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I started my journey of blogging in 2003 — mostly to capture what I called “transitioning life’s journey”.
In 2023 I took a 3 year break from blogging, but have decided to return to it. I hope you enjoy.
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Rhett Smith 99: Some Thoughts on Taking Next Steps In Your Life
Sometimes I have thoughts that I have been processing and I just want to explore out loud with others. In this case, the others is you. So in this episode I explore what it looks like to wrestle with taking the next step in your life, and how you discern what the next step is. […]
Rhett Smith 98: What Emotional Regulation Is, And Why It’s So Important
A couple of weeks ago, my colleagues and I at Thriiive Practices did a lecture for the Meadow’s lecture series on emotional regulation. What is emotional regulation? It’s essentially one’s ability to control or manage their automatic, reactive responses to an emotional trigger, and instead, respond accordingly (and in a healthy manner). That is my […]
Rhett Smith 97: Four Game Changing Books — Simply Your Life, Regulate Your Emotions, Practice Deliberately to Get Into the Flow, Work Deeply, and Perform for a Bigger Purpose
I read a lot of books, but I don’t consider myself the best book reviewer. Even though I read with pen in hand and underline and take notes throughout my books, I’m not great at writing about the details. But what sticks out to me are those big ideas in a book…the ones that you […]
Rhett Smith 96: A Transformative Roadmap for Therapy — For Those Who Have Been to Counseling and Those Who Haven’t
One of the things that I hear as a counselor a lot, typically near the end of an intake session with a client, is the question, “How is this going to look?” The question can be asked in a variety of ways, but what is implicit is usually either some form of anxiety over the […]
Rhett Smith 95: Pepperdine Bible Lectures — Reframing Anxiety as God at Work in Our Lives
This past May I had the opportunity to speak at Pepperdine University for the annual Bible Lecture’s series. It’s primarily a gathering of a combo of lay and professional ministry leaders, and as this event I was able to talk to them about one of my favorite topics…anxiety. Anxiety is a huge issue both in […]
Rhett Smith 94: Three Postures on the Forgiveness Journey
Several weeks ago I had the opportunity to share with the ReEngage Ministry at Hope Fellowship the topic of forgiveness. It’s such an important topic not only in all of our lives, but especially in the context of marriage where one’s ability to forgive becomes an essential practice. In fact, forgiveness is the only topic […]
Rhett Smith 93: Understanding and Taking Care of You: Work, Relationships, and Self-Care
A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to speak to a group of employees for Marriott Hotels here in the local Dallas area. It was a great opportunity to help others understand how to have healthy relationships in and out of the work place by beginning to take care of themselves. So in this […]
Rhett Smith 92: What Are You Holding Onto, That Is Holding You Back?
I have shared in previous episodes that the journey through Lent has been one of the most helpful things I have done for my faith. And as we finished Lent this last week, culminating in Easter yesterday, I wanted to take a few moments to reflect on the next steps. As we work on embracing […]
Rhett Smith 91: Creating Space for Silence During Lent
We live in a culture that continually inundates us with noise. That noise comes in all kinds of forms. Advertising, entertainment, technology, etc. Sometimes we are passive observers of it as we have little control over what billboards are placed in front of us as we drive down the road. Other times we are active […]
Rhett Smith 90: Creating Space During Lent to Reflect on Pain and Suffering
This week’s episode is somewhat of a continuation of Episode 89 where I reflected on the role of Lent in helping us process pain and suffering, and as a time to work through trauma. That is, Lent is a period of remembering that is important for us if we are to work through our suffering. […]
Rhett Smith 89: Lent, Trauma, and Remembering
I have been thinking a lot about the Lent season, which is appropriate since Ash Wednesday was yesterday. Here is what I posted on Facebook last night: Over the next 40+ days I am going to take some time to reflect on some of the things I am exploring around Lent, trauma and remembering. I […]
Rhett Smith 88: Fostering the Varied Types of Intimacy in Relationships
This last weekend I led a class on fostering intimacy in marriage to a group of premarital couples. I love doing this work, but intimacy can be a complicated issue. When we think of intimacy in our culture we often think of sex, or at least physical intimacy to say the least. But the reality […]
Rhett Smith 87: Creating Space for Grief After a Death
I have been wanting to talk on the topic of grief and loss for quite a while. I was going to wait to do an episode with my father since that has been a big part of his professional life as a pastor and hospice chaplain. But in light of some recent events in our […]
Rhett Smith 86: Navigating the Chaotic Path to Affair Recovery
If I had to take a guess, I would guess that at least 50-60% of every couple that I work with is in my office because of an affair. Affairs come in varied forms from the physical to the emotional and everything in between. And affairs don’t discriminate based on gender, race, or age. In […]
Rhett Smith 85: Insight + Practice = Transformational Flow
One of the things that I have come to believe through my work with clients, and through my own personal work, is that insight alone is usually not enough to create change. That insight has to be coupled with practice, and lots of it to create the change, and ultimately the transformation we desire. We […]
Rhett Smith 84: Emotional Regulation, Boundaries and Anxiety in the Age of Online Political Discourse
So I am not one to talk much about politics…at least online. There are several reasons for this. 1) I feel a bit naive on the subject matter and not as fluent in political knowledge and conversation as I would like to be. 2) I’ve rarely seen political discussion online lead to anything positive. So […]
Rhett Smith 83: A Wholistic Paradigm for New Year Goal Setting
I decided to take about a 6 week break from the podcast to focus on my work and family as we entered into a very busy holiday season. It was good to take a break from the podcast as I focused on the New Year ahead. I’m not sure what the podcast will look like […]
Book Reading in 2016
So I took a totally opposite approach to book reading in 2016 than I have in years past, and I’m going to take it into 2017 as well. And in 2017 I plan on re-reading a lot more of the authors and books that I love. In the past 17 years I have primarily read […]
Rhett Smith 82: Seven Books to Transform Your Marriage
One of the most common questions I get is about what marriage book I might recommend. That is a tough question in some ways because there are so many books out there, and every person responds to a certain book differently. So it’s hard to be too prescriptive on this topic. But I can tell […]
Rhett Smith 81: Making Your Marriage a Priority in a Culture of Busyness — Assessing Marital Drift and Strategies to Keep Your Marriage on Course
Last week I had the privilege of speaking to one of my favorite groups…MOPS. In this case it was the MOPS group at First Baptist Frisco which is an awesome group I have had the opportunity to speak to before (as well as their MOMSnext group). And as I was thinking about what topic to […]