Archive for the ‘Opinions’ Category
13
Jun
Posted by Mark Schmitz in Addiction, Life, Life's Lessons, Mental Health, Opinions, Personal Growth, Personality, Relationships, Self Discovery, Self-improvement, Spirituality. Tagged: Change, Change myself, External Solutions to Problems, Humility, Internal Solutions to Problems, Looking for the perfect, Perfect Job, Perfect Life, Perfect Mate, Perfect Partner, Perfectionism, Self-acceptance, To Become Whole, Vain, What we love we shall grow to resemble. 11 Comments
“What we love we shall grow to resemble.” — Bernard of Clairvaux
There comes a day when we realize that looking for external solutions to our problems just won’t work. How vain has been the time and energy spent looking for the perfect mate or partner, the perfect job, the perfect life. So instead, we [...]
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25
May
Posted by Mark Schmitz in About Me, Addiction, Health, Life, Mental Health, Opinions, Personal Growth, Self Will, Self-improvement. Tagged: Asthma, Breathing, Cigarettes, I can't breathe, Non-smoker, Quit Smoking, Respiratory Problems, Smoker, Smoking, Smoking Cessation, Tobacco. Leave a Comment
“I quit smoking.” — Me
I’ve considered myself to be a smoker since the age of twelve. My cousin Randy and I would sneak cigarettes from our parents and smoke them as we walked to school each morning. Back then, cigarettes cost no more that seventy-five cents from the vending machine at the local bowling alley. [...]
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25
May
Posted by Mark Schmitz in About Me, Addiction, Life, Opinions, Personal Growth, Recovery, Relationships, Self Discovery, Spirituality. Tagged: F.E.A.R., Fear, Flexibility, Rigidity, Story of the Reed and the Oak, Strength, Stubborn, Stubborness, Tolerance. 1 Comment
There’s an old fable about the competition between the reed and the oak during a gale storm. As the wind howled, the oak boasted, while the reed said nothing. The wind became a tempest, and the reed bent down flexibly to the ground. The oak fell, uprooted.
Sometimes we seem strong but we are [...]
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24
May
Posted by Mark Schmitz in Addiction, Life, Mental Health, Opinions, Personal Growth, Relationships, Self Discovery, Self-improvement, Spirituality. Tagged: Authentic Self, Faith in Ourself, How Should You Feel, Inner Life, Inner Self, Inner voice, Inner-directed, Outer Directed, Seeking Approval From Others, To Know Real Peace. 1 Comment
I’m learning that when we lose faith in our feelings, we lose faith in ourselves and become outer-directed. That is, we look to the world to tell us how to feel and what to do. We seek approval and love from others so we can prove to ourselves that we are worthy. Paradoxically, to be [...]
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23
May
Posted by Mark Schmitz in 12 Step Program, Addiction, Art, Chemical Dependency, Drug Addiction, Life, Opinions, Personal Growth, Recovery, Self Discovery, Self-improvement, Spirituality. Tagged: Addiction, Art, Art by Christopher Eshenbaugh, Blake, Change, Chemical Dependency, Creative Endeavor, Creative expression, Creativity, James Joyce, Life, Life's Lessons, New Patterns to Life, New Ways of Seeing the World, Personal Growth, Poe, Recovery, Van Gogh. Leave a Comment
The Mask of Mental Illness – By Christopher Dale Eshenbaugh
I can see that my new life will be full of the unknown, but that is what can make it exciting and creative.
Many great artists were neglected or even abused during their lifetime because their work was considered too provocative. Painters like Van Gogh, poets [...]
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22
May
Posted by Mark Schmitz in Life, Opinions, Personal Growth, Relationships, Spirituality. Tagged: Astrological chart, Astrological Sign, Astrological Sign Gemini, Astrology, Duality, Gemini, Gemini Behavior, Gemini personality traits, Gregarious, horoscope, Judgmental behavior, Life, Life's Lessons, Personal Growth, Twins, Zodiac. Leave a Comment
I am a Gemini. There was a time when I was ashamed to say that I’m a Gemini. People would begin to go off about how horrible their entire life experience has been with us Gems. Really. And then they’d hurl their judgments of me (cloaked as comparisons of course), by the time they were done, I felt like an inappropriate, over talkative, manipulative ass.
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18
May
Posted by Mark Schmitz in Life, Opinions, Personal Growth, Spirituality. Tagged: Anxiety, death, Transition, New Age, Life's Lessons, Death and Dying, Fear of dying, Eternity, Heaven, Life's Journey, Sylvia Browne. 1 Comment
What I fear most about dying, is not knowing for sure where I’m going. I remember when I was in training as an orderly at a nursing home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the training instructor taught us to never just get behind the wheelchair of a patient and start pushing. She explained that while a [...]
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7
May
Posted by Mark Schmitz in About Me, Addiction, Faith, Life, New Age, Opinions, Personal Growth, Purpose of Life, Recovery, Relationships, Self Discovery, Self-forgiveness, Shortcomings, Spirituality, Tough Times. Tagged: Addiction, Amends, Defects, guilt, judgment, Life, Life's Lessons, Personal Growth, Punishment, Recovery, remorse, Self-judgment, Self-reproach, Shame. Leave a Comment
“There is luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves, we feel no one else has a right to blame us.” — Oscar Wilde
Just as we don’t have the right to judge someone else, we don’t have the right to judge
ourselves. Our unhealthy script in the past was that when we did something we felt [...]
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3
May
Posted by Mark Schmitz in Change, Intimacy, Life, Life's Lessons, Opinions, Personal Growth, Positive Thinking, Relationships, Spirituality. Tagged: Change, Conflict, Depression, Family, Forgiveness, Friendships, Gay relationships, Honesty, Life's Lessons, Love, Love Yourself, Loving, Mental Health, Opinions, Personal Growth, Positive Thinking, Relationships, Releasing the Past, Spirituality, Truth. Leave a Comment
FORGIVE THE PAST! LIVE THE DAY! LOOK FORWARD TO TOMORROW! Lessons shared to reach forgiveness and love.
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7
Apr
Posted by Mark Schmitz in 12 Step Program, AIDS, Addiction, Chemical Dependency, Drug Addiction, HIV, Health, Life, Mental Health, New Age, Opinions, Personal Growth, Purpose of Life, Recovery, Spirituality. Tagged: Addiction, Afraid to die, death, Death in the abstract, dying, Eternity, Falling in Love, Fear of dying, Life, Near death experience, Personal Growth, Recovery, Relationships, renewal, Transition. 1 Comment
“It’s not that I’m afraid to die, I just don’t want to be there when it happens.” — Woody Allen
Even after a recent near death experience, I tend to think of death in the abstract, as a fact rather than a reality. I know that everything passes and that we are bound to die, but [...]
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