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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 how to stay calm. Show all posts
Showing posts with label how to stay calm. Show all posts
Today's the last day of Hanuka/Chanuka. I'm wistful for it to linger. The 8-day holiday is about problems and goals, raw courage, and leadership. Lots of life lessons are packed into those historical days. For example: You know about the male Maccabees. Click on What Do Jewish Women Have to Do with Chanuka? to learn more.
Okay, back to today. I decided to prepare some Hanuka food this past week. My arms are tired from hand-grating potatoes and onions, then frying them into luscious livivot aka latke treats in a cast iron skillet.
Making the potato pancakes, then cleaning the mess (a BIG, messy mess), were goals and problems met and solved with some tried and true solutions.
Now let's digress into some medical matters. Those can be a bunch of problems and a "How do I - or you - meet important goals?" headache of a goal to meet!
Suffering tends to wear us down, along with our thinking skills. You know all about it. What you might not know is how to overcome the sorrow, fear, anger, forgetfulness, temper tantrums and other emotional issues so that you can think clearly again. Your emotions are one thing. But life, especially a medical or mental health issue life, can be complicated by the emotions of other people, too. The emotions of your family members, colleagues, and friends are a whole 'nuther universe. Let's deal all of that, one person at a time: You, you and you.
There is guidance about how to deal with all the problematic people in your medical life throughout
Which pages of the book help you to cope with the stress from in-laws and outlaws, siblings, parents, children, medical professionals and... (fill in the blank as necessary)? Please let me know what works for you via E-mail. I'll be delighted to respond to your message. I won't share your comments unless you ask me to. Lots of solution-oriented, mental health professionals-approved tips are packed into theEMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challengebook. It's full of YOU Can-Do-This solutions. If you or someone who needs it haven't read the book yet, 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. Flatten your stress levels. Get your grin back.
B'SD 29 Elul, 5773 I'm happy to let you know that I'm doing scholastically well in my ICD-10 medical coding studies. My goal is to complete a 2-year college education in about 8 months. I'm speeding ahead in the textbooks and doing well on exams, thanks to great long-term memory (I used to be a medical coder before my 2002 relocation to Israel). Thank GOD I still have an aptitude for studying complicated topics. Watch this space for a relevant post about the company training me and my classmates. It's coming up next week.
I'm taking time off for Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year's celebration.
The 2-day holiday begins this evening and
ends as Shabbat begins.
I plan to post again on Sunday.
Here are some educational links for starting your new year right:
Alpha-Beta Academy on Rosh HaShana. You can click on the colorful illustrations for immediate education on appealing topics, and/or sign up for the Alpha-Beta newsletter. Click on http://www.aish.com/ for a colorful, thought-provoking exploration into the Jewish look at the new year. Want to live a calmer, more organized life despite your medical, mental health or disability issue? Improve your perspective and meet more of your goals with E-book or print edition EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge. Rabbis, clergy of different faith, medical and mental health professionals recommend it! Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity.
Face Your Future with Optimism. Fill your life with increasing happiness.
May the world be blessed for a good year.
Have a good night's sleep after the holiday feast, and any night - to help your brain cells! See you next year: 5774!
B'SD 12 Shvat, 5773 The lovely imagery of what we can learn from trees (and other plants) fills the holiday of Tu B'Shvat. It's a very pro-health message. Trees are teachers. Trees affect daily life; the health of the planet and even our spiritual realities. Think back to Sunday school. Who goofed by eating the wrong food, then made things worse by pointing fingers of blame? Worse, why DID those two people WANT to eat that food? There's an interesting answer to the question. Here it comes: Tu B'Shvat and the First Couple. Here's a excerpt from my forthcoming Comfort Foods Cookbook, which teaches readers how to tame their inner over-eater:
THE COMFORT FOODS
COOKBOOK 411: DO WHAT WORKS FOR YOU! AN OVERVIEW OF BASIC PRINCIPLES
Chomp
a carrot or some unsalted hot-air machine
popcornwhile you read these opening lines.
That’ll
take care of some of your stress and
Keep
you safe from too many calories.
The
book will be safe from popcorn oil stains, too.
You’re done with diets and it’s time to celebrate;
you’re grounded in reality! So many diets don’t help humanity. They don’t address our
rushed lives, the overwhelming advertising messages messing with our minds nor
the peer pressure we must finesse as we eat differently from everyone around
us. Who the heck wants to listen to anybody
telling us not to eat things that taste good - as if distasteful do-nothing diets haven’t made you feel
finished with future weight loss efforts already?!
Whew,
take a breath. If one diet plan worked for everybody, bookstores wouldn’t be
selling so many types of diet books. The key to weight control is to find what
works for you and to keep doing that. You do not have to make a sudden
overwhelming change to the way you live, eat and think. You only make little
changes, one at a time, to the way you deal with food.
The news
gets better: this book is not about things you cannot or may not eat; it’s
about making a menu that works for you! The Comfort Foods Cookbook is designed to help you past several
problems, which is clear in the confidence-building Table of Contents. There are proven strategies for dining well
while losing or maintaining weight. Here are a few to take you through the day:
1.Don’t
Drastically Destroy Your Meals
You still need carbohydrates. Not in excess, but
in moderation. Enjoy some wholegrain breads that can help to curb your
appetite. Indulge in high-nutrition wild rice, brown rice and basmati rice.
They make sold underpinnings for delicious sauces and a bouquet of
body-building vegetables.
2.Love
what you do in life.
If you don’t yet love your life, make it lovable.
Don’t let your weight-control efforts dominate your thoughts. You risk
losing the enthusiasm for minding your table manners. Indulge in hobbies you
enjoy, relationships you cherish and simple pleasures. Let raindrops fall on
your tongue, do happy dances and smile as much as you can. Take on each day
sunshine or rain. Rest when you need to. And do something nice for yourself –
including the people important to you.
Less stress will lower your snack reaction;
nobody shoves food in their face when they’re content. Reduce the stress in
your life in as many directions as possible. Delegate tasks, lower your demands
(not everything in life needs to be perfect), and shut off the noise. That
includes turning off anything digital. The toll on your heart and brain will
lighten up, as will your perspective on life. You know the story of the
character who fished for a living. He prayed to be this or that, and then
achieved those goals. Each venture cost him dearly in terms of peace of mind
and financial security. So he prayed to have a stress-free livelihood and
VOILA! He became a fisherman again and never lost his perpetual smile of
relief.
Need a different motivational thought to keep
your control? I hear you. Some of us mortals use food as an escape, a safe
haven from some sort of pressure (Deadlines, in-laws, outlaws, bills, budgets, name
it). Let’s look at life philosophically, and a bit spiritually too, a moment. We are descendants of the first man
and woman. Want to correct the mistake of how and why the first couple ate the
forbidden fruit? Adam and Chava (Eve) used food to escape GOD's sovereignty.
Food is not an escape. Food is for nourishment so we can live with optimal
health, happiness and to serve GOD with decency. Food brings us pleasure and
health. That leads to happiness. Clarity about what food is for equals a
measure of emotional freedom.
Decide what sort of person you want to be and make yourself
behave that way (Do-overs are allowed. Some days you can simply chalk up
mistakes to dress rehearsals). Run your own life, you slimming and trimming CEO!Eating
is supposed to make you feel happy. This book does its best to get you grinning
again, looking slimmer and trimmer. Seeing yourself smiling back from the
mirror can make your day. Give yourself a thumbs-up with a meaningful wink each time
you head out the door.
When you’re indoors, and even outside, nourish
your soul. Listen to soothing music, wear and decorate in colors that
make you feel well. Feel that smile coming into your face? Make the most of it.
Dab some lavender oil under your nose or on your pillows. It’s a calming scent.
Guys, use some peppermint if you can, or your fave aftershave lotions and
potions. Feeling calm makes the munchies seem like distant memories.
Walks can do wonders for calming shattered
nerves. Watch the world go by as you take interesting detours and
refreshing hikes. Use the bicycle instead of the car to run errands. Your
improving muscle tone will speed up weight control efforts. Admiring glances or
compliments will do wonders for you. So will boosts in your sagging
self-esteem.
If you can, invest in an indoor water fountain or
easily maintained aquarium. Watery images and sounds soothe savage minds. Tea
lites in every corner of the tub make for one very soothing soak. Draw the
curtain and bask in the warmth as your cares ooze out of your pores.
3) Put some spirituality into your mealtimes.
Make this a new mantra: We
don’t live to eat, we eat to live! Keep
your priorities straight, not muddled in your mind. Focus on feeling grateful
for having body-building foods before you. Say a prayer of thanks to The One
Above that you have such food, and that you are wise enough to make smart
choices. Consider how much happier you’ll be for strengthening your health,
not actively ruining it with poor choices.
Consider how excited you’ll be to watch the pounds melt away and never
return.
And when those really awful, messed up days come your way (ALL of
us have them), remember to care compassionately for yourself. You’re going to
be tempted to shove food down your throat and punish yourself with the
consequences all around your too-tight clothes. Is self-discipline important to
you? Is better health a priority? Is a slimmer you important? Remember this
saying that applies to much of our stressful lives: “Decide that you want it more than you are
afraid of it.”
Fill the comments box with your thoughts about that. Pretty please?
Buy E-book or print edition EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge to put your medical and emotional health priorities in order, today. The Comfort Foods Cookbook will go on sale at a future date, GOD willing. Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity.
Face Your Future with Optimism.
High Holiday Season just ended for Jewish observers and gosh, it's time for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Xmas, Kwaanza and Hanuka marketers to hit the airwaves! Bonking your braincells with messages about "Buy this/do that to be happy" and filling your heart with pain about images of people who seem happier than you are what "We want you to feel inadequate so buy This Solution" advertising sales are all about.
You smell fine and look normal.
Not everybody
is a gourmet cook.
Gifts and home renovations are hard to pay for
in today's strained
global economy.
Skip the guilt trip by
turning off the TV, radio
and other sound systems.
Close
magazines
and newspapers
paid for
by fear-promoting
and
anger-inducing
ad revenue.
I hope your eyes will fill with tears of laughter by watching this lesson about Misery Made Easy (it'll teach you how to avoid it 1-2-3!)
Learn more can-do, no-cost techniques for feeling better about yourself and life in general, AND that medical problem you face in E-book EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge. http://www.booklocker.com/books/4244.html
Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism.
Here are helpful ideas for how to calm down when life just refuses to be nice. You know the feeling. So does HeartMath Institute, which offers this free online tool: A De-Stress Kit for Our Changing Times.
I just learned from Booklocker, the publisher of my forthcoming book, that publication is in further progress. I plan to post a Media Release at this site as soon as the books are available for purchase.
Meanwhile, I want to share some insights with you about one of the worst problems that keep popping up during medical and emotional crises: NEGATIVTY. I've faced it lifelong, as have you. Medical or emotional crises increase our awareness of negativity. Here's a 2-Step Plan for Coping with Negativity. Use it when you're in a crunch.
1. Understand Who’s Responsible for Your Happiness
If we demand that someone or something change in order to make us happy, we place them and/or circumstances in control of our happiness. Dwelling on what’s not yet in your life is self-sabotage.
This concept applies to health and emotional crises.
Happiness is your responsibility. Keep inventory of what’s already “good” in your life. That helps you to weather difficult times. And it helps you to identify increasing goodness in your life.
Are people trying to help you? Did something unexpected and pleasant happen to you? Did something you dread fail to happen to you? CELEBRATE!
And keep your positive moods going strong with smiles. Even when you must force a smile, you’re teaching your body that you can cope with distress.
Feeling down and can’t seem to shake the lousy mood? Announce out loud that you’re giving the negative vibes to the universe so the negativity can be recycled in some productive way.
2. Don’t Undermine Your Happiness. Avoid Commercials and Advertisements. I feel schizophrenic after reading or hearing content that tells me how wonderful I am, as I am. But the advertisements/commercials insist that I will not be fulfilled or realize my destiny unless I buy countless products to improve my figure, prowess, smile, income, furniture, etc. That tactic is great for publishers. They’ll keep selling their newest editions and broadcasts to insecure and confused customers trapped in the vicious cycle. Realize it for what is is: a sales tool with little to no bearing on reality.
Nobody gets to heaven or a calm state of mind because they used the correct toothpaste or scored the biggest business deal.
One more thought before I sign off today: I suspect that the reason so many forms of therapy (animal exposure therapy such as horse riding or holding warm, cuddly creatures, talk therapy, etc.) work as well as they do is because they maximize a person's intention to cope or to heal. Focus is key. When you increase your desire and awareness of how to cope with various issues, you do. You cope. And you heal as much as possible.
