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Saturday, April 23, 2011
When Oprah Winfrey was interviewed by the legendary US television reporter Barbara Walters she was asked "what's the reason you put yourself on the line week after week, year after year, on the cutting edge of human emotion?" Oprah replied "Teaching people to take responsibly. I believe the secret to life is to take responsibility, once people grasp that I believe everything in their life changes. Once people understand it and live it, they are at cause for their life rather than living in effect and in reaction."
Public issues aside most people agree Bill Clinton was a very charismatic leader. Yet by his own admission in his autobiography he talks about painful acts in his childhood, anger and emotion that drove him to a better life. He hit a level of threshold where he was finally dissatisfied enough with his life to make changes. He was literally propelled forward to improve his life, and dream, and apply and learn the tools and strategies to assist himself and those around him. It's up to us to make a decision, to release all our negative emotions, to live in the present and to move into the future with improvement. The best thing about the past is that it's over.
Make a decision right now to release any old emotion you had with other people and move forward empowered. Put your shoulders back. Now stop and do something a little ridiculous. Float way up in the air in your mind, imagine you’re near a big ravine, put 100 singers down each side and hear them singing now. Hear the lightning coming down the side of the cliff. Feel the static electricity in the air. Now imagine a big puma in front of you, licking its lips. Now step inside the puma, feel the muscles and the strength and look way down the bottom, way off into the distance, so small it’s barely a speck, way down the bottom of the cliff is a person or situation you were facing. Hear the singers sing "Your Butt is Mine". Most of us don't feel good because we don’t do what could be described as "ridiculous mental conditioning".
Stop now and imagine a room in your mind, walk down the stairs, as you walk down with each stair releasing negativity and building up strength. At the bottom is a door. Open it. Inside is a beautiful garden. Imagine the sight, the sound, the feel and the smell. And in this garden are some people you need to meet. You need to have a conversation with them that goes something along the lines of "I forgive you". You may not be aware yet of the cords that still connect you to these people.
Now, stop and take two giant blades and drop them down and cut those cords and see the people fly off into the distance to go about their own growing. Now feel a pleasant feeling in your body. Lock this feeling in.
Consciously feel the release. Now visualize in front of you how you want to be, a more advanced version of you. Filled with whatever positive emotions you desire. Stop and imagine the qualities you need. Notice how does this new you look? Notice how his new you is feeling? Notice how this new you sounds? If you haven’t yet noticed then feel the strength from being around this new you. Notice how this new you stands and breathes. Now step into this taking on all the qualities of this new you. Make a commitment with this deepest part of yourself to take this new you around with you wherever you go.
What would this new you do? What would this new you stand for? What would this new you contribute? What would this new you be interested in? How will this you respond when you get off track? How will it feel when you live you life at this new standard? Step into this new you and feel the feelings in your body.
Decide to take your relationships to the next level. People love to talk about their own interests, learn to cultivate the art of being a good listener and people will like you - even if you have to sacrifice some of the conversational enjoyment for yourself to give to others. Watch the difference in your own life. People build up rapport with others by speaking at about the same speed and the same volume as the other person.
Consciously dwell on something that makes you feel strong. Clear your head. Adapt some positive characteristics of a role model. One of the best ways to gain confidence is to decide right now to have it, and embrace it.
Labels: Meditation
Dealing with the end of life and the decisions that accompany it bring critical challenges for everyone involved-patients, families, friends and physicians. In fact, "managing" the progression toward death, particularly when a dire diagnosis has been made, can be a highly complex process. Each person involved is often challenged in a different way.
Communication is the first objective, and it should start with the physicians. In their role, physicians are often tasked to bridge the chasm between lifesaving and life-enhancing care; thus, they often struggle to balance hopefulness with truthfulness. Determining "how much information," "within what space of time" and "with what degree of directness for this particular patient" requires a skillful commitment that matures with age and experience.
A physician's guidance must be highly personalized and must consider prognosis, the risks and benefits of various interventions, the patient's symptom burden, the timeline ahead, the age and stage of life of the patient, and the quality of the patient's support system.
At the same time, it's common for the patient and his or her loved ones to narrowly focus on life preservation, especially when a diagnosis is first made. They must also deal with shock, which can give way to a complex analysis that often intersects with guilt, regret and anger. Fear must be managed and channeled. This stage of confusion can last some time, but a sharp decline, results of diagnostic studies, or an internal awareness usually signals a transition and leads patients and loved ones to finally recognize and understand that death is approaching.
Once acceptance arrives, end-of-life decision-making naturally follows. Ongoing denial that death is approaching only compresses the timeline for these decisions, adds anxiety, and undermines the sense of control over one's own destiny.
With acceptance, the ultimate objectives become quality of life and comfort for the remainder of days, weeks or months. Physicians, hospice, family and other caregivers can focus on assessing the patient's physical symptoms, psychological and spiritual needs, and defining end-of-life goals. How important might it be for a patient to attend a granddaughter's wedding or see one last Christmas, and are these realistic goals to pursue?
In order to plan a death with dignity, we need to acknowledge death as a part of life-an experience to be embraced rather than ignored when the time comes. Will you be ready?
Labels: Meditation
