Need solutions for the medication, medical appliances and/or medical travel that you can't afford? READ EMPOWER Yourself.
A Health Information Management professional, I survived a life-threatening emergency with information that only a person of my professional experience would know. And I’m sharing it!
Showing posts with label mental health exercises. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mental health exercises. Show all posts
B'SD 4 Kislev, 5778 The skies and soil of Israel are filled with blessed rains. Somehow, rainy days let me ponder heartwarming thoughts better than on clear days. When a person needs to change the way they respond to setbacks or unhappiness, so that they can go forward, they need to pretend that they are feeling more positively than they do feel. Repeated practice lets a person gain insight into the emotions and insights of purposely positive behavior. Eventually those upbeat ideas become part of their thinking process.
Go ahead, earn some Oscars. Act as if you're the person you want to meet. Be heroic, kind, patient. Do that until the traits become your automatic responses to stress. Need a motivational thought to get you going? Try:
While I'm enjoying the freshness and fun of my fully functional Passover/Pesakh Mode kitchen, I'm taking time to respond to editors seeking my input for future online and print articles. I have exciting book reviews coming up and I'll be responding to Questions for Life Coaches. You can be sure that I'll share relevant publication news with you. Who knows? You might come across something that suits you, too! No matter which holiday you celebrate this season, spend time thinking over the significance of spirituality. It's purpose is to make us more compassionate, more willing to share our resources, and more resilient when we face hardships. Spirituality practiced correctly helps us to rise above our limitations. We can become wonderful, accomplished, insightful, nicer than we have been. My frequently used tool for helping someone is the Enneagram, a method for understanding the quirks of human personalities and the tools for working with them in productive ways. Here's a bit of insight on how I help people to deal with unhappiness, disappointment, pain and life in general: I had an amusing conversation with a therapist who asked me to help her to write a thesis about the wisdom of using the Enneagram. I replied "But I can do that in one sentence: You will learn that a person's characteristics are 'givens,' not a matter of good or bad, just 'givens' that can be dealt with in specific ways." After she gulped, I added "I am not advocating that personality, thought or mood disorders are acceptable. They are exceptions to the rule."
Certified in counseling skills and in spiritual chaplaincy (the ability to discuss end-of-life issues), I write for a mental health site at http://www.e-counseling.com/ I'm a life coach for ill people, helping them to identify the goals they need to reach, then to prepare a plan for achieving those goals. A former medical coder/Health Information Management professional, I'm well-versed in the medical world's ins and outs, acquainted with astonishing people and cutting-edge treatments. Certified in Counseling Skills, and one of the first certified EMETT leaders (I no longer lead EMETT groups), I have studied psychology throughout my adult life. Medical and mental health professionals have endorsed the EMPOWER Yourself book on and off the covers.
I maintain a database of ever-updated medical information to help people to connect with the medical professionals and medical care, appliances, medication, etc. that they need. I even clue people in on cost-cutting programs that pay all or some of their specific medical bills. The book's Global Resources section holds much of that information. Ready to figure out your health-oriented goals, and to set a plan for achieving them? Contact me at giveretgolani @ gmail.com. Buy the E-book or print edition of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge. Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity.
Face Your Future with Optimism.
Fill your time with meaningful thought and efforts.
B'SD 6 Tevet, 5776 I do 1:1 coaching with ill people, sometimes with perfectly healthy people. And they tend to come up with the same questions: "How will I know when I'm making progress?" and "How can I have a relationship with GOD, Who let this happen to me?"
My answer is to trust your heart.
Spirituality, and a relationship, are multifaceted experiences. Both are about transcending your limitations and becoming a better you. You know you're on the right track when you feel joy, a sense of satisfaction and the certainty of emotional growth, all at different times but sometimes all at once. Friends, family and colleagues might even give you some delightful feedback about the positive changes they notice in you.
Keep a journal (as suggested in theEMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challengebook). Note the times that you feel pain, agonized, uncertain, and when you feel the positive emotions. Talk to GOD out loud. Even a sigh will do. Life is a matter of balance. Do what you can to keep yours, and cherish the pleasant parts of life. They can keep us going past indescribable pain. Be sure to focus on what's going right, and especially on when it seems that GOD gave you a hug of some sort. Go on. Buy a notebook or use one sitting around somewhere in your home.
Record your accomplishments.
And enjoy them. Buy the E-book or print edition of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge. Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity.
Face Your Future with Optimism.
Fill your mind and heart with optimism. On purpose.
Remember the lessons in that Super-Better game? That Boo-Boo Barbie healing stunt that I pulled one Purim? Tomorrow I'll share insight into how some life lessons helped me to deal with a shock to my medical file - and to me - this past month. Buy the E-book or print edition of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge. Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity.
Face Your Future with Optimism. Face fear with a strategy to fight it down.
B'SD
18 and 19 Tevet, 5773
From time to time I share the privilege of hostessing theHaveil Havalim blog roundup aka
Carnival. Now that we Israelis have shaken off the Canadian winter that blew in here a week and a half or so ago, seen our municipal workers push MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF SNOW out of the way (sort of)
and enjoyed rising temperatures - our fingers thawed out and we can type! No more brain freeze-either. whew. Here we go with a majorly funny Snowball Effect - in a country without enough shovels (for snow and citizenry interested in clearing out some politicians):
Ariel ben Yohanan looks at traffic through a spiritual/archaeological lens at London/Washington & Nahum Barnea.
Jacob Richman sharespix of the recent Israeli snow storm remnants! No kidding? We had a snowstorm? I'm wiped out from sliding all over black or white ice. Slippery stuff. It was hard to see without electricity...
Ya'aqov HH assures me and you that, yes indeedy,Israelhad an Historic (DAMAGING) Snowstorm(sorry, school kids. You'll probably have to study the topic in your history books next time the new editions come out).
I'm sure that many HHers would like to join Ya'aqov HH and heave a GINORMOUS snowball at the guilty party over John Kerry's Persistence. Ruth Palatnik teaches us a thing or 2 about how to stick to your exercise/fitness goals no matter the weather or whatever in A Few Small Points. Ruth shares another life lesson At the
Toy Store (it's very much like those in the happiness videos I shared at this very blog days ago. Keep up with the class, kids! Ruth and I are on to to something good).
Hmm, what would an HH blog Carnival be without Batya Medad's involvement? Insufficient, to tell the truth. Here are her looks at life:BIG Country, Small Country
A word from our SPONSOR at this week's Torah portion, Parshat Shemot.
Need to cheer up over that medical or mental health issue in your life? Buy the E-book or print edition of doctor-recommended EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge. Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity.
Face Your Future with Optimism. Face life with increasing confidence, one baby step at a time.
One of the noticeable characteristics in EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge is the cheerful dialogue going on between the reader and the writer. Yes, readers keep letting me know that it seems they can hear me "speaking" to them about their concerns as they look at the book. They tell me that they feel more optimistic and energized while reading and after taking action on the suggestions in the text.
Why did I focus so much on the happiness and optimism factor when I wrote that reading material? Because negativity is like a nasty shovel. If you keep repeating the awful stuff going on in your life, it becomes something of a mantra. Not good. That repetitive recitation of your woes is flinging them into your immediate and long-term future. Happiness, and the potential for it, are literally buried under the pile. It's an image I learned from my dear friend, Penina Tal-Ohr.
Read the jokes and witticisms in the book and share them with loved ones, friends, and medical personnel - even your bus or taxi driver! Describe your future in ever-better terms, Count your blessings, announce your successes and focus on what's going right. Fling yourself into a nicer future with an optimistic attitude.
Practice makes perfect. It'll stop feeling fake after a while.
The Passover seder on Friday night was lovely and meaningful. The focus on freedom from any sort of slavery was uplifting. And I realized at the table that one form of slavery is the hyper-focus on medical/mental health issues that pretty much takes over the lives of some people. That can be prevented, though you're wondering "How?"
Let's look at that sudden or chronic condition
dominating your life, or your patient's, now.
There are far too many different topics that doctors and therapists are “supposed” to discuss with their patients. The expectation is not realistic. She or he lacks the time, energy and focus to hold your hand and to guide you through an increasingly large, complicated maze of medical options. Think about it: doctors are busy treating or operating on people, and documenting facts about their patients. They also attend meetings, continuing education classes to learn of newer drugs, newer procedures and newer laws. Plus, they wade through blizzards of licensure paperwork let alone medical records they must study, sign and understand.
Lives - and the quality of those lives - are on the line
Then the doctors and therapists are supposed to tend to their private lives without letting the stress of their work adversely affect their relationships. Being a medical or mental health professional is a time-consuming, gargantuan task! That presents serious doctor-patient relationship and quality of care issues to finesse on both sides of the bedrail or doctor's desk.
Patients are struggling to find out what they need to know, facing feelings of shame, despair, fear, rising and fallling hope. Just name the emotional complication - let alone the confusing, frightening and EXPENSIVE medical problems dominating their lives!
Social workers and case managers are available for explaining medical facts and options to patients, their friends and/or loved ones. Check out their reputations for competence before divulging your personal details and investing your hopes on people who might or might not be able to assist you or your loved one. You might need to work with someone else.
And when you’re ready
to help yourself too,
read and re-read
It's packed with valuable, hard-to-find information that I've shared with delighted social workers, medical and mental health professionals around the world. Some of them now own EMPOWER Yourself!
"Look at all these organizations
that pay for someone's
medical bills.
WOW this is helpful!"
“You’ve covered so much in
just one book. This is amazing.”
Patients, doctors and therapists worldwide are buying the book. You can, too. Buy the E-book or print edition ofEMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge today!
Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity.
Face Your Future with Optimism.
As the article indicates, learning any new task is good for your brain. Learn a language (even some of it, such as counting), a game, a hobby. The point is to have fun and to exercise your thinking power.
Learn how to laugh more despite the pain, fear and uncertainty in your life. Quick and convenient: E-book EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge can be yours when you click on http://www.booklocker.com/books/4244.html
Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism.
Medical setbacks can unravel your employment hopes, dreams and realities in awful ways. As a woman who has recovered from not one but several brain tumors and treatments to get rid of them, lots of physical and occupational therapy to recover from that, then a crushed elbow on my dominant arm and MORE physical-occupational therapy, I know from deep inside what you're feeling about medically-induced unemployment problems.
Today's post is for helping you to see things another way, and productively too. Here's a message I shared on LinkedIn, about unemployment problems for immigrants who don't speak Hebrew at all or even passably well. Please apply my insights to YOUR employment picture and make it as productive as possible:
Richard your comment about Torah Codes caught my attention. I wrote the first two installments of an espionage trilogy based on nevua [ed: Biblical prohecy] and Torah Codes in the USA. Part 2 was greatly revised and published soon after my aliya [ed: arrival in Israel], after I met with some Torah Code experts who shared information I had not known before. I had decided not to publish Part Three before my publisher asked me in some alarm if realize how closely headlines are following my plotline. I do not want readers to fear that I give ideas to bad guys, and sighed, "Now you know why the last part of the story isn't coming out."
Why share this with the list? Because I cured my unemployment problem with self-employment by re-writing the previously completed Part Two manuscript immediately after my aliya [ed: arrival in Israel]. I supported myself with odd jobs while advancing my Hebrew skills. I now assist people in medical and governmental settings (yeeesss, I have loads of patience and a keen insight into how to get productive, effective services from civil servants aka pakidim. I don't offer gurantees, but I have won some amazing successes for myself and other people).
I still dabble in journalism and focus on writing book reviews, a sedentary, calm activity for one de-frazzled chick trying to keep up with Israeli life. I provide writing services to clients, including occasional, small translation work.
Richard's right: think out of the box. Options exist such as Anglo employers here in Israel; offering goods & services to the Anglo Israeli commmunity; learning new skills, etc. All that is good for brain health and agility: my book and blog provide documented evidence of this.
Do things to promote your joi de vivre: treat yourself to something you don't usually induge in such as a food or activity. Listen to energizing, soothing and inspirational music, videos, art shows, etc. Be good to yourself and prevent the buildup of a negative mindset - THAT is a job prospects killer.
I'm working on two prospective employment models myself: 1) Launching the Refua Radio Show to help cholim [ed: ill people] worldwide with called-in requests for information and inspiration (I need sponsorships from medical businesses paying for ads and a means of broadcasting the show) 2) Creating and broadcasting humorous Public Service Announcements about how to behave with refined manners in Israel (giving your bus seat to pregnant women and older folks who need to sit down, not biking or scootering in front of pedestrians, providing all relevant information - maybe an insight or two - to clients and customers who prefer not to remain clueless... ). I handle scriptwriting. I need investors and accolades from public institutions before those PSAs go live.
The energy generated by pursuing and refining my goals is fun to experience and lots more appealing as a conversation-starter than "Omigawd, I still don't have a job."
Readers, rethink what you CAN do, despite your medical setbacks. Use computers as paralyzed people do (wands, blinks, etc.). Offer your insights to disability organizations, create plans of action for making employment possible and pleasant given medical circumstances.
I did everything I wrote of AFTER becoming legally blind, busted bones and all. My sight is still not considered normal and I function to the best of my personal ability. Mimic me. Let me know how you succeed and I just might let you guest-post on this blog.
And for goodness' sake, read my book to learn about organizations that HELP disabled people to live fuller lives ;^ )
Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism.
I'm relieved to know that people have been helped with my books and Self-Help Coaching. Readers comment to me and to their acquaintances that "It seems as if EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge is speaking directly to me, the reader!"
There's a reason I phrased the book's prose as I did. I use the same techniques in live sessions with coaching clients, bearing in mind that "... a major psychotherapy goal for all patients is to turn on coping routines on their own." It's a quote from the article cited below.
