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!
B'SD 7 Tishrei, 5778 I had a very long, busy day yesterday, helping other people to accomplish their tasks. While I was busy I realized that, despite the upbeat spiritual messages of the new year, some people simply don't believe that they deserve goodness. A guilty conscience might bother them, a feeling of inadequacy, or something else. Regardless of the negative thoughts in your head, the fact is that new beginnings are fresh starts, clean slates and packed with potential.
There are pages and pages of "End your sense of guilt" in
There's plenty of laugh-out-loud content on those pages, too.
READ THEM for your peace of mind.
Need one more boost? Emotional Freedom Technique aka EFT is a blessing to humanity. Follow the can-do instructions in this video. and open your heart, mind and soul to an ever-better future. 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 efforts with practice. That's what it takes to believe in yourself.
B'SD 27 Elul 5774 I've been rushing around the country this past month, interviewing for employment since I passing my final exams in ICD-10 medical coding. If you need to remember what that means, here you go: I am skilled in translating a patient's medical records into specific alpha-numeric codes created by the World Health Organization. Medical researchers and medical insurance professionals use those codes in their work. People such as me save them hours and hours of time by reducing lengthy text into succinct coded summaries of exactly why someone needed medical care and which care they received. OK, back to my life. It's been a tiring, time-consuming, EXPENSIVE and hectic effort mixed with fun social events. Now I'm preparing for the start of the Jewish New year aka Rosh HaShana. Care to join me in reading a wonderful, heartwarming essay about Rosh HaShana? It's atA Holy Family. Here are some FYIs about the Jewish New Year:
Medical, emotional and mental health (financial, etc.) problems can make life seem unappealing. Holidays tend to make everything, including you, seem to be worse off. The reality, though, is that it's a matter of regaining a neutral - or even better - a POSITIVE perspective on the situations before you. The fun part of the Torah-oriented point of view is that GOD/HaShem gives us still more chances to get things right. Life is literally a do-over. I wish you a sweeter life, and perspective, in the new year 5775. 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 yourself with emotional strength. It's a lifelong process - and it pays off well.
B'SD 10 Nisan, 5773 I'm certified in Counseling Skills and as a Melavah Holim (a sort of spiritual chaplain). I'm always interested to find out how upbeat people remain that way despite life's hardships. I long to help others to make the breakthrough that gets them to indulge their Inner Totally Decent Self (ben adam in Hebrew) with ever-improving efforts to be Better Than Ever. I use humor to put clients and friends at ease. It often works. I'd like to find out how you improve yourself. Willing to let me in on the secret before or after Easter weekend and Passover? Please share your comments below so other people can grow ;^ D
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. Learn to like what you see in the mirror.
B'SD 5 Adar, 5773 I've heard people grumbling that this or that person does not appreciate "What I did for them!" Well, I have a soothing story to calm you down. It goes like this:
An old, emaciated beggar walked into
an ancient town, weakly begging for food. Alarmed citizens searched their
cupboards, though they too, were poor.
One home owner offered dried out crusts of bread.
Another brought leftover porridge.
The contributions went on and on, meager as they were. Everyone
was sad that the poor fellow remained hungry. Until...
One little child ran to the town square, delightedly holding out a
delicious, fresh-baked pastry that had been hidden away for dinner that night.
The hungry man gratefully bit into the food and chewed
appreciatively. The he let out a sigh of contentment.
"YOU're a hero!" the townspeople cried as they lifted
the child to their shoulders for an impromptu parade.
The child chortled with happiness, unable to express a sense of
feeling so appreciated. But...
The townspeople who'd surrendered their own meager scraps felt unhappy. They had nothing to show for having lost their needed food, and it
sure didn't seem to matter to the once-hungry beggar.
Ah, but the now-satiated man looked about and called for
everyone's attention. "I want you to know," he grandly announced,
"That the fresh pastry the child gave to me is not only what saved my life. It
is the food that all of you gave to me. Little by little, you filled my
completely empty belly. There was only a smidgen of space left, and the pastry
filled it. My strength is restored thanks to each and every one of you!"
That put a different perspective on things. Everyone in the
town stood straighter, smiled a bit more brightly and shared a sense of
unanimous joy.
Hang on to the fable when you feel hurt that someone let you down with insufficient appreciation for your hard efforts. Share it whenever you wish (please use the link to this blogpost!) Have a soothing weekend! Sad about your medical, disability or mental health situation? Cheer up with humor-filled E-book or print edition EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge. Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity.
Face Your Future with Optimism. Find ways to comfort yourself. Doing something for others is one delightful way to start.
B'SD 23 Kislev, 5773 It's been a busy week for me. I've been interacting with the family of a four-year old undergoing another round of chemotherapy. The mother of a young man blinded in an accident has spoken with me at length about the medical professionals and medical treatments I've suggested to them. One of my role models is battling kidney cancer. The list of heartaches goes on. All of the emotion invested in that has been taking a toll on me. I took my own advice and indulged in some humor with friends. I also walked out into some sunshine, rejoiced in the fresh, clean air, pretty sky, and appreciated all the beauty and bounty available to mere mortals for free:
Air
Scenery
Friends to chat with as I stroll about or almost any time.
The ability to decide what mood I'm in and which mood I'll work on.
Counting various blessings in my life (so many I can't count that high!)
Think of this health-promoting thought when you're feeling down, "The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live." Norman Cousins coined that phrase. It means that we owe it to ourselves to replenish our emotional and spiritual batteries as necessary. Your sense of delight and joy in life does not need to wither. Nurture it with all your might. Do what you can to refresh your spirits and someone else's when medical, mental health or disability diagnoses get you down. If you need more ideas about how to do that, or how to deal with critics who condemn your negative emotions when they arise, share this idea with the people before you: "A medical crisis - you'd cry too, if it happened to you." That's what I responded when someone told me years ago that I had no right to cry from learning of a long gone and formerly fatal brain tumor. Use your tissues and handkerchiefs with my blessings borne of experience. GOD gives you Permission to Weep. And you can say that to any critics after explaining that "It's MY Crisis! And I'll Cry if I Need To." Your license to cry appears on pages 4 and 5. Stories to make you laugh out loud appear in subsequent chapters. Get your grin back despite what's going on. Buy the E-book or print edition today for a brighter look at life and the holiday season: Click on the words EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge. Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity.
Face Your Future with Optimism.
As a woman involved in many aspects of helping people to cope with mental/emotional health, spiritual health and physical health issues, I'm deeply impressed with the remarkable insight in the Listening to Shame video.
The lesson is:
Vulnerability and shame can lead to
productive innovation, creativity and change.
Ready to take that to the next level with tools you can use - including cost-cutting resources?
Want to know what to say to someone ill, sad, home-bound or bereaved? It's quite a challenge to say anything that won't increase the person's pain. But it is possible.
Ponder the "Don't TELL Me" poem on page 6 of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge. Look into a mirror as you say the words and consider the times you'd have have appreciated such thoughtfulness from someone remarking on the suffering in your life.
Pages 27-31 of EMPOWER Yourself hold tips for making - and listening to - tactful, compassion-filled comments for people going through emotional turmoil.
Nothing can guarantee the response that distraught people will make to anyone's caring words and efforts. This is a volatile time of strength, shock, comfort, despair, insight and cluelessness. But at some level, everyone will know that compassion is being provided.
Delayed reactions can be very different from immediate replies. Bear with the ill, disabled or bereaved person’s inner pain. Resolve to let them have time to consider the tumultuous thoughts churning in their hearts and minds, and how to cope with all that. Considerate behavior from you can become a turning point for much good.
Pages 42-47 can enlighten you to other unpredictable pieces of life for someone ill and/or heartbroken. Those pages hold sound advice for making the best of a given situation and for preventing it from becoming worse.
There are other passages about sharing a sense of hope, comfort and optimism that can build inner strengths, including courage, in the person who needs that assistance. None of the suggestions are about giving orders such as "Snap out of it!" or "Grow up!" Emotions do not respond favorably to commands.
Let life unfold at the pace most beneficial to the who needs the boost: Gradually.
Hey, that high-stepping turkey looks happier than some of the people who survived this part of the holiday season. Somehow, holidays don't seem all that bright and cheerful when you're mourning the memories of loved ones no longer able to celebrate them with you.
Hanuka doesn't even look bright despite all those pretty candles.
Xmas and Kwanzaa seem to just bring you down with a sense of sadness and emptiness. But consider this: those holidays are about spiritual realities after all.
How about letting them help you?
Do yourself a favor. Look at this recreation of today's http://jewishworldreview.com/ page and follow its directions. Click the link for it. You won't be sorry.
We are doing something VERY different. Most of today's 5-MINUTE offering is music. You will find it inspirational. At the very least, I can guarantee it will be thought provoking.
lets you know how to prevent and cure the problem! Read the entire "Listen to the Person Before You - Lessons for Caregivers" section.
Get your grin back to live a healthier, happier life. Buy quick and convenient E-book EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge at http://www.booklocker.com/books/4244.html TODAY!
Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism.
Yes, that's me dressed as "Boo-Boo Barbie" a few years ago, as I faced losing my dominant arm to CRPS/RSD after delicate surgery had just saved it from amputation. All that happened following an accident that had crushed my elbow.
Why did I have the guts to pull such a stunt? Because Purim is known as a "Reversal of fortune" holiday when we recall the hidden hand of GOD in our daily lives. I bet on it to save my arm & quality of life. That bet paid off, BTW. I'm one of few people worldwide who lost the CRPS/RSD curse within a few months of its unpredictable onset. AND I'm one of few people who made a 100% recovery from the specialized surgery that had orignally saved my arm from a far different fate.
ON TO TODAY. Many grief-stricken Jews around the world are still wiping tears over the Fogel family massacreas we focus on the fact that nothing happens by accident. It's all part of BIGGER Plan by the Ultimate Planner.
One of the foods we eat on Purim are Hamantashen (Oznai Haman in Hebrew). They symbolize the ears, tri-cornered hat and/or pockets of Haman, an arch-enemy of Judaism and its Jews. Haman threatened Jewish genocide and was soundly defeated by a woman, Queen Esther of Persia. Read about that when you click on Purim Kipur.
Here's a quick education on the raucous, joyous holiday that reminds us never to lose hope in the future: Crash Course on Purim.
I'll post a photo of me in this year's costume as soon as I can. I'm saving the revelation as a surprise for friends who enjoy guessing what I'll wear from year to year. Meanwhile, here's a photo I took of Purim celebrants some time ago.
I've done a lot of coaching this past week. So many ill people and their loved ones need immediate comforting.
Holidays are hard for many reasons. Less sunlight can = SAD syndrome, making hard times harder. Budget-busting expenses don't lighten the mood.
Here's a Quick Comfort Tip that just might ease your mood:
Pour fresh olive oil in a bowl.
Add a dash of balsamic vinegar.
Soak that up with some whole grain sliced bread and dine slowly.
Pita works!
It's surprisingly delicious
Fill up the rest of your appetite & tummy with fruits, sliced veggies and pure water.
Rest, reflect, recharge your mind and body as the meal digests.
You'll be well nourished without the fuss of cooking & no sinkful of dishes to wash. Ahhh...
Want an affordable cookbook for a healthier, happier life? You'll pay only $8.95 for quick and convenient E-book EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge. Buy it today and feel better soon. Your budget can, too.
Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism.
My Self-Help Coaching work brings me into other people's lives. I've had occasion to hear clients telling me of lively but very troubling relationships that they mistakenly called "Friendships."
Here's a One Size Fits All definition of friendship: "Friendship isn't about who you have known the longest. It's about those who came and never left your side ..."
By being at your side, those people seek to improve your lot in life with productive assistance, be it financial, a shoulder to cry on, a sounding board for reflecting ideas back to you so they make better sense or by performing tasks that ease your pain. Simple, heartfelt fun is also the core basis of a friendship. Friendliness makes you feel elevated, makes you feel that you're a better person than you thought. Life seems so much sweeter with a healthy friendship. It reassures you that the actions you've taken and the thoughts you've pondered are good for you or, something ill advised. A real friend points out what can or cannot work for your benefit.
Your illness is one thing. If someone likes taking you on guilt trips, or blaming themselves or you about why suffering is happening, don't go along for the adventure. Why you're sick is between you and The One Above, not the gossips down on Earth. Illness is not cause for mentally or actually punishing people you know.
Friendship increases happiness. It is not about symbolic victories that hurt other people, not about punishing someone on your behalf. Friendship makes your heart lighter and your lips curve into a genuine smile.
Yes, your medical situation is painful. Heartache, physical pain that medications might not help, fear and, well, fill in the blanks.
You're facing unspeakable misery. But you can survive it. Make staying alive your hobby. Pursue health as much as you can. Pretend to be cheerful until you actually think of something funny or pleasant to say or do.
I have no control over how long you'll live, keep some of your body parts or how well medical intervention will work for you. But I know one thing: you can grab life by the collar, no matter how wispy it seems, and decide "I WANT MORE! I WANT BETTER!" Then make it so.
Behave with dignity. Thank the people trying to help you: aides, nurses, doctors, relatives, friends, strangers and neighbors. Cry as necessary, then commit yourself to coping with the problems you have. Find solutions.
Exercise hurts? Do 5 minutes instead of 10. Eating upsets you? Be sure to swallow basic nutrients and nibble away the rest of whatever's on your plate and tray.
What are you talking about? Aches? Pains? Anger? Disfigurement? Mourning? Anything negative? Does your voice have that "I must have said this 1000s of times already?" drone to it? Improve the sound.
STOP living in the trauma.
Live Your Life!
Look for joyous moments: lovely skylines, a hug, footrub, or lack of complications in some regard. You have a new "Normal." Go for the Gusto as best you can. Seize happiness, maximize pleasures no matter how small or big. FOCUS on them. Say pleasant things so people can hear you. Look for their signs of relief at hearing you speak this way. Share it.
Now, snuggle up in your bed or chair, wherever you may be, and bask in your victory. You're ALIVE, and proud of your behavior. You can repeat it, too.
The future can unfold with richer experiences. Let it. If you wish, share your richer experiences with me at Giveretgolani@gmail.com
Being cheerful at this time of year is one of the hardest things for people facing illness. My coaching work focuses on overcoming the usual obstacles. Here is a GEM of a hopeful message about a universe filled with surprises, hidden and to-be-realized blessings:
(sorry about the date gaffes in some recent posts. Blogger and I are at odds about the time zone I live in, let alone that the Jewish day begins at sundown. The dates on my blogposts sometimes seem a bit kerflooey though I try to adjust things behind the scenes ;^ )
To your optimal health,
Yocheved Golani Coping with a Medical Crisis? Make the Changes You Need in Your Life
Did that cheery greeting leave you feeling flat? Is all the commercialism, hustle & bustle for the winter holiday season getting you down more and more as each day or hour passes? Hmmm... I extend my sympathies to you. The glittery decorations and party planning in your office or neighborhood are quite the contrast to fearing an illness or feeling sad over family dysfunction.
Gosh, the list for what can go wrong at this time of year just seems to grow. I respect the reality that ordering someone to "Cheer Up!" is not going to work. Happiness is hard to come by when you're counting up all the reasons you're feeling sad.
Visit Help for the Holiday Blueswhen you want to. Make a gradual transition into using the ideas there to improve your mood and worldview.
Calm down from lingering fear over medical costs, pain, and how that medical situation affects everyone around you.
