by Rhett Smith | Feb 28, 2021 | Intentional Living, Podcast
“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” Pierre Teilhard de Chardin I’m definitely no expert on the topic of fasting, but I have been experimenting with it for a few years, and...
by Rhett Smith | Apr 3, 2020 | Leadership, Videos
Leaders are under a lot of stress these days during the uncertainty of COVID-19. Stress in their own lives. Stress in trying to navigate how to manage and effectively lead those that are around them. Here are a few ideas that I think are helpful for leaders during...
by Rhett Smith | Jan 10, 2018 | Anxiety, Podcast
The new near can bring forth a lot of varying emotions from people. In my experience, a large number of people come into the new year very excited about change and all the potential possibilities that await them. It’s often a time to start anew. But there is...
by Rhett Smith | Oct 2, 2017 | Podcast, Restoration Therapy, Therapy Practice
This is a very short podcast episode, but it’s a really important one. One of the most important tasks I have in the counseling room is to help people to discern between what their feelings and coping behaviors are. In fact, I spend a lot of time helping people...
by Rhett Smith | Aug 3, 2017 | Marriage, Podcast, Restoration Therapy
A couple of weeks ago, my colleagues and I at Thriiive Practices did a lecture for the Meadow’s lecture series on emotional regulation. What is emotional regulation? It’s essentially one’s ability to control or manage their automatic, reactive...
by Rhett Smith | Apr 4, 2017 | Faith, Podcast
We live in a culture that continually inundates us with noise. That noise comes in all kinds of forms. Advertising, entertainment, technology, etc. Sometimes we are passive observers of it as we have little control over what billboards are placed in front of us as we...
by Rhett Smith | May 24, 2016 | Mental Health, Podcast
I’ve noticed over the last few months a growing anger and frustration within me. This has been very disheartening. Because I think if you were to ask my close friends and family, the word anger and frustration wouldn’t typically be associated with me. But...
by Rhett Smith | Sep 9, 2015 | Podcast
It is not unusual for me to be sitting across from a man in my therapy office as he relays to me the story about when he first learned that it was not okay for boys to cry. It is usually a very powerful moment. I have heard men of all ages and backgrounds tell this...
by Rhett Smith | Jun 9, 2014 | Men
“If you cry again I am going to take you back home!” That is what I told my almost 4 year old son on Wednesday night around 8:00pm. We were riding bikes and he was in that overtired state where he could hardly contain his emotions. He was crying. He was...
by Rhett Smith | Dec 2, 2013 | Men
No Weak Men Allowed….I think that is the message that men hear from the time they are little boys all the way through the rest of their lives. I know I have heard that message. I know the men I work with have heard that message. It may come from parents,...
by Rhett Smith | Sep 17, 2013 | Parenting
“It’s very important that kids learn about and understand their feelings. But it’s also true that feelings need to be recognized for what they are: temporary, changing conditions. They are states, not traits…… So we have to help them...
by Rhett Smith | Aug 27, 2013 | Parenting
This last week we talked about the importance of integrating the upstairs brain with the downstairs brain, and strategy #4 continues with along this same theme. I love the idea in The Whole-Brain Child that “The upstairs brain is like a muscle; when it gets...
by Rhett Smith | Aug 12, 2013 | Parenting
Last week I posted on Strategy #2 of The Whole-Brain Child, which is Name it to Tame It: Telling Stories to Calm Big Emotions. But since I posted that blog I’ve had a few people ask me if I could expound on this strategy in more detail by giving an example. As I...
by Rhett Smith | Jul 29, 2013 | Parenting
My wife Heather and I often look at things from a very different perspective. It’s not surprising that opposites attract, but sometimes those opposites can begin to push people in two different directions. It didn’t take us very long into our dating life...
by Rhett Smith | Apr 25, 2013 | Men
I’m currently working on an article for the Fuller Youth Institute on boys and emotions — more specifically how we as a culture tend to sabotage boy’s emotions — making it unsafe for them to express them. As I’ve been editing this...
by Rhett Smith | Mar 28, 2013 | Marriage
“Thanks to a series of influential research studies, the things people who succeed in intimate relationships do differently from those who fail have been discovered by researchers. One of the most important differences involves how people react when they...
by Rhett Smith | Nov 16, 2012 | Men
“Helping boys and men learn how to be both tender and tough, strong and bighearted, is a new ideal that will take some time to digest. But, having worked with men day in and day out for decades, I know from experience that they can reclaim the language of...
by Rhett Smith | May 23, 2011 | Marriage
“Many years ago I was driven to the conclusion that the two major causes of most emotional problems among Christians are these: the failure to understand, receive, and live out God’s unconditional grace and forgiveness; and the failure to give out that unconditional...
by Rhett Smith | Feb 22, 2011 | Leadership
It seems that everyone is searching for ‘authenticity’ in their leaders. At least a younger generation of people are wanting this ‘authenticity’. In fact, Thomas Rainer who co-authored The Millennials: Connecting to America’s Largest...