relationships

The Essential Ingredients of a Good Relationship

May 18, 2019

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by

Ron Johnson

in appreciation, emotional maturity, feelings, marital, positive psychology, relationships, self-awareness

I suspect you have some ideas of what a good relationship looks like. Certainly, you would identify love as a central ingredient, and perhaps things like honesty, commitment, trustworthiness, or family connections. You might think a good relationship should be composed of good communication, lots of play, or lots of work. I agree that a…
Temperament VII: Lovers: Challenges and Opportunities

Apr 29, 2019

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by

Ron Johnson

in appreciation, Connection, emotional maturity, feelings, marital, mindfulness, Opportunity, Personality, relationships, self-awareness, social esteem

This is the seventh of a series of nine blogs on “temperament.” Previously, I have discussed the four temperaments that we have used to understand people for the past nearly 50 years. As we have defined these four temperaments, we identify players, lovers, analysts, and caretakers. Briefly stated, players seek experience, lovers seek connection, analysts…
Feelings X: Let Me Tell You About My Feelings

Mar 4, 2019

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by

Ron Johnson

in feelings, mindfulness, positive psychology, relationships, self-awareness, social esteem

Remember Far Side cartoons created by Gary Larsen? They were often with animals having some sense of human feelings, often a deeper sense than many humans actually have. Or, Larsen would have a group of people allegedly thinking or doing something that was an exaggeration of some human tendency. I miss Far Side. The cartoons…
Temperament IV: Lovers

Jan 24, 2019

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by

Ron Johnson

in Connection, feelings, Personality, positive psychology, relationships, self-awareness

This is the fourth in a series about “temperament” in which we are discussing the idea of temperament as a way of understanding personality and the behavior that results from one’s personality. Acknowledging that there are many ways of understanding personality, we propose that there are four primary temperaments that give us a general orientation…
One taxi, two taxi, three taxi then four. Taxi (Life) Lessons in Portugal

Nov 6, 2018

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by

Deb Brock

in appreciation, Connection, Discovery, emotional maturity, feelings, grief, happiness, mindfulness, morality, Opportunity, positive psychology, relationships, self-awareness, Spiritual

Taxis: the good, the bad, and the ugly When Ron and I travel in a foreign country, we rarely use taxis, so the whole experience of using them is a bit “foreign” to me. We’re usually driving, riding the train, or just walking. But when I recently went to Portugal by myself, I had planned…
Life of Ryan III: Family

Oct 29, 2018

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by

Ron Johnson

in Connection, family, feelings, mindfulness, relationships, self-awareness

(This is the third in a series of “Ryan,” a patient of mine who has MS. I serve as his amanuensis.) I love my family. That is for sure. There is nothing that is more important to me than my family. I think of them daily, if not hourly. I think of my wife. I…
The “we” of me

Sep 21, 2018

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by

Deb Brock

in appreciation, Connection, emotional maturity, family, feelings, grief, mindfulness, relationships, self-awareness, Spiritual

2:37 AM; September 20, 2018 I haven’t been sleeping well. Not since I booked Portugal. By day I am excited and mindful of my internal excitement of a new space, a new trail, a new breath in my senses, especially sight and sounds while I hike. At night however, when I lie beside my beloved…
Feelings VII: It’s Not All About Hurt

Sep 9, 2018

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by

Ron Johnson

in appreciation, emotional maturity, happiness, mindfulness, positive psychology, relationships, self-awareness, Uncategorized

How odd it must seem to start this blog with what seems like a contradiction to the title of the previous blog, “It’s All About Hurt.” All about hurt? Not all about hurt? What am I trying to say? I am saying that both are true, however paradoxical that sounds. In Feelings 6 we talked…
Feelings 6: It’s All About Hurt

Sep 8, 2018

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by

Ron Johnson

in emotional maturity, feelings, mindfulness, positive psychology, relationships, self-awareness

We have talked about the phenomenon of hurt in previous “Feelings” blogs, primarily in Feelings: 2 (Expressing Feelings), but it behooves us to return to hurt and unpack it a bit. I will cover the following things about “hurt”: Hurt is another of the important undefinable words that we can have an understanding about without…
Mind Over Matter III: Mind Over Brain

Jul 23, 2018

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by

Ron Johnson

in emotional maturity, feelings, happiness, mindfulness, positive psychology, relationships, self-awareness, social esteem

This is the third blog in the Mind over Matter series. Previously, we discussed the theory involved in understanding the different functions of the mind and the brain. We discussed in Mind over Matter II how the brain creates anger, anxiety, and depression in order to provide safety for people. In this discussion we want…