Three Principles Living

Judith A. Sedgeman, EdD

resiliency

No need to fix everything!

Lately I've talked with several clients who are sure that "fixing" something in their circumstances will bring them happiness. One is determined to find a job in a bigger city, where she thinks it will be "more fun" to live. One is trying to find a new set of room-mates and a new apartment because she thinks she needs to be with people who are nicer to her to be comfortable at home. Another is worried about the danger of living within 100 miles of a major US military installation and wants to move...

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Just being happy

http://youtu.be/Kv4XUaFERds I'll bet you can't watch a few seconds of the above video without breaking into a smile, and if you keep watching, I'll bet you start to laugh, too. Laughter is contagious. People who are laughing together aren't thinking about their differences, but joining each other in the common human experience of just enjoying the moment. Laughter is an expression of happiness, a beautiful ordinary feeling that arises within us readily when we aren't focused on thinking that keeps it at bay. It didn't take much research to find out there...

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Who do you trust?

The wonderful thing about knowledge is it is not absolute. Throughout a life of learning, we think one thing is true, and then we learn more, see more, understand more -- and we change our thinking. Again and again. When I was little, I thought there was a man in the moon. By the time I was in 4th grade, I knew that the moon was a hunk of space dust and rock and that the "man" was an accident of its geography. By the time I was in college,...

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The Depression Fairy is Imaginary

Despite the protests of several of my clients recently, I must insist  there is no Depression Fairy who randomly visits us and sprinkles dreadful thoughts in our minds. Oh, I know she seems very real, and powerful, and quick to alight out of nowhere. But she is imaginary, as are her close friends, like the Anxiety Fairy and the Anger Fairy. As much as that might be good news, for many people who have struggled with Depression for decades, it is initially distressing news.  What's wrong, then, if there's no invisible outside force...

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The truth about “reality” (It’s what you think)

Principles are true whether we like them or not, whether we agree with them or not, whether we even know about them or not. Principles are the essential logic of the universe. As we discover them, things that were confusing suddenly make sense. Think of little children before they have recognized the principle of addition. If you ask a toddler who is playing with some friends how many cookies you should bring in so he and each of his friends can have one, the answer is likely to be something like...

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Wisdom is not an opinion

How soon we abandon the lessons of fairy tales, scripture, children's books! How readily we disregard the common sense of life experience! How innocently we fall into the maelstrom of insecurity, then panic as we start to drown in our own fear! As quickly as we fall, however, we can arise from the nightmare and find the innate resiliency we need to restore balance, wisdom and hope. This is the promise of a true understanding of how our minds work: we live in the experience of the reality we create with...

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