Tag: health

It’s a New Year! How are you doing?

Be forgiving of yourself and others. We’re all just doing the best that we can and that’s good enough for now.

I think all of us feel like we should review our lives at New Year’s. What have we done, accomplished, or learned from this past year? It’s always a good time to reevaluate where we are and where we want to be.

What have I learned this past year? I had a lot to choose from. This year, out of all my many years on this earth, I’ve seen more turmoil than I’ve ever seen or experienced before! I don’t recall ever having been exposed to so much news and disruption, so much anger and bigotry and pain, yet also so much hope and support and shared empathy. It’s no wonder we’re all left feeling a bit shaken, if not completely overwhelmed. This year has been a lot!

From the pandemic to protests and politics, we’ve had our hands full dealing with circumstances that we’ve never experienced before. All of these things have put us into a situation that made us reevaluate what we believe and how we choose to react. It has sometimes made us question our choices and beliefs and it’s definitely made us uncomfortable. It’s a perfect time to take a look at ourselves.

Times like this require a different set of skills to adapt to life. On a normal basis, we tend to rely on habits that we create to make our lives easier. We don’t normally have to think as much or make as many decisions as we’ve had to do over this past year. It’s hard work having to be “on” constantly and thinking about new things several times a day every day. It’s not how our brains are set up to work and it’s exhausting.

Whether you’re a student, parent, or teacher adapting to remote learning or an employee that had to learn to work from home or you have to go in to work every day while staying as safe as possible, each of us has had something to adapt to. It doesn’t even matter if you’re used to staying home, HAVING to stay home is something entirely different. I can’t even imagine the stress, the pain, and the emotional toll that it takes to have had a loved one become ill or worse. The amazing people that have had to treat the hundreds of thousands of people that have become sick are truly amazing but I can’t imagine the toll that this has taken on them. There has been more anxiety, stress and pain than anybody should have had to experience over this past year.

While we’ve all had different levels of change, different levels of stress, and different effects on our health and well-being, we’ve ALL been impacted. I feel like if there is any time to be kind to ourselves, it’s now.  In looking at my own expectations of this past year, I’m obviously disappointed that I didn’t have the opportunity to accomplish several (most) of the things I had intended to do. However, I’m still here, alive and well, ready to greet the new year. A lot of us are not that fortunate. I’ve learned to be especially grateful for things that I’ve taken for granted previously. If nothing else, I’ve learned to be more patient, more forgiving, and more tolerant, even of myself. I think that’s definitely a plus for me personally. At this particular time, I’m pretty content with that.

I think the overriding message this New Year should be acceptance. There’s no guidebook on how to survive what we’re living through. All of us have our own set of circumstances and ways of coping, so the answers will be different for each of us. What we can control is how we react to each other and how we treat each other. Acceptance and tolerance is a lot better than anger and hatred. We should also accept our own limitations this year. We may not have accomplished everything we planned to, but maybe we gained a lot more than we would have in a different time. We can value our relationships with each other a lot more; we can feel more compassion for others and show it with our actions. We can support each other through these turbulent times and be there to listen to and understand each other.  We’re all just trying to get through it right now. There’s no precedent for what we’re experiencing, so do what you can to support yourself and those close to you. Reach out to friends and family members if you need help. Reach out to see if you can help them with anything. Be forgiving of yourself and others. We’re all just doing the best that we can and that’s good enough for now.

As for 2021, I think we all deserve a break. I’m wishing you and the people you love a very Happy New Year!

This Summer

I feel like this is the summer that never happened. Once the ‘Rona hit, our choices became severely limited. I know that I, at least, thought it would last for a couple months, maybe three tops. It’s been more months than I care to count. It seems like it was just the 4th of July and all of a sudden, more than a month has passed. Here it is mid-August and we’re not much better off than we were. Now’s the time when I would typically review what I’ve done so far this summer versus what I wanted to do and make a plan to finish off my list.

Continue reading “This Summer”

In the Interest of Awareness

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Every month, we are provided information about whatever that month’s “Awareness” campaign is about. How much time do you spend on that? I think it depends on what our interests are and if we know somebody that may be directly affected. If those things don’t apply to you, do you still spend any time looking at this information?

We are inundated daily with facts, suggestions, and ideas to digest. How, then, do we determine which ones we’re going to spend more time on? We only have a limited amount of time to spend on things that aren’t necessarily on our to-do list. I guess it’s what each of us considers to be interesting or enlightening. Where do the monthly “awareness” issues fall on that scale?

It’s obviously important if it affects you directly. It’s likely important enough if it affects a family member or good friend. What about the coworker or neighbor that might be impacted by whatever the awareness month is about? It might not hurt to learn just a little bit about each topic that comes along. It might even inspire a new passion or interest in something you hadn’t been aware of.

Each and every month there are new “awareness” topics. Obviously Breast Cancer awareness in October is a great example and one that most of us are familiar with. This awareness campaign has raised not only money, but interest, compassion and understanding surrounding this topic. Other campaigns have hopes of doing the same. Without awareness, there is no understanding or action.

Social media is hard to stay away from these days. It’s the quickest, easiest way to stay informed. It’s pretty easy to find as much or as little as you want to know about something. The “hot” topics or those most timely are readily available so you don’t have to look very hard to find it. Even if you only spend 15 minutes each month learning about something, you can learn enough to make a difference to somebody.

Please take a few moments each month to learn more about that month’s awareness topic. Your interest, your understanding, and your support can make a world of difference to somebody.

Are You Wearing Red Today?

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National Wear Red Day

February is America’s Heart Month and today is the day that’s been designated to raise awareness for women’s risk of heart attacks and stroke. Be part of the “Go Red for Women” initiative today!

Many buildings and landmarks will be lit up red for the day and people everywhere are wearing red in honor of heart awareness.  Make sure that you take a few minutes sometime during your day to look into YOUR risk and actions that you may be able to take. Continue reading “Are You Wearing Red Today?”

Health Habits and Hindsight

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As a person with some health issues, I would really like to share some insights into the value of taking care of yourself.  Believe me, I completely understand that daily life and obligations can so easily take over our time and energy that it’s easy to put our health (both physical and emotional) on the back burner.  Take it from someone who has learned the hard way, it’s the one thing that you cannot undo.

When I was younger, I could do anything at all!  I was invincible.  I was married, had a job, had kids, had a 2nd job, took care of the house, kids’ school and sport activities, all the things that we do and take for granted.  What was the one thing that I neglected to do?  Yep, take care of myself in the process.  When I was younger, not as much emphasis was placed on physical activity or good-for-you foods, and we certainly didn’t make time for mental health (yoga, meditation, stress relief).

Just keeping up with our obligations and a few of the things that we really want to fit into our schedules can take up all 24 hours of our day, but I want to impress on you the importance of taking care of yourself in the process.  Continue reading “Health Habits and Hindsight”

To Sleep or Not to Sleep?

I don’t know about you, but I have trouble sleeping (to put it mildly).  From the many stories about sleeping that are in pretty much every magazine I pick up, I’m not the only one.  It appears to be a significant problem for a lot of us.

I know that there are lots of reasons to account for it, but to me, it doesn’t matter what the reason is.  The fact that I’m still awake in the middle of the night is a problem.  I don’t know about you, but once I wake up, even just a little bit, it’s really hard to go back to sleep.  My mind starts working, I have all these brilliant ideas that I wish I had during the day, and I think about all the things I wish I had done or said differently.  So what do you do when the clock reads 1:36, 2:40, or 3:15 and you just want to sleep?

Well, I read a lot about sleep hygiene.  That always sounds funny to me; like you’re supposed to brush your teeth while you sleep.  They are actually ideas that you are supposed to incorporate to induce good quality sleep. Continue reading “To Sleep or Not to Sleep?”