{"id":206,"date":"2020-07-10T16:37:36","date_gmt":"2020-07-10T16:37:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=206"},"modified":"2020-07-26T01:38:44","modified_gmt":"2020-07-26T01:38:44","slug":"a-mental-health-moment-your-life-purpose-we-all-have-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2020\/07\/10\/a-mental-health-moment-your-life-purpose-we-all-have-one\/","title":{"rendered":"A Mental Health Moment: Your Life Purpose\u2026. We All Have One"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Bernadette Joy Graham, MA, LPC, NCC, Licensed Mental Health Therapist\"\"
\nGuest Column<\/em><\/p>\n

This year, 2020, worldwide has caused much undue stress, worry, panic and exasperated other struggles faced such as depression, anxiety and addictions.\u00a0 As human beings, we feel and it is not an uncommon place that we often fall prey to with all of those mentioned above and the pain can be so great it causes loss of hope, faith and defeat which will circle our heart, mind and soul.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Of the many things we can control, our thoughts and perspective are among those.\u00a0 People worldwide have suffered great loss, their lives and the lives of friends and family.\u00a0 When I meet with clients for the first time, one of the questions I ask is the disposition of their religious belief\/faith and spirituality.\u00a0 Some will announce their belief in God but may not be associated with a church, some will communicate that they are spiritual and believe in a higher power and yet others will express their atheism and disbelief in God.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 While I am in no way here to judge as a human being or a counselor, I ask the question because it helps me understand their thought processes while assisting them in developing interventions that will ultimately give them coping tools for their particular issue.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Regardless of one\u2019s feelings and beliefs when it comes to higher powers, spirituality and God, people still carry with them an innate purpose in their life.\u00a0 Each of us having a purpose in life is like having lungs to breath in air. Our lungs are there for a reason.\u00a0 When an individual defines his or her outlook on life as atheist, we are still able to work together to devise a treatment plan to address the unique struggle.\u00a0 That treatment plan often encompasses hope and the sense of \u201cnever give up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That person\u2019s choice in a belief system is not mine to change, as a counselor my work lies in building on a core inner being.\u00a0 Clients list their goals, needs, and wants, figure out what is in their control and what is not, finding a support system and understanding if it is theirs to have, it will come to pass.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It all starts with recognizing your purpose \u2013 what are you drawn to?\u00a0 Arts, music, helping others, analytical thinking, physical talent?\u00a0 Then set yourself on a course on how to get there.\u00a0 It may begin with education, or certifications, practice \u2013 it\u2019s not so much if you can see if you can achieve it, but if you can feel it, you will do it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Take a mental health moment and assess your happiness, listen to your inner self and refuse to hear the outside noise from others on how much you can\u2019t achieve it or do it.\u00a0 Success is a beautiful sense of feeling; on the other hand, regret is too often a pool we swim through due to the encouragement of self-doubt and the negative orchestra from those who were never in our corner to begin.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yes, 2020 has been a year of discouragement, but with six months left in this year that is more than enough time to decide how you want to see it behind you and look ahead.\u00a0 None of us will ever get back that time but each day upon waking we are reset with another 24 hours.\u00a0 As long as you have the time, you have the choice.\u00a0 You can either complain or you can change.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Bernadette Graham is a Licensed Professional Mental Health Counselor, National Certified Counselor and Certified Grief Recovery Specialist.\u00a0 Provide feedback or reach out at graham.bernadette@gmail.com<\/a>\u00a0 For appointment information please call 419.409.4929 (Telehealth is available for ongoing and new clients at this time).\u00a0 www.bjgrahamcounseling.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bernadette Joy Graham, MA, LPC, NCC, Licensed Mental Health Therapist Guest Column This year, 2020, worldwide has caused much undue stress, worry, panic and exasperated other struggles faced such as depression, anxiety and addictions.\u00a0 As human beings, we feel and it is not an uncommon place that we often fall prey to with all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[14],"class_list":["post-206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":344,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions\/344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}