Blog Posts

Category: Blog

perpetual gratitude

The Perpetual Art of Gratitude

“I am happy because I’m grateful. I choose to be grateful. That gratitude allows me to be happy.” ~ Will Arnett Well, we are now safely into December. Thanksgiving and her season of gratitude has passed…but what if we are still searching for thankfulness and contentment? Last post I wrote about the ABCs of gratitude–where

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ABCs of gratitude

November Gratitude: A Ruminators Guide to Being Content in the Now

“Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty.” —Socrates We all have down days where we feel discouraged, defeated and troubled. Ruminating, however, is when we experience excessive, intrusive, and negative thoughts about experiences and feelings for an extended period of time. For example, a person with a history of trauma may be unable to

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social media break

Breaking Up With Social Media

“Social media pulls us up into our heads. We’re judging, comparing and daydreaming about what we’re seeing online, so we’re not fully living our own life. Instead, we’re caught up in a virtual world that might not be exactly the way it appears.” ~Jane Pernotto Ehrman, MEd When we open Facebook or Instagram, what do

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hibernation chair pic

Time Alone: Hibernation or Isolation

“Solitude vivifies; isolation kills.” ~ Joseph Roux There have been times where I have been so excited for a girls night or to get together with friends, family, neighbors, or coworkers. I look forward to catching up with the people I care about, getting to know new friends, and having an enjoyable time together. That

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powering down

Powering Down to Recharge

“Wisdom is knowing when to have rest, when to have activity, and how much of each to have.” ~Sri Sri Ravi Shankar You feel restless. Your eating habits have changed. You are awake at all hours of the night. You have lost all motivation. You have no energy or desire to socialize. You cannot concentrate.

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When You Need a Healthy Escape

“You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.” — Abraham Lincoln General anesthesia is a combination of medications used to put an individual in a sleep-like state before a surgery or medical procedure to produce a pain-free state. Likewise, you and I have probably allowed ourselves to self-medicate with an activity that

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9/11 silhouette

Remembering and Moving Forward: Reaching for Safety

“When Americans lend a hand to one another, nothing is impossible. We’re not about what happened on 9/11. We’re about what happened on 9/12.” —Jeff Parness, founder of New York Says Thank You It was my Sophomore year at college. I was not, and am not, a morning person, so my first class did not

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Remembering and Moving Forward: 20+ Years in the Making

Our guest blogger recounts her experience, as a child, during 9/11. She relates it to the internal and external safety we need, all the time, not only after times of national tragedy. Guest blogger, Lydia Judd likens our nation’s experience after 9/11 of increasing our external safety and how we need to look inward and

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lies your brain is telling you

The Lies Your Brain is Telling You

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” –Albert Einstein Do you ever have negative thoughts about yourself? Do you ever discount your talents and abilities or think you are destined to fail? When some of us fail a math test, we briefly reason that we are bad

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Finding Certainty in Uncertainty

“Looking deeper, we could say that the real cause of suffering is not being able to tolerate uncertainty.” ~Pema Chödrön Before March 2020, we could make plans and carry them out with relative ease. Now, however, we book a flight knowing that the trip might not happen. We plan a trip for next February, hoping

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Expressing Compassion to Those That Are Different Than You

My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.” ~ Dalai Lama Last month, David Archuleta shared a heartfelt, vulnerable post on social media about his sexuality. It caught the attention of thousands of followers and sparked many conversations online and in-person. I was struck by the many comments on his post–they were overwhelmingly supportive,

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sunrise

How to Stay Sane During a Busy Summer

“If you feel ‘burnout’ setting in, if you feel demoralized and exhausted, it is best, for the sake of everyone, to withdraw and restore yourself.” ~Dalai Lama Have you found yourself feeling overwhelmed and busy as restrictions have lessened and you have returned back to a more normal life? Have you felt stressed out by

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Melissa Cluff, MS, LMFT, CSAT

Melissa Cluff is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist based in North Texas, providing face-to-face and telehealth therapy options to clients in Texas.