relationships

Love II: Temperamental Love

Oct 30, 2021

—

by

Ron Johnson

in Development, emotional maturity, feelings, love, Personality, relationships, self-awareness, Spiritual

Three quarters of a century ago C.S. Lewis wrote The Four Loves, a book that has been quite popular in Christian circles over many decades of the 20th century. Lewis suggested that there are four different kinds of love, three of them decidedly biblical and the fourth implicitly biblical. He suggested that there is empathy,…
Why Did She Leave Me?

Sep 12, 2021

—

by

Ron Johnson

in Development, Discovery, emotional maturity, feelings, marital, men’s issues, mindfulness, relationships, self-awareness

My wife left me…again. Yesterday. Bummer? Not exactly. She has a tendency to leave me every now and then. She loves to go to “her canyons” in UT and hike. Sometimes she has dragged me along or allowed me to travel and hike with her. Once she left me and went to Portugal to hike.…
The Challenges of Honesty, Openness, and Truth

May 31, 2021

—

by

Ron Johnson

in communication, Development, emotional maturity, feelings, mindfulness, Personality, relationships, self-awareness, social esteem, Spiritual

I am no philosopher, but like all people, I delve into the medium and art of philosophy unavoidably as we all do. I am certain that philosophes could be bemused by my meanderings in their territory with my minimal training and understanding of such things. I am often bemused by people meandering into the realm…
Crazy is Contagious

Jan 15, 2021

—

by

Ron Johnson

in communication, emotional maturity, feelings, mindfulness, political, relationships, self-awareness

I heard the statement, “crazy is contagious” from a colleague of mine when I told him about an experience I had recently had with a patient. It got me thinking. “Crazy” is not by any means a part of my vocabulary, nor are other typical terms when we think of the challenges that people have…
Intention and Production

Jan 2, 2021

—

by

Ron Johnson

in communication, Personality, political, relationships, self-awareness, Spiritual

It is important to produce. It is equally important to intend to produce. But these two ways of engaging the world are profoundly different, a difference we might call spiritual. I conceive of these elements of psychological life on a spectrum with purpose in the center of the spectrum, something like this: Intention…………..……….……Purpose…………………………..Production ______________________________________________________________________________ This…
Different Kinds of “I’m Sorry”

Nov 16, 2020

—

by

Ron Johnson

in appreciation, communication, emotional maturity, feelings, grief, relationships, self-awareness, social esteem, Spiritual

“I’m sorry:” a very important statement. Very, very important. Most people should be able to express these words at least once a day, and possibly several times a day. But what does “I’m sorry” mean, or more accurately what can it mean? For some reason “I’m sorry” has fallen into disuse in America, and perhaps…
You Taught Me How to Love You

Nov 11, 2020

—

by

Ron Johnson

in appreciation, feelings, mindfulness, relationships, Spiritual

I knew a therapist who composed a song with this title in reference to his own therapist. This song reflected how his therapist had, indeed, taught him how to love. Recently, I had an experience with a patient that reminded me of a person who served as a therapist for me albeit in a somewhat…
Wordiness, Wordlessness, and Wordness

Oct 10, 2020

—

by

Ron Johnson

in communication, feelings, Personality, relationships

Many people have trouble with words. In fact, it is my belief that every human being has trouble with words despite the fact that words are so central in human functioning and seemingly essential in interpersonal relations of any kind. We might say that the (scientific) difference between animals and humans is that humans have…
Good for Me; Bad for Me VII: Good for Me; Bad for You

Aug 17, 2020

—

by

Ron Johnson

in emotional maturity, family, feelings, mindfulness, relationships, self-awareness, social esteem

My wife likes masks. I don’t. So what does this have to do with “good for me; bad for me”? Lots. Let me explain, but first let me review what I’ve been writing about in recent blogs. I have proposed that there is a spectrum of things that are, quite simply, “good for me” or…
Good for Me; Bad for Me V: Discerning Good for Me

Jul 21, 2020

—

by

Ron Johnson

in appreciation, emotional maturity, feelings, happiness, mindfulness, relationships, self-awareness

This is the fifth of a series of blogs on things that are, simply put, “good for me” or “bad for me.” We have previously made a case for the value of using the terms “good for me” and “bad for me” but with discernment as to how much something is either good or bad…