Tag Archives: depression

No Problem Too Big Or Small To Matter

Over the weekend I saw a post my daughter had written on social media about an experience our family had over the Thanksgiving holiday. It was a little thing that happened, but as I read her post I realized that the impact of that little thing is so much larger and ought to get shared, […]

Feeling Better Inward Takes Turning More Outward

Last week I spent a few days doing both speaking and mentoring session via video conferencing on Zoom with groups of students from multiple Universities across the country.   During that time I was serving those students I wasn’t worrying about the pandemic we are facing, or the riots still going on, or the wildfires, or […]

Some Good News

We’ve all spent the last few months hearing pretty much nothing but bad news…from the coronavirus pandemic, to earthquakes, tornadoes, wildfires, severe storms, stock market crashes, cancelled graduations, and on and on and on…with every news station full of stories of gloom and doom is it really that surprising that people are struggling with feelings […]

Why Me?

I started reading through things I’d written in past years Aprils to try and remind myself of what my Aprils used to be like before this pandemic. Ironically, the first thing I flipped to was an article I’d written back in April of 2013 that was published in Forbes, and when you read what I’d […]

Speaking Of A.D.D.

I have so many things to tell all of you about and yet each time I’ve tried to sit down to write a blog about them I get interrupted – From my husband being hospitalized unexpectedly last week, to me needing to fly to Washington DC this week for some really important meetings and to […]

You May Be The Very Person That Can Do It

“You were born with the ability to change someone’s life. Don’t ever waste it.” We often hear that we must help ourselves before we can help someone else, and to some extent I believe that to be true.  But I also find it to be true that one of the best ways to help ourselves […]

Beautiful People Don’t Just Happen

“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not […]

Time Heals Almost Everything, Give It Time

“Time heals almost everything, give it time.”  -Unknown  “How are you doing?” I asked.  My friend proceeded to tell me of the tremendous hardships she’s going through this week and then concluded by saying “Sorry you asked I bet.”  I wasn’t at all sorry I asked – I was grateful she trusted me enough to […]

From A Cloud Of Depression Into The Sunshine

“To press on in noble endeavors, even while surrounded by a cloud of depression, will eventually bring you out on top into the sunshine. – Ezra Taft Benson Ezra Taft Benson also suggests several things we can do to help pull us out of a cloud of depression and help bring us out into the sunshine: […]

Be The One To Provide Encouragement

To illustrate the message of today’s blog I have to first share a story someone sent to me years ago that goes like this: “Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room. One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from […]

Greater Than Our Fears, Our Doubts, Our Anxieties

All of us have moments of fear, doubt, anxiety, and loneliness in our lives. Some battle it only occasionally while others may deal with it on an ongoing basis, but I have yet to meet anyone who hasn’t dealt with those emotions in their life.  One of the most powerful talks on this subject was […]

God Doesn’t Care If You Serve In Marble Halls Or Stable Stalls

Today I had meetings with a non-profit organization called Bridle Up Hope that helps to build self-esteem and self-confidence in young women through teaching them to work with horses in combination with learning Sean Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens principles. This organization s making a huge impact in the lives of many young […]

Jesus Will Make It Grow Back

When my son Dalton was a little boy, for some reason he could not grow bangs.  His hair would grow on top and on the sides and in the back, but it just wouldn’t grow in the front.  So for the first few years of his life I kept him in baseball caps to disguise […]

Faith Will See You Through

In 1861, the same year the Civil War began, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow lost his wife when she was melting wax to preserve a few locks of her daughter’s hair in an envelope and her dress caught on fire. Henry tried to extinguish the flames with a rug and when that didn’t work he used his […]

The Difference One Very Determined Person Can Make

Today I had a luncheon and board meeting for the Stella H. Oaks Foundation board that I serve on.  The mission of the foundation is bringing hope to single moms through education. Let me explain why the foundation bears Stella’s name. Stella H. Oaks was a single mother of three after her husband died of […]

There Is No Shame In Admitting You Need Help

There is no shame in admitting you need help. In fact, your life will get so much better when you do. Between 9am and 10am this morning I got a phone call from my daughter who was calling from her college campus where she had arrived to her class building to find emergency responders and […]

An Evening With Josh Groban and Idina Menzel

Tonight I was able to attend Josh Groban’s AMAZING concert which had Idina Menzel as his opening performer. Talk about two amazing performers. It was seriously an amazing concert! If you get the chance to see it in your local areas I would highly recommend going…unbelievable show! What I was most impressed with was that […]

Happiness Is Living In The Moment RIGHT NOW! A message from a man with ALS

Earlier this year one of my dear friends, Warren Osborn who is also a very successful entrepreneur, was diagnosed with the fatal disease ALS.  The news rocked my husband and I because Warren is one of the most active, healthy people we know. He has a work ethic that is unmatched and he’s never afraid […]

Reframing How We View Social Media

“The opposite of depression is purpose.”  –(a blog post from Ashley, daughter of Amy Rees Anderson) There was a book I read as a child called “You Are Special” by Max Lucado that I think perfectly teaches this principle. It’s about a wooden doll named Punchinello, who lives in a town full of Wemmicks (other […]

You Can’t Depend On Your Eyes When Your Imagination Is Out Of Focus

“You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.” – Mark Twain Just as you can’t trust your eyes when your imagination is out of focus, you can’t trust your emotions when your body is physically spent.  Sometimes we get moving so fast and furious through life that the terrain we are […]

Keep On Keepin’ On

The weekend is just around the corner, which in and of itself is something to get excited about.  Some days things go fantastic and other days can be a struggle just to make it through. When times are tough the best thing to do is remind yourself to just keep on keepin’ on: Keep on Keepin’ […]

The Courage To Be Imperfect

“The fact is, every single one of us is a work-in-progress. We may be at different stages in life. We may have different strengths and weaknesses, but there isn’t a single person on the planet who hasn’t felt vulnerable or made mistakes. Nor is there a single person who couldn’t be better at something in […]

Combating The Winter Blues

I personally find the months after Christmas and before Spring starts tend to bring people down – it could be the lack of sunshine, or the miserably cold weather, or the ice covered slippery roads, or the cold and flu…this time of year it’s just really easy to feel a little down. At least it […]

We Can’t Control The Filters That Others Choose When They Look At Us

“We can’t control the filters that others choose when they look at us.” –Rachel Wolchin In the teenage years we tend to put tremendous focus on what others think of us and we often allow our self-worth to become dictated by what others think of us. Whether it’s having the person you like like you […]

Bitter or Better – It’s A Choice

Liz Murray grew up with parents who were both cocaine addicts. Her family ran out of food a few days into each month because her parents spent their welfare checks on feeding their drug addiction instead of feeding her and her sister.  So as young girls she and her sister would go from door to […]

Turning Weakness Into Strength

We were all born with our own unique challenges. Some physical, some mental, some circumstantial. Some all of the above.  But those challenges we were born with were never meant to hold us back, in fact, they were meant to help us become strong in the areas we would most need to be in order […]

Come What May, And Love It

Years ago someone gave me a little plate that reads, “Come what may, and love it.” It is a quote that came from a fantastic story told by a man named Joseph B Wirthlin in a talk titled the same in which he shared: “When I was young I loved playing sports, and I have […]

Stop and think of all the people to whom your actions have special significance

Tonight I was reading through some of my Grandmother’s old papers and I came across a talk she had written long ago. In this talk she discusses how people (especially young people) commonly say “What I do with my life is my own business and concerns no one else.” She points out that those who […]

“It Ain’t About How Hard You Hit, It’s About How Hard You Can Get Hit And Keep Moving Forward.”

“The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place, and I don’t care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard […]

Moments That Matter Most

Rather than writing much tonight I wanted to share a really short 3 minute video that has a message that is sure to inspire you today: And that says it all….perfectly…. Have a great day everyone! ~Amy Rees Anderson