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Focusing on the here and now pleasantness around us

Glenn Kimball2024-01-08T01:14:11-06:00Focus, happiness|

It isn’t necessarily easy to find the good in anything that’s going on in our world right now. News feeds are filled with loss and unrest because of the coronavirus, racial injustices, lost lives, and the political circus from all sides that naturally follows. And that’s just for starters. The easy answer that most people give — including Susan and me — is to take a deep breath and do your best to focus on the here and now pleasantness around us all. But how, Mike and Susan?! Is this possible? Yes, it absolutely is. And maybe a little easier at this time as we focus on the freedoms [...]

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We all need a little more gratitude in our life

Glenn Kimball2024-01-08T01:14:12-06:00Attitude, Perspective|

Did you know that most research shows that we have about three times as many positive experiences in our lives than negative ones? It seems difficult to imagine, especially with everything that’s going on right now with COVID-19 and other global issues that drag us down. But it’s true. And yet, we tend to always focus on the negative. You do it. I do it. We all do it. But why? Many would say it’s because we have not created a culture of appreciation and gratitude in our life. Instead of focusing on all the bad things, we should be scanning our world for what is going good and make [...]

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Got Anxiety? Let’s All Just Take A Nice Deep Breath

Glenn Kimball2024-01-08T01:14:13-06:00Control, Stress|

"Breathe. Just Breathe." Those were the words of Master Jedi Luke Skywalker as he trained Rey in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. And, naturally, Rey made it look so easy, right? In mere seconds, Rey reached out and connected with The Force in ways she never imagined — by merely breathing, the anxiety disappeared. Now, you may be thinking, "Well, that's Hollywood for ya!" True. But in real life, Luke's message to take a nice deep breath can just as easily help us relax and, like Rey, see the bigger picture. So why don't we do it enough? Well, you can point to many culprits. Perhaps the biggest is anxiety. [...]

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We’ve All Experienced Loss in the Last 3 Months. But What Have We Gained?

Glenn Kimball2024-01-08T01:14:13-06:00Expectations, Focus|

When the COVID-19 warnings ramped up in early March, most of us were leery about what was going on but, for the most part, remained optimistic that it was nothing more than a temporary blip on the “that’s life-o-meter.” As time went by, though, things got serious. People got sick, everyday freedoms were limited or lost, businesses closed, and everyone was asked to stay home. If you were like us, you couldn’t even watch TV without seeing more bad news. As a result, you probably noticed overwhelming and erratic emotions swimming around in your head. One day, you’re hopeful about the future. And the next, you’re stressed to the max. [...]

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Healthy Marriage Patterns: Mastering Emotional Communication

Glenn Kimball2024-01-08T01:14:14-06:00Emotion, Heart|

We've covered a lot of ground on unhealthy marriage patterns in our last few blog posts. From introducing you to the fear dance to understanding the good and bad of building walls and the importance of genuinely caring for your spouse, we've learned that it's critical to break negative cycles — both as individuals and couples — to have a healthy marriage. At the heart of this entire conversation is the determining factor in our ability to make healthy choices — the ability or inability to understand each other and be better at emotional communication fully. Emotions are the Voice of the Heart We love the saying above from [...]

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Unhealthy Marriage Patterns: Building Walls

Glenn Kimball2024-01-08T01:14:15-06:00Connection, Safety|

If we asked Superman to stand in front of a brick wall and tell us who is on the other side, he could easily use his X-ray vision to see straight through, right? He’d be able to tell us all sorts of details, too, from something as simple as what that person looks like to quickly discerning if they are happy, sad, scared, or even in danger. And if necessary, he could break through the wall to help them. But what if we put you in front of the same wall? Could you match Superman’s feat? Of course not! And in this scenario, you’d be okay with that. After [...]

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Unhealthy Marriage Patterns: You Can end the Damaging Fear Dance

Glenn Kimball2024-01-08T01:14:15-06:00Emotion, Fear|

While sitting down to write this post about unhealthy marriage patterns, I was reminded of a movie scene where an overweight man was lamenting how big he had gotten. He said, “I eat because I’m unhappy, and I’m unhappy because I eat. It’s a vicious cycle.” I bring this up because, as humans, we have a tendency to fall into all sorts of cycles or patterns in everyday life — many of which are not only damaging but can feel never-ending. A perfect example of an unhealthy marriage pattern is the damaging fear dance. As couples, we fall into well-worn patterns when our fear button gets pushed. We’ve written a [...]

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4 Ways To Repair Broken Trust In Your Marriage

Glenn Kimball2024-01-08T01:14:16-06:00Relationships, Trust|

Married couples put so much time and effort into building and maintaining trust in each other that you’d think they could withstand anything life throws at them — including when one spouse’s trust in the other has been broken. But the reality is that even in the strongest of unions, trust is fragile. And once it’s broken trust is difficult to repair. There are many ways for trust to be broken in a marriage. Some are big, and some aren’t. Yet they all feel massive. One spouse is caught continuously lying to the other A constant string of broken promises Infidelity or emotional cheating Not being there for your [...]

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Trust in a marriage: How to build a friendship that lasts

Glenn Kimball2024-01-08T01:14:44-06:00Friendship, Trust|

We hear people who are deeply in love say all the time, “My spouse is my best friend!” Great! That’s the way it should be. We should be best friends, from the very early “puppy love” stage of our relationship all the way through our gray-hair years and beyond. Friendship is one of those core things necessary to build trust in a longterm, committed relationship. In our previous two blog posts, we touched on what trust is and how trust can be built and maintained — which includes exhibiting deep friendships. The goal of this article is to expand on the friendship conversation. There’s a lot packed into this post, [...]

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5 Ways Trust is Built and Maintained in a Marriage

Glenn Kimball2024-01-08T01:14:44-06:00Relationships, Trust|

So, you’ve been together with your significant other for six years and decided last October to get married. Things are going great, and both of you feel like you have the trust game down pat. Trust is the foundation of any marriage, after all, so that must mean problem solved, right? Well, yes and no. While it’s great that you trust each other, it doesn’t happen once and for all. Trust is built and then maintained in a marriage. Last week, we laid the foundation for a series of posts on trust by answering the question: what is trust in a marriage? Now that we know what trust should [...]

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