Making Peace with Your Past & Finding Freedom

The day the child realizes that all adults are imperfect he becomes an adolescent; the day he forgives them, he becomes an adult; the day he forgives himself he becomes wise. ~Alden Nowlan

Are regrets, bad memories, or losses keeping you from enjoying each new day? Is the past keeping you from moving into the future with hope and anticipation?

I recently heard a man say that it was not until he made peace with his past that he truly began to live. It changed his life so drastically that everyone noticed there was something different about him. It was not until 20 years after losing his father that he began to grieve the loss for the first time. He finally allowed himself to face his past with all the anger and pain. There was so much that he missed out on. There were lost opportunities and things that would never be, so many regrets, poor choices, and bad experiences that would affect the rest of his life.

This man went through a process of acceptance and forgiveness. He felt the pain. He felt the anger. He mourned what was and could have been. And then, he released it. He made peace with his past, and he was ready to move on with his life. Suddenly, new opportunities before him became exciting. He began to fully appreciate what he had, the people in his life, and what he had become. He began to hope for a better and brighter future. He was ready to give more of himself to others. And he began to enjoy his life more and more.

For the first time since he could remember, he felt free—free of burdens from the past, free of unresolved pain, free of bitterness and self-pity. He was free indeed! He was free to enjoy his life, his family, and all that he had like never before. The past would no longer steal his joy and hope. It could not hold him back, and it was not going to keep him down any longer.

Is your past keeping you from fully enjoying your life? Sometimes we do not stop and think about it. Just like the man described above, we might have regrets, unresolved pain, sorrow, anger, or unforgiveness. These things keep us bound to the past. The past does not have to negatively influence our future. We can release it as we face it, deal with the emotions, come to accept what was and now is, and forgive our past.

Making peace with our past will lead us to experience healing, wholeness, and freedom to live our life with true joy. Every day is a new day to appreciate and enjoy. We do not have to allow our past to keep us from being truly happy today. Choose to be free and take the necessary steps to be free now. (We might want to have a professional counselor help us go through this process.)

Following are questions to reflect on and steps to take in making peace with our past:

1. Face your past. What are your regrets? What caused or still causes you pain? What are your losses? Have you grieved them?

2. Face your feelings. Does your past make you angry, sad, feel bad about yourself, bitter, damaged, cheated?

3. Forgive your past. Do you have any bitterness, hatred, or unforgiveness towards anyone (including yourself)? Why are you holding on to it? What would it take for you to release it and free yourself from its control in your life?

4. Accept your past. When we cannot change something, the healthiest thing we can do is accept it. Can you accept your past? What have you learned from it? How can it change you for the better?

5. Make peace with your past and be free. When your past no longer controls your life—your peace, your hope, attitude, relationships, ability to love others, give and share of yourself, dream, believe, and trust once again, then you are free!

It is my hope that this has helped you in making peace with your past, and in looking forward to better days ahead!

Krystal

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.

He who spends time regretting the past, loses the present and risks the future. ~Quevedo

Regret is an appalling waste of energy --you can't build on it. It's only good for wallowing in. ~Katherine Mansfield

Your memory replays your past; your imagination replays your future. ~Mike Murdock


Copyright © 2007 Krystal Kuehn BeHappy4Life.com NewDayCounseling.org All Rights Reserved


Krystal Kuehn, MA, LPC, LLP, NCC is a licensed professional counselor, international best-selling author, teacher, and musician. She specializes in helping people live their best life now, reach their full potential, overcome barriers, heal from their past, and develop a lifestyle of health, happiness, and love. Krystal is the cofounder of NewDayCounseling.org

New Day Counseling is a family counseling center that provides professional counseling services for the entire family. We help parents, children, teens, families, individuals and couples. We offer couples therapy / marriage counseling, child therapy, adolescent counseling, anxiety counseling, depression counseling, divorce counseling, grief counseling, porn addiction counseling, substance abuse counseling. We also offer groups for anger counseling. Go to NewDayCounseling.org today for more information or call us at 248-649-8050. We are here to help, and we look forward to hearing from you.

Put an end to anger problems & regain control over your life today. Anger management classes help for personal, court, and business. For more info go to newdaycounseling.org or call 248-649-8050 to register today. * Anger management classes and/or individual anger counseling can be extremely supportive and helpful in equipping us with many tools for a better life.

DUI? Drunk Driving? Probation? Substance Abuse Problems? DUI Outpatient Counseling, Substance Abuse Evaluation & Alcohol Assessment help for court, business and personal. For more info to go newdaycounseling.org click here: substance abuse counseling or call 248-649-8050 today!

Love and Logic Parenting Classes help you with the most important job there is! You can learn practical tools & techniques for effective discipline, better communication, appropriate boundaries, healthy decision-making, & respectful adult-child relationships. Workshops are available at New Day Counseling in Troy. For more information or to register online go to: Love and Logic Parenting Class or call 248-649-8050.

Self-Esteem Group for Teen Girls (ages 13-17)
Teen girls learn to feel empowered, gain self-awareness, develop positive coping, and improve daily problem-solving skills. Through G.I.R.L.S. (Girls in Real Life Situations) counseling curriculum, group discussion, and fun activities, girls will learn more about themselves and be better equipped to handle Real Life Situations. Call 248-649-8050 today to register. For more information, click here. We also offer individual teenage counseling.

Helpful Resources:







God’s Promises in 8 Key Life Areas That Will Change Your Life








42 Simple Truths for a New Day: Live Each Day with a Winning Attitude







Anger Management: What You Need to Know When Dealing with Anger

Depression - Breaking Free From Its Grip

10 Keys to Happy & Loving Relationships

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An Empowering Way to Start a New Day

Words to Live By

The best day of your life is the one on which you decide your life is your own. No apologies or excuses. No one to lean on, rely on, or blame. The gift is yours - it is an amazing journey - and you alone are responsible for the quality of it. This is the day your life really begins. ~Bob Moawad



The Greatest Handicap - Fear
The Best Day - Today
Easiest Thing to Do - Find Fault
Most Useless Asset - Pride
The Greatest Mistake - Giving Up
The Greatest Stumbling Block - Egotism
The Greatest Comfort - Work Well Done
Most Disagreeable Person - The Complainer
Worst Bankruptcy - Loss of Enthusiasm
Best Teacher - One Who Makes You Want to Learn
Greatest Need - Common Sense
Meanest Feeling - Regret at Another's Success
Best Gift - Forgiveness
Greatest Knowledge - God
Greatest Thing in the World - Love
(from Jim Pierce's Big Golden Trumpet Encyclopedia)

I love words of wisdom and inspirational quotes because they are truly motivating and empowering. They can encourage, strengthen and direct us. I had the following words of wisdom in my music binder. On occasion I will stop and read through them. Today was one of those days. And as always, they really inspired me. I started my morning by saying that today is a good day, and I decided I was going to do my part to make it good. And in these words to live by, I was reminded that today is not just another day, it is the best day! Yes, it is the best day because we can choose to believe it is. We can choose to make it good by the way we think, behave, and relate to others and our world. We can choose to give thanks for what we have, what we can learn, and what we can give. We can choose to recognize and appreciate each new day as a gift and give thanks for all that is good. This attitude is truly the very best way to start our day. It empowers us to do our part to live life to the fullest.

I was also reminded that fear is the greatest handicap. It keeps us from maximizing our potential and being our best. It leads us to the greatest mistake of giving up. It can also cause us to become a complainer (the most disagreeable person) if we are not careful. Once we get into complaining, we are out of gratitude. Complaining and gratitude cannot coexist! And if we are not thankful, we will not experience true joy and peace. A lack of joy hampers our enthusiasm for life, for our relationships, work, etc. And a loss of enthusiasm is certainly the worst bankruptcy. The unfortunate thing is that we do it to ourselves.

Another value I thought was especially empowering is the best gift--forgiveness. I was reminded that this is a gift we give to ourselves. Forgiveness is more about us than it is about who or what hurt us or offended us. Not only do we forgive and find freedom, we also receive forgiveness and experience grace and love which are truly life-changing. Yes, forgiveness is the best gift! There is so much more I can say about this and maybe I will in a future article.

The greatest knowledge--I agree 100% is God. I believe there is no greater knowledge, experience, or relationship we can ever have. I couldn't even imagine life without God and for this I am most grateful! His love is the greatest thing in the world, for He is love. To know Him is to know love, an ongoing life experience. His love is like no other--it is so deep, so wonderful, so beautiful, so empowering.

May you be blessed by these words to live by and let them empower you to be your best and give thanks for today and always!


Copyright © 2011 Krystal Kuehn. All Rights Reserved.
New Day Family Counseling Marriage Counseling Center & BeHappy4Life.com

Krystal Kuehn, MA, LPC, LLP, NCC is a licensed professional counselor, international best-selling author, teacher, and musician. She specializes in helping people live their best life now, reach their full potential, overcome barriers, heal from their past, and develop a lifestyle of health, happiness, and love. Krystal is the cofounder of NewDayCounseling.org

For Uplifting & Positive Simple Truths with Affirmations, check out:

 
click here:
Simple Truths to Personal Success

 

 

New Day Counseling is a family counseling center that provides professional counseling services for the entire family. We help parents, children, teens, families, individuals and couples. We offer couples therapy / marriage counseling, child therapy, adolescent counseling, anxiety counseling, depression counseling, divorce counseling, grief counseling, porn addiction counseling, substance abuse counseling. We also offer groups for anger counseling. Go to NewDayCounseling.org today for more information or call us at 248-649-8050. We are here to help, and we look forward to hearing from you.

Put an end to anger problems & regain control over your life today. Anger management classes help for personal, court, and business. For more info go to newdaycounseling.org or call 248-649-8050 to register today. * Anger management classes and/or individual anger counseling can be extremely supportive and helpful in equipping us with many tools for a better life.

DUI? Drunk Driving? Probation? Substance Abuse Problems? DUI Outpatient Counseling, Substance Abuse Evaluation & Alcohol Assessment help for court, business and personal. For more info to go newdaycounseling.org click here: substance abuse counseling or call 248-649-8050 today!

Love and Logic Parenting Classes help you with the most important job there is! You can learn practical tools & techniques for effective discipline, better communication, appropriate boundaries, healthy decision-making, & respectful adult-child relationships. Workshops are available at New Day Counseling in Troy. For more information or to register online go to: Love and Logic Parenting Class or call 248-649-8050.

Self-Esteem Group for Teen Girls (ages 13-17)
Teen girls learn to feel empowered, gain self-awareness, develop positive coping, and improve daily problem-solving skills. Through G.I.R.L.S. (Girls in Real Life Situations) counseling curriculum, group discussion, and fun activities, girls will learn more about themselves and be better equipped to handle Real Life Situations. Call 248-649-8050 today to register. For more information, click here. We also offer individual teenage counseling.

<< Back to Be Your Best Home

Nurturing Happy, Loving Relationships

We’ve got this gift of love, but love is like a precious plant. You can’t just accept it and leave it in the cupboard or just think it’s going to get on by itself. You’ve got to keep watering it. You’ve got to really look after it and nurture it. ~John Lennon

A special day is set aside every year to celebrate the gift of love. During this time we show our appreciation and love for that special someone in our life. We may think up some creative, romantic, and fun ways to express our love and show how much we really care. But celebrating the gift of love just one day or so each year is far from enough. Happy and loving relationships take quite a bit of attention and nurturing on a daily basis.

It is the simple things that show how important our relationships are to us and how much we care about them. We can say, “I love you” in so many ways, but do we do it often enough? We can spend more time together and make it a priority, but is it that important to us? We can do nice things for each other, but do we wait for a special occasion? We can show our appreciation and gratitude for the gift of love we are given, but do we quickly forget and begin taking one another for granted?

John Lennon’s quote above is a beautiful analogy and reminder that our relationships are valuable, and we are to take special care of them if they are to survive and prosper. The gift of love is like a precious plant. A precious plant has many needs like proper nourishment and plenty of light. It cannot be watered just once or twice a year. It needs to be watered often to keep it hydrated and healthy. In the same way, our loving relationships are precious. They require lots of special care and attention. They cannot be left to themselves in hopes that they will grow and prosper. Happy and loving relationships don’t just happen. They take plenty of nurturing.* As we celebrate the gift of love this year, may we remember that it is a precious gift that needs to be looked after every day and all year round. Happy Valentine’s Day!!

Life's greatest happiness is to be convinced we are loved. ~Victor Hugo

Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself. To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night. To wake at dawn with winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving. ~Kahlil Gibran

Copyright © 2011 Krystal Kuehn. All Rights Reserved.
New Day Family Counseling & Couples Counseling Center & BeHappy4Life.com


*Recommened Resources for Happy, Healthy, Loving Relationships:

 

10  Keys to Happy & Loving Relationships

 

Restore Your Marriage & Fall in Love Again

 

Giving Thanks: Why It Makes You Happy, Fills You with Peace & Changes Your Life!

Krystal Kuehn, MA, LPC, LLP, NCC is a licensed professional counselor, international best-selling author, teacher, and musician. She specializes in helping people live their best life now, reach their full potential, overcome barriers, heal from their past, and develop a lifestyle of health, happiness, and love. Krystal is the cofounder of NewDayCounseling.org

New Day Counseling is a family counseling center that provides professional counseling services for the entire family. We help parents, children, teens, families, individuals and couples. We offer couples therapy / marriage counseling, child therapy, adolescent counseling, anxiety counseling, depression counseling, divorce counseling, grief counseling, porn addiction counseling, substance abuse counseling. We also offer groups for anger counseling. Go to NewDayCounseling.org today for more information or call us at 248-649-8050. We are here to help, and we look forward to hearing from you.

Put an end to anger problems & regain control over your life today. Anger management classes help for personal, court, and business. For more info go to newdaycounseling.org or call 248-649-8050 to register today. * Anger management classes and/or individual anger counseling can be extremely supportive and helpful in equipping us with many tools for a better life.

DUI? Drunk Driving? Probation? Substance Abuse Problems? DUI Outpatient Counseling, Substance Abuse Evaluation & Alcohol Assessment help for court, business and personal. For more info to go newdaycounseling.org click here: substance abuse counseling or call 248-649-8050 today!

Love and Logic Parenting Classes help you with the most important job there is! You can learn practical tools & techniques for effective discipline, better communication, appropriate boundaries, healthy decision-making, & respectful adult-child relationships. Workshops are available at New Day Counseling in Troy. For more information or to register online go to: Love and Logic Parenting Class or call 248-649-8050.

Self-Esteem Group for Teen Girls (ages 13-17)
Teen girls learn to feel empowered, gain self-awareness, develop positive coping, and improve daily problem-solving skills. Through G.I.R.L.S. (Girls in Real Life Situations) counseling curriculum, group discussion, and fun activities, girls will learn more about themselves and be better equipped to handle Real Life Situations. Call 248-649-8050 today to register. For more information, click here. We also offer individual teenage counseling.

<< Back to Be Your Best Home

Gratitude: The Antidote for Toxic Emotions

You cannot be grateful and bitter.
You cannot be grateful and unhappy.
You cannot be grateful and without hope.
You cannot be grateful and unloving.
So just be grateful.
~author unknown



Are you experiencing some toxic emotions like anger, bitterness, irritability, hopelessness or depression? When negative emotions occupy much of our attention and drain our energy, they have become toxic. Something that is toxic is like poison; it causes harm and serious debilitation. Isn't that what anger and bitterness do? Like poison, they impair and destroy our ability to function at our best. They keep us chained to unforgiveness and self-destruction. How about hopelessness? Its toxicity saps our strength and makes us weak. Irritability is another toxin that steals our peace and harms our relationships.

When we experience toxic levels of negative emotions, we need to detox. That is, we need to counteract and remove their destructive effects. We may need to release some anger, process some hurt, change our perspective, recall our past victories, take some time away, or talk to someone who can help us. These are healthy coping techniques that can be very helpful in dealing with toxic emotions. However, what is especially helpful and probably the best antidote for toxic emotions is practicing gratitude. One of the best ways to do this is to get our minds off the problem and change our focus. Instead of thinking about how angry we are about what went wrong, we can give thanks for what went right or for what additional sorrows we escaped. Instead of focusing on the hopelessness of a situation and what we cannot change, we can give thanks for what we can change and the control we have over our thoughts and actions. We can be thankful that we have options and can choose to respond in a healthy manner.

Gratitude and toxic emotions cannot coexist. The next time you experience toxic emotions, counteract them with gratitude before they poison your mind, body and relationships. Toxic emotions may not always be completely eradicated from our lives, but their destructive effects can be!

In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy. ~Brother David Steindl-Rast

Copyright © 2010 Krystal Kuehn. All Rights Reserved.

Recommended Resources:


Giving Thanks: Why It Makes You Happy, Fills You with Peace & Changes Your Life!
















Anger Management: What You Need to Know When Dealing with Anger

10  Keys to Happy & Loving Relationships





 

 

Krystal Kuehn, MA, LPC, LLP, NCC is a licensed professional counselor, international best-selling author, teacher, and musician. She specializes in helping people live their best life now, reach their full potential, overcome barriers, heal from their past, and develop a lifestyle of health, happiness, and love. Krystal is the cofounder of NewDayCounseling.org

New Day Counseling is a family counseling center that provides professional counseling services for the entire family. We help parents, children, teens, families, individuals and couples. We offer couples therapy / marriage counseling, child therapy, adolescent counseling, anxiety counseling, depression counseling, divorce counseling, grief counseling, porn addiction counseling, substance abuse counseling. We also offer groups for anger counseling. Go to NewDayCounseling.org today for more information or call us at 248-649-8050. We are here to help, and we look forward to hearing from you.

Put an end to anger problems & regain control over your life today. Anger management classes help for personal, court, and business. For more info go to newdaycounseling.org or call 248-649-8050 to register today. * Anger management classes and/or individual anger counseling can be extremely supportive and helpful in equipping us with many tools for a better life.

DUI? Drunk Driving? Probation? Substance Abuse Problems? DUI Outpatient Counseling, Substance Abuse Evaluation & Alcohol Assessment help for court, business and personal. For more info to go newdaycounseling.org click here: substance abuse counseling or call 248-649-8050 today!

Love and Logic Parenting Classes help you with the most important job there is! You can learn practical tools & techniques for effective discipline, better communication, appropriate boundaries, healthy decision-making, & respectful adult-child relationships. Workshops are available at New Day Counseling in Troy. For more information or to register online go to: Love and Logic Parenting Class or call 248-649-8050.

Self-Esteem Group for Teen Girls (ages 13-17)
Teen girls learn to feel empowered, gain self-awareness, develop positive coping, and improve daily problem-solving skills. Through G.I.R.L.S. (Girls in Real Life Situations) counseling curriculum, group discussion, and fun activities, girls will learn more about themselves and be better equipped to handle Real Life Situations. Call 248-649-8050 today to register. For more information, click here. We also offer individual teenage counseling.

<< Back to Be Your Best Home

The Key to a Peaceful Mind

Have patience with all things but first with yourself.  Never confuse your mistakes with your value as a human being.  You're a perfectly valuable, creative, worthwhile person simply because you exist.  And no amount of triumphs of tribulations can ever change that.  Unconditional self-acceptance is the core of a peaceful mind. ~St. Francis de Sales


I recall some great words of advice from a very wise man who was asked for some relationship help.  The discussion was about loving others and our expectations of them.  He addressed something especially important, and it is something most people often miss.  He said, "Instead of asking 'Do you love me?' we should be asking ourselves, 'Do I love me?'"  If I love me, then I can love you unconditionally and with healthy boundaries and expectations.

Loving ourselves enables us to love others.  A lack of self-love and self-acceptance makes it difficult for us to accept others unconditionally.  If we are critical of ourselves and our mistakes, we will be critical and unforgiving of others as well.  If we are impatient with ourselves, we are more likely to be impatient with others.

Not having appropriate self-love can also lead to dysfunctional relationship patterns such as expecting to get our needs met by other people such as our spouses, children, or friends.  Self-acceptance and healthy self-love helps us to have healthy boundaries and realistic expectations.

Remember,as quoted above, you are a perfectly valuable, lovable, beautiful, worthwhile person!  If you can believe it and unconditionally love and accept yourself, you will have a truly peaceful mind!

Copyright © 2013 Krystal Kuehn, All Rights Reserved

Having a low opinion of yourself is not "modesty". It's self-destruction. Holding your uniqueness in high regard is not "egotism". It's a necessary precondition to happiness and success. ~Bobbe Sommer

Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid. ~Albert Einstein

Always Do Your Best. Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret. ~Don Miguel Ruiz

It's not your job to like me...it's MINE! ~Byron Katie

I was once afraid of people saying, "Who does she think she is?" Now I have the courage to stand and say, "This is who I am." ~Oprah Winfrey


Empowering, self-esteem building resources:

Think Like a Winner: How Renewing Your Mind with God's Word Empowers You to Win in Life

10 Keys to Happy & Loving Relationships

In Christ, I am… God's Promises on Who You Are in Christ that Will Transform You from the Inside Out  

Krystal Kuehn, MA, LPC, LLP, NCC is a licensed professional counselor, international best-selling author, teacher, and musician. She specializes in helping people live their best life now, reach their full potential, overcome barriers, heal from their past, and develop a lifestyle of health, happiness, and love. Krystal is the cofounder of NewDayCounseling.org

New Day Counseling is a family counseling center that provides professional counseling services for the entire family. We help parents, children, teens, families, individuals and couples. We offer couples therapy / marriage counseling, child therapy, adolescent counseling, anxiety counseling, depression counseling, divorce counseling, grief counseling, porn addiction counseling, substance abuse counseling. We also offer groups for anger counseling. Go to NewDayCounseling.org today for more information or call us at 248-649-8050. We are here to help, and we look forward to hearing from you.

Put an end to anger problems & regain control over your life today. Anger management classes help for personal, court, and business. For more info go to newdaycounseling.org or call 248-649-8050 to register today. * Anger management classes and/or individual anger counseling can be extremely supportive and helpful in equipping us with many tools for a better life.

DUI? Drunk Driving? Probation? Substance Abuse Problems? DUI Outpatient Counseling, Substance Abuse Evaluation & Alcohol Assessment help for court, business and personal. For more info to go newdaycounseling.org click here: substance abuse counseling or call 248-649-8050 today!

Love and Logic Parenting Classes help you with the most important job there is! You can learn practical tools & techniques for effective discipline, better communication, appropriate boundaries, healthy decision-making, & respectful adult-child relationships. Workshops are available at New Day Counseling in Troy. For more information or to register online go to: Love and Logic Parenting Class or call 248-649-8050.

Self-Esteem Group for Teen Girls (ages 13-17)
Teen girls learn to feel empowered, gain self-awareness, develop positive coping, and improve daily problem-solving skills. Through G.I.R.L.S. (Girls in Real Life Situations) counseling curriculum, group discussion, and fun activities, girls will learn more about themselves and be better equipped to handle Real Life Situations. Call 248-649-8050 today to register. For more information, click here. We also offer individual teenage counseling.

<< Back to Be Your Best Home

A New Year & A New You

Did you make any New Year's Resolutions?

Most of us like to start the new year with hopes and plans for a good year. The past is behind us and we carry over the blessings, memories, and lessons it has taught us. But today is a new day, a new year, and we can start fresh. We can have new beginnings and set new goals.

What would you like to be different this coming year? Maybe you want to get in better shape, lose some weight, get out of debt, break bad habits and begin healthy ones, heal and restore a marriage, build new relationships, improve some skills, donate your time and/or finances, contribute to the community, make a positive difference in other's lives, and the list goes on.

Research shows that most New Year's resolutions are not kept for very long. We have good intentions and maybe start out with determination and confidence, but soon after our enthusiasm dies out. Oftentimes our resolutions are more challenging than we had expected. Maybe this year we can approach the new year with just one goal that will help us to meet all the others: to live a more positive and grateful life. A postiive and grateful life helps us to stay strong in our faith, persist, dream, set goals, love others and treat them with kindness and respect. Real fulfillment and joy can be ours this year as we commit to being our best.

Make this the best year yet by being the best you can be. It starts with you - your thinking, your attitude, your love walk, you faith, your perpective, your commitment, your persistence, your choices. We don't know what this new year will bring, but we can resolve to make the best of this year as we make the best of ourselves.

God bless you and may this year be your best ever!


We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day. ~Edith Lovejoy Pierce


The Old Year has gone. Let the dead past bury its own dead. The New Year has taken possession of the clock of time. All hail the duties and possibilities of the coming twelve months! ~Edward Payson Powell


I think in terms of the day's resolutions, not the year's. ~Henry Moore


Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right. ~Oprah Winfrey




Copyright © 2008 Krystal Kuehn, New Day Counseling. All Rights Reserved


Krystal Kuehn, MA, LPC, LLP, NCC is a licensed professional counselor, author, teacher, and musician. She specializes in helping people live their best life now, reach their full potential, overcome barriers, heal from their past, and develop a lifestyle of health, happiness, and love. Krystal is the cofounder of NewDayCounseling.org

New Day Counseling is a family counseling center that provides professional counseling services for the entire family. We help parents, children, teens, families, individuals and couples. We offer couples therapy / marriage counseling, child therapy, adolescent counseling, anxiety counseling, depression counseling, divorce counseling, grief counseling, porn addiction counseling, substance abuse counseling. We also offer groups for anger counseling. Go to NewDayCounseling.org today for more information or call us at 248-649-8050. We are here to help, and we look forward to hearing from you.

Put an end to anger problems & regain control over your life today. Anger management classes help for personal, court, and business. For more info go to newdaycounseling.org or call 248-649-8050 to register today. * Anger management classes and/or individual anger counseling can be extremely supportive and helpful in equipping us with many tools for a better life.

Are you experiencing addiction or substance use that is impacting your daily life? You are not alone! There are many people struggling with substance abuse and addiction! There are also many people who recover and live a drug free lifestyle. Come join our 6 week substance abuse group to discover the pathway to freedom! One Day at A Time! For substance abuse classes and/or individual substance abuse counseling, call or visit us today.

Love and Logic Parenting Classes help you with the most important job there is! You can learn practical tools & techniques for effective discipline, better communication, appropriate boundaries, healthy decision-making, & respectful adult-child relationships. Workshops are available at New Day Counseling in Troy. For more information or to register online go to: Love and Logic Parenting Class or call 248-649-8050.

Self-Esteem Group for Teen Girls (ages 13-17)
Teen girls learn to feel empowered, gain self-awareness, develop positive coping, and improve daily problem-solving skills. Through G.I.R.L.S. (Girls in Real Life Situations) counseling curriculum, group discussion, and fun activities, girls will learn more about themselves and be better equipped to handle Real Life Situations. Call 248-649-8050 today to register. For more information, click here. We also offer individual teenage counseling.



<< Back to Be Your Best Home

Happy Holidays & Merry Christmas!

Season's Greetings to you all!

We wish you a very happy holiday season and a very Merry Christmas. May you be blessed with health in body and mind and filled with love and peace that cannot be shaken.

It's a New Day to believe, to hope, to give thanks, to celebrate and to live life to the fullest!

God bless you this holiday season and always!!   ~ from all of us at New Day Counseling
 

It is Christmas every time you let God love others through you . . . yes, it is Christmas every time you smile at your brother and offer him your hand. ~Mother Teresa

Best of all, Christmas means a spirit of love, a time when the love of God and the love of our fellow men should prevail over all hatred and bitterness, a time when our thoughts and deeds and the spirit of our lives manifest the presence of God. ~George F McDougall
The joy of brightening other lives, bearing others' burdens, easing other's loads and supplanting empty hearts and lives with generous gifts becomes for us the magic of Christmas. ~W.C. Jones

Christmas is most truly Christmas when we celebrate it by giving the light of love to those who need it most. ~Ruth Carter Stapleton

Let us remember that the Christmas heart is a giving heart, a wide-open-heart that thinks of others first.  ~George M Adams

Christmas is the season of joy, of holiday greetings exchanged, of gift-giving,and of families united. ~Norman Vincent Peale

Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the traveller, thousands of miles away, back to his own fire-side and his quiet home! ~Charles Dickens



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How to Find Peace in a World of "Why?"

Pain and suffering are a part of the human experience. No one is exempt. Tragedies occur leaving us in shock and devastation. Diseases weaken and destroy bodies. The innocent are abused and exploited. Families are broken and hearts are shattered. Losses leave us to grieve and cry out from the depths of our souls, Why? This question is so often directed to the only One who knows the answer. We plead for God to help us to understand. We want to know why He allows people to hurt so badly and suffer unjustly.

Not understanding why people must suffer is the reason many people question the love and sovereignty of God. They reason, “How can a loving God allow such evil? Being all-powerful He could easily stop it if He really cared.” Yet, their questions go unanswered and some deny God or pull away from Him. Sometimes it is for a season and sometimes it is for a lifetime.

Pain and suffering do not have to keep us from seeking God and going to Him with all of our questions, confusion, pain, and anger. He knows how we feel and what we think. He understands what we are going through. When bad things happen, it does not mean that He is no longer with us or present in our situation. It does not mean He loves us any less or that He doesn’t care. However, it can be very difficult to believe this when we are hurting so badly. But nothing can ever change who God is. He is good no matter what happens. His plans for us are good regardless of how things might appear.

Nothing can ever keep us from His love and grace. They never cease. Only we can keep ourselves from receiving His love and grace. He wants us to know Him and all He has for us. That is why He invites us to draw near to Him and allow Him to draw near to us. He will give us so much more than the answers we think we need. He will give us His love that endures forever. He will give us His peace and will calm our minds. He will comfort our hearts and hold us up. He will be gracious and merciful to us. He will give us beauty for ashes. He will turn our mourning into dancing.

If you have ever asked Why? in the midst of circumstances that are beyond your understanding, you are not alone. When there is no answer or reasonable explanation, the way you handle it will determine how it changes you. You can choose to trust that God is still good, that He restores and comforts, brings healing and inner peace, and helps us learn and grow in the midst of pain and suffering. And most of all, that He is the answer to all that we seek.

There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief… and unspeakable love. ~ Washington Irving

Grief is not a disorder, a disease or a sign of weakness. It is an emotional, physical and spiritual necessity, the price you pay for love. The only cure for grief is to grieve. ~Earl Grollman

Grief can't be shared. Everyone carries it alone. His own burden in his own way  ~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Grief is the price we pay for love  ~ Queen Elizabeth II

Can I see another's woe, and not be in sorrow too? Can I see another's grief, and not seek for kind relief?  ~ William Blake

Though our feelings come and go, God’s love for us does not. ~ C.S. Lewis

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning. ~ Lamentations

Mourning is one of the most profound human experiences that it is possible to have... The deep capacity to weep for the loss of a loved one and to continue to treasure the memory of that loss is one of our noblest human traits. ~ Shneidman

We find a place for what we lose. Although we know that after such a loss the acute stage of mourning will subside, we also know that we shall remain inconsolable and will never find a substitute. No matter what may fill the gap, even if it be filled completely, it nevertheless remains something else. ~Sigmund Freud

If it were not for hopes, the heart would break. ~Thomas Fuller

Grief is a normal and natural response to loss. It is originally an unlearned feeling process. Keeping grief inside increases your pain. - Ann Grant

Allowing children to show their guilt, show their grief, show their anger, takes the sting out of the situation.  ~ Martha Beck

We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope. ~Martin Luther King

My job is to take care of the possible and trust God with the impossible. ~unknown

Sorrow looks back, worry looks around, faith looks up. ~unknown

Worry is a total waste of time. It doesn't change anything. All it does is taint your mind and steals your joy. You can't have joy without peace, and there is no peace without God. ~unknown




How to Find Peace in a World of "Why?" written by Krystal Kuehn
Published in the Mirror Magazine, Faithfully Yours section

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