Photo by Senjuti Kundu on Unsplash 

Written by Valynne Underwood 

Do you ever sit back and wonder…Is there a way to feel good about yourself? Or how about, “I wish there was a magic pill I could take that, when taken, would magically change my life for the better, and I would experience undying happiness for the rest of my life.  Consider this…have you ever picked up an interesting book, read the synopsis, then hurriedly run to the cash register completing the necessary steps in order to make this potential life altering read yours. By the time you arrive at your favorite reading spot and crack that book open, you have convinced yourself that this is the one piece of literature that will most definitely improve your life. However, after reading this intellectual piece of prose, you are disappointed to come to the end of page after page of psychological doctrine, lecturing how the mind works, but still have no idea how to incorporate all this new knowledge!  You need examples,...

Written by Valynne Underwood

Whew!  2022 is over, and 2023 has been presented to the world. 

A new year always comes with so many feelings of hope, excitement, joy, relief, anxiety, worry, and troubling emotions.  Events happened in 2022 that were a veritable smorgasbord, a feast!  Some events you would classify as wonderful or even life changing while others will definitely be a hard pass-a no thankyou repeat of this one!  Questions make way to the forefront of the mind full of the unknown which always asks: What will this year hold for me?  Will it be better or worse than last year?  What will life look like a year from now?  Will all be well in my life?  Will there be more moments of good rather than bad?  Who will still be involved in my life?  Will I remain healthy?  Will my weight go up or down?  Will my family circle increase or decrease?  The same question goes with my friend circle and we haven’t...

Your happiness is on YOU.

Part of growing into maturity is learning how to meet our own needs. As a child we were dependent upon others to fill our cup. If we wanted fed, we asked and waited for someone else to feed us. If we wanted comforted after we fell down, we cried to our moms. If we wanted to play we had to wait for the next activity or we had to get permission. We learned as a child that something outside of us was going to take care of us and fulfill us. Some people never grow out of that…

Emotional maturity is learning how to meet your OWN needs and it is a learned behavior. Most of us learn it the hard way, by expecting someone else to show up for us, stand up for us, be there to comfort us, listen to our every desire and come running (because that’s what “love” is). We wait and wait (some learn to manipulate, whine or punish other people into meeting their needs) until one day we FINALLY figure out that we are a grown up now and we are the very...