Last week, I started writing a list of things that are not serving me right now and decided to make a plan to chip away at them.

It wasn’t a long list, but it was a good exercise. You should try it. Three of the big “non servers” that came up for me […]

Last month, my husband Mark ordered a chess set. He was inspired to start playing again after we watched The Queen’s Gambit, a great Netflix series based on the life of chess prodigy Beth Harmon.

We generally are not “game people”. In fact, we’ve been known to roll our eyes when friends suggest […]

By Linda Quon

Brian Carmack lives a full and busy life. As a husband, father of 9 children, graduate student and lead pastor of Eastside Foursquare Church in Prineville, he talks openly about the joys and stresses that come with following your passions.

With five biological and four adopted children, Carmack and his wife […]

I’ve been #$%@*&! like a sailor.

I don’t know if sailors really swear more than the rest of us, but lately I’ve been swearing up a storm. Now, when I say more than usual, that means a lot. My close friends know that I’m not shy about dropping a therapeutic F-bomb on occasion. It […]

For a while now I’ve been writing blogs for Mind Your Mind Central Oregon and they’ve been from my perspective.

I feel honored to have the opportunity to share my personal experiences and wonderings with you. At the same time, I’m just one voice from our tri-county area. Our Mind Your Mind Central […]

They say that the most important meal of the day is breakfast.

It gives your body the fuel it needs to start the day right. So it seems to make sense that the most important “mental meal” is first thing in the morning. My “mental breakfast ritual” helps me mind my mind every […]

I know it’s hard to talk about minding our minds when it feels like the world is falling apart around us.

The loss and heartbreak of the wildfires in Oregon (and California and Washington) are devastating our families, friends and neighbors in surrounding communities. It’s feeling impossible to process this disaster on top […]

Lately I’ve been feeling like a hypocrite.

For all of my writing about the importance of talking to others about depression and anxiety, I’m struggling to be a compassionate listener. Someone close to me has been living with significant anxiety and depression for more than two years. I started out in mostly the […]

Hello, my name is Mark and I’m a pessimist.

This is how I used to ask girls out on a date when I was in high school:

“You wouldn’t want to go out on a date with me, would you?”

When they said no, as they usually did, I would reply:

“I didn’t think so.”

I’ve found […]

Sometimes, you just gotta get away.

Away from the news.

Away from social media.

Away from fireworks.

Away from tourists.

Away from politics.

Away from….everything.

That’s what we did on July 4th. We packed up the truck and headed out to BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land. It was just for one night, but it was peaceful, beautiful […]