SKILL CENTER

I have a dream: to start a skill center for children ages 8-18. This center will teach children to do things such as cook, clean, organize, garden, landscape, re-upholster furniture, refinish and re-do furniture, sewing, small engine repair, financial responsibility, social skills, and more. The children will attend workshops that will help them learn the steps to master each skill. After all the levels are complete they will receive a virtual badge that will indicate the mastery of the particular skill. The idea is still in the growing stages, but by next year, I should have a least part of it up and running. It will be a non-profit and it will be called Casskills. If you can help me set up the non-profit status, want to volunteer, or have ideas, or suggestions, you can email me at cazglmhc@gmail.com. Together we can make this dream a reality, for the children of today and for the future. Thank you in advance for your interest and support.

Parenting Yourself and Your Children

What?
What do I mean by parenting yourself?
You are an adult right?
You know about many things, you have answers to life, you are educated, self-disciplined, responsible, and respectable, and probably a few other things. You know about life. Why should you parent yourself? Well, if you are angry,and/or addicted, depressed, anxious, or any number of things that plague adults then you may want to reach back into your childhood and see what was going on there. Were you loved, encouraged, guided, empowered as a child? If not, then there may be some things to work with to take better care of YOU, but even if the answer is yes, you may still find that you have "demons" that show up in your life and darken your ability to be your best. I don't mean in competitive manner, but in a loving and kind way where as you are your best you can encourage others to do the same. Perhaps you know the feeling; a win/win situation where people feel good and behave cooperatively. I am not saying all the time, life is full of struggles and often the struggles are our teachers, but when people can work together then things begin to happen for the greater good of all and there is a feeling of connection, compassion, and compatibility. Would you like to know more? You can read this and work on yourself. Hooray for the internet.

Meaning of Life?

Well what is the meaning of life?? Why are we here? What is this thing called life all about? Well, there may be no specific meaning to life, other than what we put into it. Here is a short video that you may enjoy. It seems like an easy thing, but it can be hard to stay in the moment and not project into the future or drag up the past. Doing either of these things often results in pain and does nothing productive for you. So be in the moment and the more you can do this the more you will find that you can be connected to a deeper part of yourself and the more you will enjoy others as well.

Stressful Times

Ugh!! We all have stressful times. You can probably recall a time where you were thinking that a situation was unbearable. Yet, is it? Are we often wrong in our habitual ways of thinking? You may recall a time where you were sure you were right about the outcome of a situation, and yet it turned out completely different from what you had imagined. This is often a double- edged sword where things may turn out good or bad, but your imagining of how the situation would turn out seemed to be completely off base to what really happened. So how much can we trust our thinking particularly during stressful times?

Below are some articles that you may find helpful.

Habits

Happy (interactive site)

You are Awesome!!

Conquering Depression and Anxiety

I write about depression and anxiety a lot as they are two very debilitating factors for many people. Depression is about the past and what you feel you coulda, woulda, shoulda done and anxiety is about the future and what you are afraid you will not be able to face. So, in cognitive therapy, it is taught that if you change the stinking thinking then you can feel better. If our thoughts are limitless then we should be able to make changes so that we feel better. Begin by thinking about something that you do every day. You make sure that you do this everyday and you don't question it, you just do it. It may be eating, smoking, having coffee, or calling someone, or something else, but you just do it. So when you are caught up in stinking thinking, you may be over thinking things and you find yourself "stuck" in a place that is dark or overwhelming. Try just doing for the next couple days rather than over thinking and check this out

Happiness

What is your idea of happiness? Here are somethings I find helpful.

Your Past

“It took 48 years of my life for me to come up with the idea of instant noodles. Each and every event in the past is connected to the present by invisible threads.”

– Momofuku Ando

Do you think about how your past is connected to what is going on in your life right now? You may have doubts and fears about yourself because of it, but each movement is related to another,so be mindful of your actions.