This month you might think, based on the above picture, I am going to tell you how to live in a constant state of love and positivity. That is not the case, nor is it realistic. The truth does not cease to exist when it is forgotten. As we live our lives, we inevitably encounter distressing situations and tough periods, which can bring out unloving responses for those around us. In particular, in what has been one of the most distressing periods in history.

What I am relearning over time is how to choose empathy and kindness for myself and others, even during times of conflict and instability. Life is messy. I am a human being, and it is not always easy.

Being on this long break, I have been trying to break an unhealthy relationship with soda. I find myself having emotional outbursts, at times with my head throbbing from caffeine withdrawal. I find myself angry at me for not listening to my doctors when I was told it is imperative I stop drinking soda. One morning, not long ago, I grumbled to myself in the kitchen, I yelled at those around me to clean off my countertops. Those that know me understand I can be a bit of a neat freak; this can be a good quality, but not when breakfast is being served.

When there was minimal improvement on the countertops, I found myself spewing out a tirade of complaints. As the harsh words tumbled out of my mouth, I cringed. I sounded so unreasonable, erratic and irrational. I was unhinged. In my state of duress, I could not pull it together. What I had to remind myself, as I calmed, irrationality loses power in the face of reason. Fear wanes in the presence of calm.

I stepped outside with my cup of coffee, found a seat, and asked myself three questions. Is what I was saying reasonable? Did I sound like the voice of reason? Did my body language match my voice and words? The answers to these questions that morning, no. So, I found myself contributing to conflict. Most days, my answer would be yes; but on this morning, I needed to walk it back.

Think of the progress all of us could make if we offered compassion and sought out understanding in a time of great uncertainty. Our ability to choose one good thought over another is our sharpest tool against anxiety, negativity, and stress.

Remember to keep the circle positive, peaceful and loving. ©

Written with love.

Joy M. Mills (IP)
Copyright © 2020
MJM ®

**This article is not intended to provide and does not constitute medical, legal or other professional advice. This article was written to support, not replace medical or psychiatric treatment. Please seek professional care if you feel you have a condition.

We are all looking forward to living life after the pandemic. Exactly when that is going to be, none of us really know.

Shoes are mentioned often in the bible, usually symbolizing our direction and life path. We wear them to protect our feet from the elements when the ground beneath them is too cold or too hot for our soles to withstand.

Do not get to the end of your life and find you only lived the length of it. You have to live the width of it as well. When it comes to living as a passionate, inspired human being, the only challenge greater than learning to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes is learning to live a lifetime comfortably in your own.

I pray you find peace and acceptance, the kind that rings through your bones. I pray you forgive yourself for the mistakes you have made for the past you keep alive inside of you. I pray you learn to let go of the things you had to do to heal or survive. You are doing your best. You are human. I pray you connect with the small things. I pray you look at someone mid-conversation, and you feel your stomach surge with feelings you have for them. I pray you surround yourself with the kind of friends that encourage your spontaneity that are always there for you. Most of all, I pray you find yourself out there and travel to places that cleanse your soul. I pray you figure out your heart. I pray you figure out your mind. I pray you learn how to be kind to yourself and to embrace the journey you are on.

Do not let your old problems punish your dreams. Learn to let go of the things you cannot control. The next time you are tempted to rant about a situation you think ended unfairly, remind yourself of this, you will never kill off your anger by beating the story to death. So, close your mouth, unclench your fists, and redirect your thoughts.

Follow your heart and take your brain with you. When you are truly comfortable in your skin, not everyone will like you, but you will not care about it one bit.

For me, my shoes are red patent leather Mary Jane’s. There is a story that goes with these shoes. You can read that story in one of my books, I Wish Death Would Take A Vacation, My Story, ISBN-13:  978-0-9854367-1-1.

Remember to keep the circle positive, peaceful and loving. ©

Written with love.

Joy M. Mills (IP)
Copyright © 2020
MJM ®

**This article is not intended to provide and does not constitute medical, legal or other professional advice. This article was written to support, not replace medical or psychiatric treatment. Please seek professional care if you feel you have a condition.

We will all face death and judgment one day. The stress of our souls comes from our awareness. There is life after this one, and we need to prepare for it.

Inner peace is something incredibly hard to achieve, even to explain. You have to train your mind not to be phased by something that would normally bother you. You have to tell yourself nothing is worth losing your sanity over.

What do you do when our world is like a storm crashing in on a sunny day and making us question everything?

True peace comes at a significant cost. The way some people talk about peace seems very degrading to me. They talk about it as if it is a trick of the mind. As if all we need to do is clear the papers off the desk, close our eyes, then poof, stress is gone, and peace arrives. It is such a low view of peace coming at such a low cost. It also depicts too high a view of humanity.

As sinners, we are not naturally at peace with ourselves because we are not at peace with God, our creator. We need someone to pay the cost of our sins and then change us from the inside. Only then can we have true peace. Someone did pay the price for us.

There are two verses in the book of Ephesians 2:13-14, But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace. We can find “Peace of Mind” when we organize our work life and manage our stress. Yet, these things cannot achieve our highest need, peace of our soul.

With the world flipped upside down and red flags everywhere, I believe God himself is reminding us that Jesus Christ came to the earth to give those who believe in him as Lord and Savior, an eternal peace of the soul. Jesus Christ died so that we could have salvation.

My question, are we paying attention?

Remember to keep the circle positive, peaceful and loving ©

Written with love.

Joy M. Mills (IP)
Copyright © 2020
MJM ®

**This article is not intended to provide and does not constitute medical, legal or other professional advice. This article was written to support, not replace medical or psychiatric treatment. Please seek professional care if you feel you have a condition.

The Storm Rages On

The noise of the storm

Has become much too loud

Consider the stirring

The rage of the crowd

We can’t underestimate

All that goes on

It isn’t the first time

Sadly

It won’t be the last

History repeats itself

If we haven’t learned

Our time is limited

Don’t waste it

On living someone

Else’s life

Someone else’s

Ideal

Of how they think

It should be

Don’t get trapped

In your behavior

It is your choice

Don’t let the noise

Of others’ opinions

Drown

Out your own

Inner voice

Have the courage

To follow your heart

And do what is right

No one will win

If we continue this fight

It begins with one person

Not the rage of the crowd

We all have to work on it

We all must try

Hatred is like

Poison

It will saturate

Bubble up

And then

Explode

Have some foresight

You are drinking

The Koolaid

Don’t you care

In the moments

Of silence

You

Know this is true

The thunder rages on

In the distance

Up comes the storm

The anger and hatred

Of the crowd

Their noise is deafening

Much too loud

Stop the madness

It is within our power

Now

Vengeance doesn’t

Belong to us

Not yours not mine

If you look back in history

It has crept up again

We can’t continue

Or the next storm

Could very well be

Our end

Copyright © 2020

Remember to keep the circle positive, peaceful and loving ©

Written with love.

Joy M. Mills (IP)
Copyright © 2020
MJM ®

**This article is not intended to provide and does not constitute medical, legal or other professional advice. This article was written to support, not replace medical or psychiatric treatment. Please seek professional care if you feel you have a condition.

Hang in there!

The Novel Corona Pandemic is a thief. Among the things it snatches away are the connections that feed passion, contentment, belonging, and all of the other variations of love. Families are separated, cities and towns are silenced, and places of worship are locked.

In a time of distancing due to Coronavirus, the health threat of loneliness looms.

It is normal to feel stressed when faced with staying indoors and interacting less with people, especially when that is added to underlying stress or worry whether you will catch Covid-19.

If you are lonely, reach out to someone, anyone. Sometimes our lives seem to go sideways and maybe for a minute or longer. How do we find a way to deal with, I cannot take it any more moments?

For some people, chatting with others by Facetime, Skype, Zoom or any other technology can do the trick. It depends on who you are and what environments suit you best.

Functioning is hard to do when you cannot make sense of anything going on around you. Feeling invisible and all alone is hard to handle. Realistically, deep connections are not easy to find, and even more, when traumatic things have happened.

What I know for sure, we have to carry the spirit of children as we grow old, which means we cannot lose our enthusiasm or get overwhelmed by it all. This, too, shall pass, not quickly but eventually.

Remember to keep the circle positive, peaceful and loving. ©

Written with love.

Joy M. Mills (IP)
Copyright © 2020
MJM ®

**This article is not intended to provide and does not constitute medical, legal or other professional advice. This article was written to support, not replace medical or psychiatric treatment. Please seek professional care if you feel you have a condition.

I am an Overcomer, but I have help.

The goal of Sunday Soul-Lutions has always been and is a weekly reminder for all of us to remember:  You are not your behavior. You are not your struggle. You are not your worst mistake. You are not your past. You are not what has been done to you. There is a difference between where you have been and who you are now. These are some of the many subjects I have written about over the years.

The reality is when there is any good, any sense of peace, joy or happiness that dots through our lives is because God is good. If God held back the restraint against evil in this world, then we would see what trouble there really would be with no God.

It is easy for us to blame God when things are horrible or make no sense. For believers and non-believers, it is easy to ask, “Where are you God?” He is everything for everybody every time. He is everywhere. He is God. God is in the midst of every struggle, and that is who you belong to, you are who your Father says you are.

Your faith matters. I am not talking about casually going to church. God is always present; he is there; he will never leave us nor forsake us. This is when being a believer is important when you actually have a thing with the Lord. If you do not, hopelessness will be pervasive in your life. It will overwhelm you, and the burden is all yours.

The idea that we were each born with some higher purpose, and now it is our cosmic mission to find it does not seem logical. Here is the truth. We exist on this earth for some undetermined period. During that time, we do things. Some of these things are important. Some of them are unimportant. The essential stuff gives our life meaning and happiness. The unimportant ones kill time.

I am on my way somewhere. I am passing through, and I am going to do what God is calling me to do. I am going to stay afloat with the hope, peace and joy that is internal, so when everything else is going haywire externally, I do not have to go haywire. In my house, we can have peace even when the world does not. Galatians 5:1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

You will not know your exact path, but connecting with your why will help you unearth it. If you are feeling stuck because you do not understand your life purpose, please hear me when I say, “Nobody knows his or her exact path.”

Remember to keep the circle positive, peaceful and loving ©

Written with love.

Joy M. Mills (IP)
Copyright © 2020
MJM ®

**This article is not intended to provide and does not constitute medical, legal or other professional advice. This article was written to support, not replace medical or psychiatric treatment. Please seek professional care if you feel you have a condition.