Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Take Time Out

This is the day and age of multi-tasking. So many of us are learning how to do our work, listen to music, and click back and forth to surf the net all at once. Then we go home and have to cook dinner, check homework, and run bathwater simultaneously.

How often do you take time out to walk through your day slowly and take notice of all of the positive things and people in your surroundings? Are you moving too fast to do so?

Your challenge is to take time in the next 24 hours to stop and smell the roses. Appreciate the little things. Pick up the phone to call someone instead of texting. Read a bedtime story to your kids instead of letting the television tuck them in. Eat dinner with your family and talk about how your day was instead of coming home and going through your routine and going straight to bed.

When we take a second in time to really pay attention to life, we will find more positivity in our day than we anticipated, making it impossible to complain or focus on what we don't have.

Peace and Blessings,
Tamara

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Check me out on http://www.iamrenaissance.com/blog/2011/06/28/Health-Forum.aspx posting in the Mental Health and Spiritual Forum!

Friday, July 1, 2011

The Simple Life

I've recently started work with a company that provides mental health services at nursing homes. Working with the geriatric demographic is different for me. I'm used to working with children and families and having a lot of drama when I go out for a visit. Now when I go see my geriatric patients, their needs are totally different- very simple.

Some of the oldest patients I have are in their 90s. By that time, they've seen and done so much. When I come to see them, they often talk about wanting to hear from their families twice a day instead of once a day. Not knowing how to work their cell phones can cause stress. All they want to do is have something else to do besides play Bingo today. I talked to one of my patients and she began to detail some of the problems she's had because of her diabetes. She cut it short saying "Baby, what am I complaining about. I'm 91 and I'm still here. No complaining is necessary, darling. God is good and I'm here to see another day."

I walked out of her room amazed. I'm over here thinking about how to spread my paycheck around to pay all of our bills. I'm over here worrying about how to work extra hours to catch up with bills. My days are now 12 hour days because the work doesn't end when I'm home. I'm blessed enough to work from home as well as the field.

After visiting my patients yesterday, I woke up this morning asking God for some peace. Trying to figure out how to be calm in the midst of the storm. How to effectively ignore negativity and see it coming when negativity is coming my way.

I'm a work in progress. My goal is to live the simple life. And I pray that I'm blessed to see 91 years old and have clarity and peace of mind.