Mindfulness and Spirituality Archives - Ray of Hope Counseling Services

16Jun, 2015

By Lane Gormley, EdS, LPC, NCC

image source: www.bombayroomyoga.com/what-is-yoga

The Practice of Therapy

You are already engaged, or are thinking about engaging, in a practice called therapy. I am impressed and touched by your willingness to do this most difficult thing – to look within yourself in a conscious attempt to face and to release pain. I never asked you and would never ask you to do it. It is too difficult. I am grateful, though, for your courage, transparency, patience, honesty, and humor. Sitting with you enables me to engage in one of my own practices, that of the clinical therapist. Being your therapist is not simply my profession. It is my purpose and, of course, my challenge. You interest and exhaust me, make me laugh, try my patience, and push buttons I didn’t know I had. You are my truest teachers, and I have great reverence for you and for your practice.

14Apr, 2013

A Mindful Perspective: Life at the Center of Self

IT AtlantaSEO

Mindfulness and Spirituality

A Mindful Perspective: Life at the Center of Self
Written by Lane Gormley, EdS, LPC, NCC, BCC

I talk a lot with my Clients about centering, the act of living in the center of oneself. It is so very difficult not to be pulled off balance by thoughts and emotions. Unless we are mindful, unless we continually examine our own thoughts and feelings, we might fall prey to unhappy or stressful ideas and/or feelings about ourselves, our relationships including family and friends, our work or the behaviors of colleagues, addictive substances, and about life in general. People and things push or pull us, and we stumble. It happens to me, and it happens to my Clients.

21Feb, 2013

Somatic Symptoms: Messages from the Mind-Body

IT AtlantaSEO

Mindfulness and Spirituality

by Lane Gormley, EdS, LPC

In Greek, sōma means body. Somatic symptoms are physical symptoms that appear to be caused by mental or emotional factors.

The psychiatric/psychological literature contains many theories and many questions about the link between mental/emotional pain and physical discomfort or illness. Current research on this subject can be found in online journals as well as in libraries. It is more or less widely agreed, for example, that depression often manifests in the body as exhaustion, aching back and limbs, anorexia or weight gain, insomnia or hypersomnia, headaches, and/or other bodily discomfort.

1Oct, 2012

Life is a Journey

IT AtlantaSEO

Mindfulness and Spirituality

Written by Lane Gormley, EdS, LPC, NCC

There are moments in most people’s lives when they hit a stumbling block, hope diminishes, and the future looks bleak. Whether in emergencies or during prolonged periods of the blahs, it is easy to get “stuck” and imagine that there is no way out and that things are always going to be this way. At times like this, it might help to think of life as a journey.

16Jul, 2012

The Practice of Mindfulness: A Stress Management Technique for Difficult Times

IT AtlantaSEO

Mindfulness and Spirituality

Written by: Lane Gormley, EdS, LPC, NCC

Have you ever stopped and considered how many things compete for your attention? Do you ever lie in bed at night with thoughts that won”t stop? So many problems and challenges can spiral through a restless and fragmented attention span: a friend”s or relative”s illness, the grocery list, watering the grass, the possible solution to a computer problem, prom dresses, cut-backs at work, the uncertain Dow Jones, deadlines for paying fees and school enrollment, getting the dog to the vet, final exams, an aunt”s birthday… The thought stream seems essential, repetitive, and unstoppable. Things to worry about remind us of other things to worry about. The last thought loops back to the middle or beginning one. Some Eastern thinkers call this unfocused, jumpy thinking the Monkey Mind, and mindfulness is one way to calm and focus it.