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Making Meaning From Misery
From the category Five Minute Articles For Your Consideration
The world is crying out in pain! People are suffering! Yet, for most of us, life goes on unchanged. Suffering is inevitable, but sometimes it pushes us to the limits of our tolerance. We can’t fully wrap our minds around the brutality of the middle east, the mass killing in Maine, or the destruction of Lahaina without feeling the primal scream of outrage welling up from within. Surely God didn’t intend suffering to be such a huge part of the human condition. In a world of such beauty and possibility, it is heart-breaking that we would be subjected to waves of unspeakable suffering.
Continue ReadingNov 9th, 20239 comments
Deep In The Grooves
From the category Five Minute Articles For Your Consideration
During a Rolling Stone interview, Shania Twain conveyed a beautiful metaphor to encapsulate the period of time in our life when our personal world is amiss and we must encounter ourselves on a deeper level than ordinary awareness allows. She said, “Once I made it, it was, ‘Wow, I don’t have to worry about running out of gas until I get my next 20 bucks’, but that challenging part of life is still deep in the grooves.”
Continue ReadingJan 30th, 202312 comments
Prayer
From the category Five Minute Articles For Your Consideration
I never used to pray. Its religious association didn’t appeal to me. As a child, however, my mom would have me say the “now I lay me down to sleep” prayer nightly. I never understood it. Why should I pray in case I die? It didn’t seem like the right message just before I went to sleep, so I stopped doing it. I wouldn’t be surprised if it contributed to my insomnia years later.
Continue ReadingOct 17th, 202412 comments
The Emotional Twisties
From the category Five Minute Articles For Your Consideration
The “twisties” is a term popularized during the Tokyo Olympics when Simone Biles pulled out of her best events because she lost her sense of balance in mid-air. After years of competing at the highest level, her rhythm was suddenly off, and she couldn’t connect her body and mind to complete skills she had mastered long ago. What followed was a wave of self-doubt, confusion, and a loss of confidence. Every time she failed to land a routine, that disconnect compounded, further eroding her self-confidence and eventually forcing her to the sidelines.
Continue ReadingMay 19th, 20226 comments
Magic in the New Year
From the category Five Minute Articles For Your Consideration
Lately I’ve been thinking, where did the magic go? The thought became increasingly intrusive, spurred on by the crappy news cycle we’ve been listening to for the past two years. To help process this thought I began freewriting, which led me to recollect Herman Hesse’s book, Magister Ludi, a book of parallel lives and spiritual insight published in 1943. Following my recall of Hesse, I promptly Googled “Herman Hesse quotes” and on the first page of my search were the words, “in all beginnings lies a magic force”. That was interesting, magic occurs by just doing it. Nike had it right.
Continue ReadingJan 5th, 202218 comments
The Fauci Dilemma
From the category Five Minute Articles For Your Consideration
My neighbor won’t wear a mask. My other neighbor won’t talk to him. If they were on an airplane together, there would be a brawl. This is what it has come to. Welcome to America.
Continue ReadingSep 1st, 202112 comments
Post-Traumatic Growth During COVID-19
From the category Five Minute Articles For Your Consideration
We’ve all heard of PTSD, but not many people are familiar with post-traumatic growth. Developed by psychologists Richard Tedeschi, PhD, and Lawrence Calhoun, PhD, in the mid-1990s, Post Traumatic Growth (PTG) suggests that people who endure severe psychological struggle following adversity can often see unexpected growth afterward in the form of appreciation, family bonding, reprioritization, new possibilities and spiritual enhancement. Continue Reading
Jul 12th, 20212 comments
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About the Author
Larry Laveman, LCSW, BCD, is a Psychotherapist and Author in Solana Beach, California. His publications include topics on marriage counseling, supervision, mental health and spirituality. He is the former Chief Clinical Director for Harmonium, Inc., a community based nonprofit organization specializing in children, adolescents and families. You can find contact him via Google +, LinkedIn, or this website's contact page.