Archive for March, 2010

Dear President Obama: How dare you?

Please read carefully and thoughtfully.

On behalf of those Tea Partiers et al:

How dare you cover the 30 million Americans that don’t have healthcare coverage?

How dare you remove loopholes that don’t allow denial for pre-existing conditions that have nothing to do with the current one?

How dare you tighten up on the ability of insurance companies to deny coverage in the middle of treatment?

How dare you stop thousands of Americans WHO ALREADY HAVE HEALTHCARE COVERAGE from being forced to go bankrupt?

How dare you?

I want my freedom back.

Want it back? Okay: please visit my previous post (I think Supersize Me has a lot to offer those with questions) and the previous one and the previous one,  and so on and so forth.  Come back and see if you end up with the same questions.

Supersize Me – Food for Thought

What if instead of this phrase referring to fast food it referred to increasing one’s knowledge, real solid, credible knowledge?

I’ve know/n many folks who have/had a real hunger for knowledge. They want to feed their brains instead of their mouths. They watch learning and documentary channels, they follow the news proactively, they have their own informed opinions. They are super sizing their knowledge bank. Why not consider this alternative option?  It’s a much better one.

Rushing, Stress..the Continuation

Today I’m picking up on the last post called “The world went and got itself in a big damn hurry.”  The point is that the stress caused by rushing – often when unnecessarily - is absolutely insidious.

Numerous health experts, say the number one killer on the planet is stress. Most physical and nonphysical health problems have long-term, physiological stress as their origin. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 80% of all health care dollars are spent on illnesses related to stress.

A story featured in The Chronicle Herald Newspaper on January 29, 2010 stated ‘In fact, doctors can’t find physical causes for pain suffered by one of every six people who comes to the emergency department, including three out of four patients who have chest pain and nine out of every 10 patients who have abdominal pain, he said. “It’s becoming more and more clear that a lot of these problems are based in emotional distress.”‘

Sounds like a dictionary’s definition of stress to me.  However, the danger is not just about conditions where no physical causes can be found but rather terrible physical conditions.

So what can you do about it?

Can you eliminate all stress from your life? No.  BUT you can eliminate it where it does not need to be. Example: if you have a day off and do not need to rush, don’t.  But there is much more: think about every aspect of your life where you don’t need to rush, don’t need to stress, write them down and ensure that you remove the stress from these situations.

Is that it? No but I think this is the essential starting point.  The next steps will follow once you perform this exercise and then make a commitment to focusing and implementing the steps that you can do to deal with stress and to enhance overall wellness.  Now this might seem simplistic and the truth is: it is.  However, I believe these things can do wonders if you them a try. But remember a previous post: don’t get caught in the trap of overlooking the importance of necessary maintenance.

The world went and got itself in a big damn hurry.

“Dear fellas, I can’t believe how fast things move on the outside. I saw an automobile once when I was a kid but now they’re everywhere. The world went and got itself in a big damn hurry. The parole board got me into this halfway house called “The Brewer”. And a job bagging groceries at the Foodway. It’s hard work and I try to keep up but my hands hurt most of the time. I don’t think the store manager likes me very much. Sometimes after work I go to the park and feed the birds.”*

I remember the above line from the movie The Shawshank Redemption from the character called Brooks. If you haven’t seen it then I highly recommend it. I have to say there is a lot of truth in this line. You know often people have a reason to rush but the real unfortunate thing about rushing is that often there is simply no need for it.

There is mounting evidence from a variety of sources correlating stress with a variety of negative health conditions. There are many credible sources of information out there suggesting the link between stress and both perceived physical conditions and real physical conditions. The evidence is mounting: stress can be bad.

I’m not saying you never have to be concerned about time but I am saying that always being in a mad rush, without taking time to slow down, will have consequences. You can be so much more productive, too, if you actually learn to slow down in many instances.  I think it’s very helpful to recognize the times in your life when you don’t need to rush or multi-task and to enjoy the moment. Slowly over time everyone can learn to adjust their internal time-clock.

*http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111161/quotes?qt0470752

Real Efficiency

Real Efficiency

One of my interests is looking at what we all can do to help the planet with regard to climate change, particularly with regard to our actions.

I have thought about the issue fundamentally from the standpoint of clean energy sources.  I see two fundamentals that I think must be kept in mind.

Firstly, any of the processes that are happening should waste no energy.

Secondly, any energy can be converted from one form to a useful form.

This is just the beginning as I will include more posts on the topic but I really wanted to throw these thoughts out here and see what folks had to say.  Feel free to share your thoughts and any ideas.

Maintenance Applies to Everything

If you think about a vehicle, it needs to be maintained.  If you don’t properly and regularly maintain your vehicle then the likelihood of mechanical breakdown is increased.  I think most reasonable folks would accept this premise.

However many of us do not often recognize how this principle operates in all other areas of our lives and instead assume that if results are not immediate or no improvements are noted then there is no point in doing something.

What areas am I talking about?

I’m talking about literally all areas of your life and mine.

One example is to look at the notion of taking supplements for your health. Now you might be taking supplements for your health but because you don’t see an improvement or notice a difference when you quit, you conclude that they must not have a benefit for you.  However going back to the example of maintaining your car.  You could have a brand new car, and you might be doing the regular maintenace on it and you wouldn’t be looking for an improvement in performance because you realize that you are merely maintaining your vehicle.  Well why would this be any different with regard to your health or any other area of your life?

If you want to be an empowered or healthy person you must recognize that the benefits of doing things regularly might be more of a maintenance function but this does not diminish the importance of doing them.  I will leave this as a general post without more specific examples because I think that you as an individual can easily fill in the blanks, so to speak, with respect to looking at the areas of your own life.  I hope you do so and this will help you to stay on track but also to start doing maintenance in areas where it is not happening.

“I’m just doing my job”

In my dealings with various bureaucracies and individuals in different organizations over the years I have come to see very clearly many people are overzealous in their authority.  It certainly can be extremely difficult and troubling to deal with someone who is being unnecessarily heavy handed.

Moreover, although it would never be fair to excuse anyone who performs an act of violence and puts the blame on individuals in positions like the ones I’ve mentioned, I can’t help but think over the years that systemically if this has been a person’s experiences with bureaucracies, then perhaps from that person’s perspective he/she feels justified in trying to get revenge.  Again I’m not saying this reduces in any way the person’s total responsibility for their actions who commits an act of violence or crime but I do have a point to make.  My point is that common sense is so sometimes missing or not being used by folks that work for various organizations.  They of course have very good reason to follow rules (i.e. they’re just “doing their job”, but there is no official rule that these folks have to be rude to other people (as is sometimes the case) or that they have to go beyond the rules / their authority to show the person who is boss.  My point is that a person who already feels mistreated is going to be more provoked and convinced that this is the case if they’ve been subjected to this treatment again and again.

Ultimately I am really expressing an opinion that the people who fall into the group of bureaucrats I’m describing really need to use common sense and fairness when dealing with people.  I don’t think it’s just a nice thing to do but really the only prudent way to function. So for those who are over zealous without common sense it is my hope that someone reading this might consider heeding and/or passing on the message where applicable.

Trend Setting

One of the points that I’ve raised in this blog is that if you become truly empowered you’ll want to reach out to others so you can be of service.  One of the great ways you can be of service is by living an example of what you’d like to see more of in the world.

The famous non fiction writer Malcolm Gladwell, in his book The Tipping Point, discusses how individuals can set trends. Many trends have resulted because of someone’s decision to do something a certain way.

One simple example: if you would like to see a more friendly and conscientious society then the first step is to make an effort to consistently act that way in your interactions with people.  These things, like many, have a tendency to create a ripple effect.  So you see: this is a simple yet true example of how one individual can make a difference.

If I can be so bold as to make a suggestion it would be this: do some brainstorming on what values or whatever you’d like to see in the world and make a commitment to consistently bring those into your day-to-day interactions.  You know the old adage that actions speak louder than words, well what are you waiting for?

Do take care.

Hybrid Approach to Informing Yourself

If you look at people who are successful in accomplishing their goals, you will see that they often have utilized a variety of strategies to do so.

If one looks across the spectrum of examples in society, many successful ventures are the result of joint ventures in which contributors share resources, roles, etc.  It might be public and private partnerships.  It might be an interdisciplinary team that provides healthcare.  It could be the healthcare approach by a society which involves a public component and supplemental private coverage – sometimes a more even combination might be referred to as a hybrid system.

Similarly a hybrid approach is best whenever you read or watch a news story or are attempting to critically evaluate anything for that matter, an approach which honestly considers the good points as well as the bad points is the best path to follow.

Don’t get caught into the trap of trying to defend your own perspective instead of recognizing the good points of another.  This is what happens all too often with politics, for example.  Admittedly sometimes one perspective is better than the other but not usually to the complete abandonment of the other.  More precisely it’s probably a matter of looking at the conclusions that are being drawn from either argument.  Give this a shot the next time there’s an opportunity to critically evaluate something.

Whom does it start with?

In yesterday’s post I suggested you might try thinking about some folks who if they just applied themselves towards different goals they might bring about more positive results.

When I thought about this topic I initially was thinking about a variety of folks that I had met throughout the years, but then I realized who really can be the beneficiary of this question.  It’s me.  In your case, it’s you, and so on and so forth.

I’m suggesting that each of us likely spend time and energy trying to accomplish misdirected intentions – sometimes we are not even explicitly aware of these motivations – but if we could consciously redirect some of our efforts we could accomplish much more.

This suggestion is all fine and well, but at this point it’s simply words.  Actions speak more loudly!  This is very true and that’s why I’d like to share some suggestions for taking this principle, if you will, into your day-to-day life and becoming more empowered.

It’s actually quite simple.

You need to:

1. Spending some time brainstorming and actually writing down areas where you might be wasting your time and energy.

2. Next spend some time thinking about your own unique abilities and talents (you see we all have them) and writing them down,

3. Deciding how you can redirect your own unique abilities and talents into specific goals.  You will need to write this down too.  This does not necessarily mean that one has to change jobs or change all their goals – but it might – rather you can creatively come up with a variety of ways to integrate your own unique talents and abilities into your day to day life in a much more positive way.

I think if you spend some time reflecting on this that you will be amazed at the results.

For many more continuous tips on improving your life in countless ways and being much more empowered, please subsribe to my free newsletter by entering your email in the newsletter sign-up box at the top or bottom of this blog.

Best!