Hope – Page 5 – Melissa Schlies

What To Do When Being At Home Is Hard

A friend of mine once told me that she hates spending too much time at home. When she was growing up, things were bad living with her parents. Home was not a good place to be. So now, as an adult, she’d rather spend her downtime outside of her own home—doing errands or being involved in activities. For her, being home means being still enough for all the hard things of her past to surface. Home is not always our place of comfort. Only now, that is where many of us are. We’re working from home or our jobs have [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-04-06T12:33:07+00:00April 6th, 2020|Categories: Anxiety, Conflict, Depression, Health, Hope, Mental Health, Self Care, Social Distancing|2 Comments

Five Ways to Approach Your Pandemic Grief

In the corner of our living room right now, there is a big stack of boxes. It had begun to form over a month ago, when our plans looked very different. Now, they’re a daily reminder that our lives have been put on hold. Tony and I were supposed to move this season. No, we haven’t found a house (though we came very close to putting an offer on one). But before Covid-19, we’d been actively looking. And as the boxes in our living room can attest, we were already packing. We were READY to move. Only now, everything is [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-04-01T23:16:50+00:00April 2nd, 2020|Categories: Acceptance, Change, comparison, Conflict, Depression, grief, Health, Hope, Lead, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, Mental Health|Comments Off

Finding Healing From Creativity

There’s this thing that happens when you make the most of a bad situation for longer than you should: once you leave, all the crappy stuff comes back to you. It doesn’t stay in the past, where you thought you left it. Instead it oozes out of you in the most inconvenient times. It weighs you down, in the very moment you’re ready to move forward. That’s exactly how I felt when I left church ministry. Just when I thought I’d made my escape, all the pain I hadn’t dealt with or even acknowledged, rose to the surface. And, as [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-03-19T18:24:31+00:00March 23rd, 2020|Categories: Creativity, grief, Health, Hope, Identity, Mental Health|Comments Off

What if We’re Homebound Because of COVID-19?

Hello Friends, this post was written very early in the Covid-19 pandemic. Since then, its implications and our understanding of them, have only grown. All that to say, there is so much this post doesn’t address (the loss of jobs, the stress on hospitals, etc.). But as many of us continue to practice social distancing, the spirit of this piece still stands. Just when we thought the world couldn’t get any crazier, a flu-like virus is shutting down entire countries and giving almost 300 million students an unexpected, scary spring break. Companies are asking employees to work from home, or at minimum, [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-03-24T16:03:48+00:00March 16th, 2020|Categories: Anxiety, Creativity, Fear, Health, Hope, Mental Health, Preparation, Self Care|Comments Off

A Single Person’s Bucket List

When I was in college, a relationship expert came to speak at our Chapel* one day. As the historical joke/motto for our school was to expect "a ring by spring” if you were dating someone, it seemed fitting. Though I went to college for my education (and maybe, to meet a boyfriend), many of my peers were already looking for a spouse. During the talk, the expert encouraged us to do something I’d never heard before: to write a list of the characteristics we wanted in the person we’d marry. To think long and hard about the qualities we wanted [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-02-06T15:39:52+00:00February 10th, 2020|Categories: Fear, Freedom, Hope, perseverance, Relationships, Self Care|Comments Off

Confession: I’m a Bad Neighbor

Last week, while I was working in our apartment, I started to hear these loud noises coming from the down stairs unit. At first I heard the pounding of a hammer. Then it sounded like the cabinets in the kitchen were being ripped out of the walls. I peaked out the window to find two maintenance vehicles parked outside. I shrugged my shoulders, and figured something went wrong with one of our neighbor’s appliances. Then, I went back to work. The next morning, I got a text from Tony: “Did you know our neighbors downstairs moved out?” I told him [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-02-06T00:20:34+00:00February 6th, 2020|Categories: Adulting, Change, Conflict, Friendship, Hope, Lead, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, Relationships|Comments Off

What The World Needs Now

A couple of weeks ago, I sat on my couch with my closest friend. With mugs of tea and coffee in our hands, she asked me about my writing. As January was rather busy and hard, I shared I didn’t know what I’d write about on the blog this month. Then offhandedly, I said: “Probably something about relationships as it is February.” Then I added, “But that feels so cliche.” As this is the month of Valentine’s Day, it is kind of the “month of love.” Yet joining the chorus of other bloggers and online magazines sharing tips on how [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-03-26T16:41:26+00:00February 3rd, 2020|Categories: Acceptance, Calling, Change, Conflict, Friendship, Hope, Relationships|2 Comments

Just What You (May) Need to Hear

It is the second to last day of January. How did that happen? I don’t know about you, but 2020 has already thrown me a few surprises. Some good, some really hard, and more than a few I am not ready for—yet here we are. And as much as my planner self hates to admit, there are only a few things we actually have control over in life. We can fill out our Start Here: Dream Planners, and come up with brilliant strategies for how we want to approach 2020. But that doesn’t mean everything is going to go to [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-03-26T16:40:25+00:00January 30th, 2020|Categories: Adulting, Balance, Change, Freedom, Health, Hope, Lead, Leadership, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, Mental Health, podcasts I love|Comments Off

In 2020, What If I Don’t Reach My Goal?

A few years ago, an author/influencer I follow was coming out with a new book. It would be her fourth or fifth one—yet the first of its kind. She had HIGH hopes for this book. She even told her followers that her dream was for it to make the New York Times Best Seller List. Only, when it released, Her book didn’t make it. She was crushed. And, as she had told all of her followers about her dream, she also had to tell them it didn’t come true. It’s almost like being a kid and telling your friends you’re [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-03-26T16:39:32+00:00January 27th, 2020|Categories: Adulting, Change, Courage, Failure, Fear, Habit Making, Hope, Making Decisions, perseverance, Start Here|Comments Off

Three Ways to “Practice” Life

When graduating high school or college, how many of us were ever asked, “What do you want to practice?” I am guessing that unless we were expected to pursue law school or medicine, the answer is—none of us. The question was usually, “What are you going to do now?” Doing and practicing have such different connotations. The first gives the impression that we’ve arrived in our occupation. While the second, seems to give permission to explore, improve, and even, mess up. I find it funny that the only adult careers where the word “practice” is used as a noun are [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-03-26T16:38:50+00:00January 23rd, 2020|Categories: Adulting, Freedom, Habit Making, Hope, Lead, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, Practice, Preparation, Routines, Success|Comments Off

Five Ways to Approach Your Pandemic Grief

Finding Healing From Creativity

What if We’re Homebound Because of COVID-19?

A Single Person’s Bucket List

Confession: I’m a Bad Neighbor

What The World Needs Now

Just What You (May) Need to Hear

In 2020, What If I Don’t Reach My Goal?

Three Ways to “Practice” Life

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