Addiction by Annette Adkin

Though living in Kelowna has many opportunities to connect and enjoy outdoor activities it also has many people who are feeling distressed and disconnected. Being distressed and not coping with life?s challenges can lead to addiction. People are trying to soothe their uneasiness and feel better. One of the biggest reasons people are prone to addiction is the presence of childhood trauma. It is great to have a few drinks by the lake or at an event in the Okanagan, but what if this leads to too many drinks, a disconnect in my relationship or consequences that I don?t feel great about afterwards. There are 7 main addictions which are food, sex, drugs, alcohol, technology, money and unhealthy relationship patterns but for today we will focus on alcohol. When someone struggles with an addiction, they need to learn more about coping strategies and skills to help them. I also talk about recovery meaning recovering the parts of myself that were missing from my childhood. In my practice I talk about being ?addicted to turning away? from myself and things that are important in my life. I describe addiction like someone else is driving my car and I am in the back seat saying I don?t think this is a good idea but I continue to do this behavior with negative consequences. If you are ready to make some changes or you just want to gain more knowledge to get to your next better step, contact Annette Adkin. She has over 25 yrs of experience in helping people grow and develop successful practices. 250-878-7035 https://pureinsights.ca

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What Can You Get Away With? by Cherie Hanson

What is your personal margin of error? Is a drip on the carpet the end of the known universe as you know it? Or do you run wild and throw those black work out pants into a washing machine full of fuzz spewing sweaters and towels?

Each of us has an operating system that we let gauge our choices. What we are currently having to adapt to as a worldwide phenomenon is the unknown. When I was growing up what was unknown became more and more clarified through my knowing. If I knew one particular law of reality and lived within it, I was more likely to understand the unknown.

Babies drop a toy off of the high chair tray repeatedly engaging in a physics experiment. Will the object once released from the hand always fall to the floor? The only way to know is to conduct the experiment until you are satisfied.

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Keeping Your Cool in the Heat of the Moment By Maggie Reigh

 Children and teens are experts at pressing their parents’ buttons. Most of them have honed their button pressing skills over the span of their lifetime – for some of them it may be their greatest and most cherished accomplishment! And if you’re like most parents, including myself, you probably “lose it” on occasion. And you probably feel guilty later… and then lose it again, and so on. It becomes an established pattern and guilt-tripping ourselves about it is not helpful. In fact, guilt keeps the pattern going because it makes us feel bad and stresses us out even more, and so we blow again.

So how does one break this pattern? First, stop and really recognize the toll it takes on you and your children. During one of our 9 Ways to Bring out the Best in You and Your Child Leadership Training sessions, two facilitators were exploring the concept of punishment verses effective discipline. In a staged demonstration, suddenly one of the facilitators blew up at a participant. “Sherry! How many times have I told you to quit talking! Now you get to your room, right now! I’m tired of these interruptions,” she bellowed and hauled Sherry up off the couch and down the hall to her room.

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