Scholtes-Blog

Category: Mental Health

  • First, Rest: Story of a Retreat (Part Two)

    First, Rest: Story of a Retreat (Part Two)

    I recently went on a silent retreat at Holy Cross Monastery in West Park, New York. Holy Cross Monastery is a Benedictine monastery in the Anglican Communion, and is affiliated with the Episcopal Church. A number of monks reside there, and the primary ministry of the monastery is to provide for individual and group retreats,…

  • First, Rest: The Story of a Retreat (Part One)

    First, Rest: The Story of a Retreat (Part One)

    I recently went on a silent retreat at Holy Cross Monastery in West Park, New York. Holy Cross Monastery is a Benedictine monastery in the Anglican Communion, and is affiliated with the Episcopal Church. A number of monks reside there, and the primary ministry of the monastery is to provide for individual and group retreats,…

  • Charms to Soothe

    Charms to Soothe

    So I’ve mostly given up on learning the theremin. As I wrote on here before, my Christmas present this year was a digital theremin, quite possibly the most intriguing musical instrument there is. You play it with your hands, but without touching it! You wave your hands carefully near it, and it makes haunting music…

  • Rhythm of Resilience – The Weeklies

    Rhythm of Resilience – The Weeklies

    A few days ago, I posted about my Rhythm of Resilience, a collection of habits I’ve developed and committed to. It is my hope that doing these things regularly will help keep my resilience up so that I can more easily weather the mental health storms that come my way. It’s kind of regular set…

  • Conducting the Symphony 2: The Vision

    Conducting the Symphony 2: The Vision

    A few days ago, I had a vision during my morning devotions. I was reading Psalm 148, which includes lines like this: Praise the Lord!Praise the Lord from the heavens;    praise him in the heights! 3 Praise him, sun and moon;    praise him, all you shining stars! 7 Praise the Lord from the earth,    you sea monsters and all deeps,8 fire…

  • Conducting the Symphony 1: The Theremin

    Conducting the Symphony 1: The Theremin

    So I have a new toy — I received a theremin for Christmas. If you’re not familiar with theremins, they are (in my opinion) the coolest musical instrument ever created. It’s an electronic instrument that was invented in the 1920s, and it is played with your body, but without touching it. If you’ve never heard…

  • Rhythm of Resilience – The Daily W’s

    Rhythm of Resilience – The Daily W’s

    Some weeks ago, my therapist suggested something, and it’s stuck with me since. We were talking about how easily I slide into depression, and he said something like, “Do you think there might be an addictive component here?” He wasn’t diagnosing. He wasn’t accusing. He was just speculating. But it’s been a very fruitful avenue…

  • Catching the Backslide

    Catching the Backslide

    It’s been a while since I blogged anything but a sermon. I want to break this silence, and as I thought about what to write about, it occurred to me that some of you shared that you appreciated my openness and honesty about the experiences I’d had at Alternatives, the partial hospitalization program I attended…

  • My Two Wolves

    My Two Wolves

    There’s an old story I’ve heard many times throughout my life. I encountered it again a few days ago at the Alternatives Partial Hospitalization program. It’s a story that’s sometimes called “The Two Wolves.” It goes something like this: An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,”…

  • I Accept the World Around Me

    I Accept the World Around Me

    Yesterday, I blogged about radical acceptance (a concept from dialectical behavioral therapy), the practice of choosing to accept reality as it is, rather than getting upset or angry about how things are. It doesn’t mean that we approve of this reality, or even that we choose to passively do nothing about it – it just…