Conversations with Cinthia

Happiness, Part 1: Who Can Be Happy?

We all want to be happy, so why don't we experience more happiness?  Is happiness determined by circumstances, genetics, actions, choice?  Cinthia shares fascinating research and insights on the role we play in our happiness and who has the potential to be happy.  Anyone struggling with clinical depression will appreciate that Cinthia's approach offers hope but does not include the assumption that happiness is easy for everyone.  Also, did you know smiling affects your brain and body chemistry?  

Friendship, Part 5: Friendship With God and Through God

An old hymn celebrates, "What a Friend we have in Jesus!"  Through Jesus, we enjoy the friendship of God, and we are called His friends.  Cinthia explains that this friendship with God is the fountain from which we learn to be a friend to ourselves and others.  Self-care is a good thing when it flows from our friendship with God, and it enables us to love others well.  But starting with efforts at self-love in hopes of then extending that love to God and others rarely has the outcome we desire.  Consider with Cinthia how to start with the Love that is perfect and model your relationships with self and others after His relationship style.

Friendship, Part 4: Bad Friends (What Not To Do)

What is it like to have you for a friend?  Is it possible that you sometimes devalue your friends without meaning to do so or even being aware that it's happening?  Sometimes it's really not them; sometimes it's us.  Explore with Cinthia whether you could make life with you a better experience for the people you call your friends.

Friendship, Part 3: Behaviors That Help Or Harm Friendships

Did you know that just having your phone on the table can lower the level of intimacy you have with the person or people in the room?  Sometimes we are not aware of the ways we hinder our friendships, or ways we could make them stronger.  Friends are sometimes closer than family, but friendships like that require time, presence, participation, and courage.  Cinthia explores attitudes and behaviors that support or sabotage true friendship.  

Friendship, Part 2: Good Friends, Best Friends

It's healthy to have different levels of intimacy with different people in our lives, and we can be kind to others regardless of how they treat us.  But what do we give and expect to receive in close friendships, as with a "best friend?"  Different kinds of relationships require different boundaries and different kinds of love.  Cinthia explores the kind of Friend we have in God and the kind of friend he calls us to be to Him and to others.

Friendship, Part 1: How Good A Friend Are You?

How healthy are your friendships?  Cinthia explains that the first step to forming healthier friendships is to be a good friend.  If you haven't thought about that since your Sesame Street days, it's time to re-examine what defines friendship and whether you are a good friend.  If you, like so many of us, are grateful for Cinthia's wisdom regarding romantic and family relationships, don't miss Cinthia's exploration of the kind of love God intends us to have for our friends.  There's another implication to this, as well: God calls us His friends.  How can we be better friends to Him and to others?

God and the World Cup: Guest Sergey Rakhuba, President of Mission Eurasia

You may have heard that Russia has recently passed very restrictive laws against evangelism.  But people there are still hungry for Jesus, and the Church is still alive!  Sergey Rakhuba discusses how Christians in Russia are now using church buildings as viewing centers for the World Cup, inviting friends, neighbors, and the general public to experience church buildings and the Church itself in a positive context.  As President of Mission Eurasia, Pastor Sergey describes the excitement many Russian Christians feel about the opportunity to cultivate relationships and "Kingdom conversations" in this context.  He reports plans to distribute 600,000 copies of Scripture and to reach 3,000,000 people with the Gospel.

Increasing Emotional Pain Tolerance

Our culture tends toward tolerating negative behavior but not tolerating negative feelings.  Cinthia explains that emotional adulthood actually involves the opposite.  She explores the boundaries that make this possible.  Cinthia also explains that complaining, whether mentally or aloud, often seems as if it will make us feel better; in reality, though, it tends to make us feel worse, with negative thoughts seeming to reproduce themselves exponentially as we complain.  Cinthia encourages us to work on rephrasing our thoughts and comments in ways that help us express our feelings without creating more pain for ourselves.  

Word Choice in Our Thought Lives

Maybe you've been listening to the episodes on good mental hygiene, and you're starting to understand how important thoughts are.  Maybe you're trying to make some general shifts in that department.  Cinthia encourages us to be even more intentional in this, paying attention to the little words that change the tone of our thoughts.  She also discusses the strategy of distracting yourself when battling certain thoughts becomes self-defeating.

Thoughts and the Truth

We've established that thoughts are incredibly powerful and that we have a high level of choice in how we manage thoughts once they pop into our brains.  Some thoughts can be very real, powerful, and seemingly valid to us without actually being true; consider an anorexic's belief that he/she is overweight.  How can we know the difference between thoughts that are very real for us and thoughts that are actually true?  And what do we do with untrue, unhelpful thoughts that continue to seem real?  Cinthia encourages us to take our thoughts to God and ask Him to test them against His own.  She also presents several practical exercises to help us manage unhelpful thoughts on a day-to-day basis.