where we are waking up in the middle of the night thinking about them.

Sometimes, as I head into a full day, I think about a patient I had. She was forty-nine years old and a “supermom,” who also ran a successful company. She never slowed down. In fact, she hardly ever even sat down. She came to me because she was unhappy and on a high level of overload.

A series of kindness quotes from Tina Staley, LCSW.