Before I started training my body was weak and didn’t have a lot of strength.  I couldn’t carry two liter Cokes in a grocery bag; it was too heavy for me.  My family (except me) can play instruments and are often asked to provide entertainment at parties.  Many things need to be set up like speakers, amplifiers, guitars, etc.  I can’t carry any of these.  I could carry the guitar- and mike stands, and cables: all the small things.

I’ve been looking after people’s houses over the holiday seasons for seven years.  My job is to look after their pets and make sure everything is all right in- and outside the house.  Many houses have locks or gates that have a trick to open it.  Sometimes I need to lift it up, pull or push or even use force. Before I started training, my body didn’t have the strength to open some of these gates.  There would be days that it was easy and others when I felt too tired and weak and couldn’t open them at all.

Then I started training for the 94.7.  I gained strength little by little.  In December 2014, I had a new client whose gate would open automatically only halfway; the rest of the way you needed to push because the motor gear would slip.  At first I would use my shoulder strength together with my arms and legs to push it open.  But then one day I was daydreaming, and without thinking about it, I gripped the gate with my right hand and pulled it so hard that it almost went off the track. I shouted: I have strength!  Continue “Strenght”

Stress and work burnout is probably nothing new to any of us, as most of us suffer some type of emotional stress throughout our lives. These pressures may include work related stress, financial pressures, the development of a chronic illness or just life picking you as it’s punching bag, but whatever the case might be it is important to take a step back and just refocus.

Continue “Image Play”

Well I think it all starts with God’s great love toward us (John 3:16, 17), and that He has adopted us as His children (1 John 3:1 & Romans 8:14-17). There is no process of becoming a child but rather a miraculous moment of adoption driven by God’s love. – “Do you believe it?”

Let me ask you a question. “What did you do in order to become a child of your parents?” “Nothing!” Another question: “How do you know that your parents are your parents and that your mother gave birth to you?” Well, because she told you. – “Do you believe it?”

So what is spiritual growth? Well it is much like growing physically from the moment of conception. You do not focus on “growing”, but you rather did that which comes naturally and the growing took care of itself. You have a hunger and consume food, you have a thirst and drink fluids, you exercise, and you rest, and of course don’t forget to breath. You did these and the growing happened all by itself.

Continue “Grow spiritually”

In 2005, I was seventeen years old and in grade 11.  From the start of the year my parents and I noticed there was something different about me.  I was more depressed and lost a lot of weight, but we never talked about the problem.

We had planned to go on a two-week holiday when I had a mania episode and my behaviour went out of line.  I knew then that I needed help.  I turned to my mom and asked her to help me find a psychologist, and not go on holiday.  The psychologist admitted me to a hospital immediately because I was past the point of suicide.  I was in hospital for more than a month but still didn’t know what was going on.  Continue “My bipolar story”

In many instances when I talk about spiritual aspects with patients who suffer from depression or anxiety they express a need to feel closer to God, as many of them feel that they have been forsaken or left at the mercy of the world. They find themselves searching for ways to be closer to God, however still being angry at God as they feel that they don’t have a good or any relationship with God. Their solutions for these problems are to jump quite rapidly on an emotional spectrum from the need to pray more, go to church more and just generally doing everything MORE to a state where they don’t want to do anything at all.

Continue “How Prayer helps”

Throughout the week we come into contact with people who have been hurt, that are ill and who have experienced pain. But, through prayer and faith we may find salvation in the Lord and the strength to carry our burdens.

May you all have a wonderful and blessed weekend.

Psalm 41:3
The LORD sustains them on their sickbed and restores them from their bed of illness.

Dear Lord of Mercy and Father of Comfort, You are the Just judge, Holy and True. You are the Most High God, the creator of and the One who sustains everything that exists. You hold all power in Your hands and You give us life. Continue “A weekend prayer”

It is with a heavy heart that I write this post…

Somebody I know well took her own life this weekend and it really hit home. She suffered from bipolar disorder and had her struggles throughout the years but nobody thought it would come to this.

I have felt suicidal many times before. I have felt worthless and so desperate for the pain to just go away.

I believe this lady was at the point where living was so unbearable and she felt that people would be better off without her in their lives.

I’ve heard that suicide is selfish. I don’t believe that it is. I believe that people who are at the point of suicide cannot see their worth in the lives of those they will be leaving behind. They believe those loved ones will be happier without them. At least that’s how I’ve felt in the past.

Continue “When life hits home”

Spirituality

What? What are you talking about? Is that not what we do at church, be all spiritual?

Familiar question?

So many of us do “spirituality”, but do we really know what it means? Or, are we merely doing what we think we were taught at church as children?

Spirituality is the true you. Not only the practicing of religion. Spirituality is that “you” that no one truly knows or has ever met. It is the nucleus of the you that holds your deepest secrets, dearest values and desires. The uncut, bare version of you. That part of you that has a need to be more than just aimless flesh floating about the universe, waiting to expire. That part deep inside that can’t help but “know” and needs to know that there is a greater being, a greater destination than this plane. Continue “Spirituality uncut!”

People think that I manage the bipolar well through all the exercise, seeing my doctors regularly and taking my medication.  These are all tools, but prayer is where I find real strength.

Paul writes in the book of Philippians that we should pray regularly, and having bipolar has taught me that.  It’s hard to explain to people when I say I need to rest or that I can’t do a task they ask of me, but when I pray for strength I know that I am praying to a God who understands.

During the day, I love to pray!  I would continuously ask God about His wonders and why people act the way they do toward life situations.  I love to pray for people, even for those who would never know that I have prayed for them.  I pray for the elderly because they have been through life and can always do with a prayer for strength.  Whenever I see a newborn baby, I thank God for new life that might change the world one day. Continue “Pray more regularly.”