We hope you enjoy these helpful resources for your family:

1. The Gift of Stories: We have lost habits of story-telling and of generational sharing. What better time to make space for story-telling and life-sharing than during the Christmas season? This article (click HERE) from the Institute for Family Studies (IFS) encourages us to revive the positive practice of telling stories. What a great opportunity to do it around the dinner table during the holidays.

2. 3 Types of Normal Forgetting — and 1 That Isn’t. Do you find yourself not remembering where you put your phone? (Been there.) Or blanking on the name of the cafe in Friends?  Author and neuroscientist Lisa Genova tells you which memory blips to shrug off and when you may want to talk to your doctor. Interesting information from IDEAS.TED.COM (click HERE).

3. Resourceful Faith: Latinas are known for their spirit of service, adopting a loving and caring role while working tirelessly to help provide, lift, and support their family, often in creative ways. In this article (click HERE) from IFS, Alicia E. La Hoz shares some very valuable insights and ideas, particularly for those who work with Latino populations.

4. Living a Happy Single Life: More Americans than ever before are single–about half of American adults are unmarried and close to 3 in 10 are not in a committed relationship. Geoff MacDonald, PhD, of the University of Toronto, joined APA’s Speaking of Psychology podcast to talk about how relationship status is related to well-being, whether there is a societal stigma against singles, and why there is so much more research on being in a happy relationship than there is on being happily single. This is an interesting podcast (click HERE) (you can also read the transcript) from the American Psychological Association in which Geoff MacDonald, PhD, professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, where he leads the MacDonald Social Psychology Research Laboratory, speaks about the advantages of being single. Of course, this is from a secular point of view, but it still has some value.

 

Abraham Swamidass, Family Life Ministries Coordinator