Challenges: A Matter of Perspective and Potential

B'SD

9 Tevet, 5775

We've laughed and sighed about the aging process this week. I like how comedians put things into perspective: "Growing older beats the alternative."

No matter the age we've arrived at, healthy perspective is important. It lets us fulfill our potential, and to feel the joy of recognizing it.

Learn what you can from the life lessons at:

Just give up. What are you trying to prove anyway?

If some whiner proves to be annoying, listen in to the inspirational remarks at Overcoming Challenges: NO Excuses.

Soothe yourself with music. Let it motivate you. 

 
Strategize your way to overcoming some sort of block. Start off with buying 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.

Find, and be, your better self.

Surviving Old Age

B'SD

8 Tevet, 5775

This week, Jews, other people and governments worldwide memorialize the Holocaust, Hitler's war upon the Jews.

He despised our morality, the fact that the human conscience was developed with the moral teachings that Abraham shared with the world, with the Torah (bible) and especially with the 10 Commandments. They are GOD's directives forbidding murder, kidnapping, theft, and injustice of any sort. GOD is GOD, not self-appointed people.

As aging and younger humans count their regrets, keep counterproductive "scores" and alienate themselves or others over issues that could have been resolved, it is important to put life into perspective. A life-long project, it's not a goal to be accomplished in a day.

Listen in for valuable life lessons as Eva Mozes Kor faces her goal of surviving old age, and the most severe forms of injustice known to humanity. Click on...

Post by The Israel Project.

If the links above don't work on your computer, use one belonging to a person with a Facebook account.

Here is some of the horror that Hitler and his cohorts brought to the world: Hideous Experiments on Twins.



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 heart with healthy determination and perspective.

A Giggle for the Day - Laughter NEVER Gets Old!

B'SD

7 Tevet, 5775

Some readers of this blog are in their 50s and beyond. I hope that all of you will find this light-hearted look at the aging process worth watching.

Laugh at what ails you. Own it. 

Make your reality work for and with you, instead of fighting it.

Laughter never gets old.

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.

Fight fear and frustration with humor.

Recharge and Renew Your Dreams - Your Efforts to Achieve Them can Flower!

B'SD

5 Shvat, 5775

Sorry about last week's silence; I was busy with international company and putting some long-pursued goals into motion. Stand by for updates about that ;^ )

Shvat is the month of spring, when Israel's trees and flowers bloom despite bracingly cold temperatures. Our skies are sunny and clear, after months of rain.

A time of renewal, this is a propitious time for beginning new projects and reaching for new goals. As we learn from this Temple Institute post, Shvat is a time to recharge our inner growth, too.

Here's a helpful infographic about the Jewish New Year Holiday for Trees, coming up in about 10 days.

With all that spiritual and emotional energy running in your body and soul, how about recharging your health efforts with humor, cost-cutting information you need and tips for getting along with everybody involved?

Buy the E-book or print edition of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge. 

Let your dreams flower.

 

Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism.

Find the motivation you need by taking action to achieve your dreams.

What's the Compassionate Way to Share Bad News?

B'SD

23 Tevet, 5775

Emotions tend to rocket all around our hearts and minds when we face the medical and/or emotional/mental health news that nobody wants to hear.

I've addressed the cruelty of spiritual one-upsmanship before. That's when people tell us we have no right to cry or to feel fearful because "GOD only gives us what we can handle."

I've also addressed ideal responses to such heartlessness.

What I've never addressed on this blog, or in

is the medical practitioner's difficulty 

in delivering bad news.

I've thought about it a lot. Years later, I struggle to recall the exact words of the neurosurgeon who first gave me hope that I'd live past the problem that other medical professionals had caused by failing to address that long-ago (now gone!) meningioma.

I definitely remember, though, the choices I made about how to behave under the dire circumstances. The prognosis for my surgical outcome was not good, to say the least.

The bigger problem remains though. How can anyone compassionately inform a person of their pending death or dire diagnosis? 

Life experience and psychological teachings indicate that starting gently, slowly, and allowing the listener to make necessary connections as the speaker continues to state facts, is one approach.

Promoting optimism, an embrace  of the situation, and thereby empowering the affected person(s) to decide how they'll deal with the situation is another way to face dire situations.

There is room for so much more compassionate behavior under the worst of circumstances.

Let's look at the

How do you tell someone they’re dying?

question together.

I recommend that you click on the links at that site, and keep reading.

I welcome your responses to the essays.


 
Strengthen yourself, your loved ones, and your medical team. Share 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 in the blanks of your emotional life, or someone else's, with compassion.

The Meaning of Life is More than You Imagined

B'SD

21/22 Tevet 5775

I found myself struggling to enjoy this past Shabbat, wondering all the while how shoppers in France's Hyper Cacher were faring. 

I could not and would not access media until after sundown Saturday night. A lack of updated information was hard to endure.

I prayed for the world's well being, 

and an immediate end to terrorism.

I pondered how some of the survivors of past terrorist attacks are able to thrive despite agonizing memories and perhaps injuries.

Westerners tend to believe mass media's message that life is for happiness. That elusive (and imaginary) goal tends to shepherd people into therapy.

Let's clear up some misperceptions, and focus on the fact that...

There's More to Life Than Being Happy.

Here's proof of that: American Hero. 

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.

Find meaning that builds the world and your self respect.

When Empathy, Not Sympathy, is Called for

B'SD

17 Tevet, 5775

Much of the world is struggling to grasp, and to cope with, the enormous meaning of the cold-blooded murders at Paris' Charlie Hebdo magazine office.

No matter your politics or spiritual persuasions, when you or someone else face overwhelming horror, the most compassionate response you can give to affected others is a form of compassion called empathy. No, not sympathy, empathy.

Sympathy has a tendency to sound  condescending in some circumstances. Some errant people feign sympathy to seem better than the people in their vicinity. Others offer sympathy due to a lack of knowing better ways to behave in given circumstances.

Empathy is an identification with and/or appreciation for the unhappy person's sense of misery. This video explains the concept simply.

The same wisdom is true for people facing frightening diagnoses, financial, emotional and other situations aka disasters.

Confused? Practice sympathy and empathy with a role-playing partner until both of you understand the difference.

We've all been there, and plodded along just as you might until you make the emotional connection.

I'm sighing with you.




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.

Focus on relevant emotions so you can deal with them, and with sad people, sensibly.

A Reality Check About Deadly Diagnoses

B'SD

16 Tevet, 5775

I'm uncomfortable with the mass media's dismissal of "Oh, if you have cancer, it's a matter of bad luck" motif. It is NONSENSE!

Someone with a deadly diagnosis has far more to deal with than a roll of never-seen dice. Lifestyle factors, mindsets, unknown exposures to toxins and more are known causative factors in cancer and other disease processes.

The phenomenon of why some people become ill but not others has been studied and the findings shared.

Ladies and gentlemen, I invite you to read over my shoulder once again:

AN OPEN LETTER TO PEOPLE WHO USE THE “BATTLE” METAPHOR FOR OTHER PEOPLE WHO HAVE THE DISTINCT DISPLEASURE OF CANCER.

Dismissive attitudes and cruel reactions to ill people are arrogant behaviors.

Arrogance is a cover-up for cowardice. 

The reason for the long title of the

book is that when I tearfully asked acquaintances to pray for me to recover from a BENIGN BRAIN TUMOR that was killing me, one of them remarked that I had no right to cry, as GOD only gives us what we can handle.

I responded that GOD invites us to cry as a form of communication. I supplied my readers with a license to cry with the relevant Talmudic quote. You don't have to be Jewish to have a relationship with GOD ;^ ).

BTW, once the tears have been shed, we are free to strategize our coping efforts. That's why I used a chess motif on the book's cover.

I bet you'll like the Lessons for Caregivers pages to share with your medical team. Let individual medical professionals read pages 31, 42, and 54-55 in your copy of the book. 

 
Ready to take on life, and to bypass the naysayers? 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.

Feel free to leave dissers behind you.

Life-Changing Resolutions

B'SD

15 Tevet, 5775

It's after sundown and technically Tuesday for me, in Israel. You might be having a Monday, recovering from a raucous weekend.  Let's focus on some character-building stuff that makes all of us happier.

I've spent some appreciable time deep in thought about some directions I want to pursue, and directions I've already set out on. Before I share information about that with you, let's keep our focus on the new calendar aka fiscal year, 2015.

Life's not only about financial earnings. It's about the Quality of the Lives We Lead.

Many people are unsung heroes and heroines. I wrote about several when I was a reporter/feature writer.

I know other unsung heroes and heroines whose efforts would be compromised by publicity. I cherish their acquaintances and friendships.

OK, back to the daily grind. 

Some of use seek ways to become heroic, to ourselves and/or to the world at large.

I have a preference for quiet heroes who simply get the job done, leaving other people better off than they were. Fanfare makes me doubt the efficiency of some goodhearted efforts.

None of us can be especially helpful to anybody, though, without being good to ourselves first.

Much of my public presence, and private life, is about promoting sensible self care.  

Care to read over my shoulder again? Let's enjoy Counting Your Blessings and Changing Your Life together.

Count your blessings and begin to change your life Have you made any resolutions for the coming year? If not, try the following. Each is potentially life changing.

Please let me know your thoughts about that essay.


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.

Find yourself, deep inside. 

Some Psychological Insights into How to Keep Life Simple

B'SD

10 Tevet, 5775

Today is a low-key fasting day for Jews able to endure a lack of food during the daylight hours. 

The rest of the world is recovering (or not) from staying up too late and partying too hard last night.

So today's blogpost is a lighthearted look at The 4 Greatest Psychological Discoveries of 2014.

Gosh, a lot of good sense aka folk wisdom can be found in that research.

Keep life simple, everybody. Life is a work in progress. You are, too.

 
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 compassion.