Insights – Melannie Thomas

Two quotes for meditation.

“We become what we think about most of the time….”  ~Earl Nightingale

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”  ~Charles Darwin

Blessings!

We so often hear that laughter is the best medicine.  There is ample evidence, Maryland Medical Center; Psychology Today, April 2005; Helpguide.org, to name but a few resources, that make a good case for the health benefits of laughter.

Laughter can help protect our heart, enhance the immune system, reduce stress, release endorphins in the brain, reduce pain and/or discomfort, and even lower our blood-sugar levels.

Once begun, laughter is contagious and is spurred on by the laughter of others.  We have all had the experience of connecting with another person and getting the giggles.

Last week’s blog dealt with Crisis Fatigue.  To share some healthy laughter felt like a good thing to do. This week I am including a generous slice of humor.  I hope this brings you a few good laughs.

‘A turtle is crossing the road when he is mugged by two snails.  When the police show up, they ask him what happened.  The shaken turtle replies, “I don’t know.  It all happened so fast.”‘

‘Why don’t scientists trust atoms? Because they make up everything’.

‘I took my eight year old girl to the office with me on, ‘Take Your Kid to Work Day’.  As we were walking around the office, she started crying and getting very cranky, so I asked her what was wrong.  As my co-workers gathered round, she sobbed loudly, “Daddy, where are all the clowns that you said you worked with?!”‘

And…

‘An old man is met by his attorney, and is told he is going to be audited.  He rides to the IRS office with his attorney, and when he gets there, he begins to talk with the IRS agent.  “I’ll bet you $2000 I can bite my own eye!”  The IRS agent agrees to the bet, believing it an impossible task.

The old man laughs, pulls out his glass eye and bites it.  The IRS agent is dumbfounded.  The old man then bets $3000 that he can bite his other eye.  The IRS agent knows there is no way possible to do this, so once more he agrees.  The old man cackles, pulls out his dentures, and bites his eye.

Then the old man offers a final wager.  “I’ll bet $20,000 I can stand on the far side of your desk, pee over the desk, and get it into your wastebasket without spilling a drop.  The agent is absolutely positive the old man can’t do it, so one more time he agrees.

The old man indeed misses, peeing all over the desk and the paperwork.  The IRS agent jumps for joy, but then notices the attorney in the corner moaning.  “Are you all right?” asks the agent.

“NO!  On the way over here he bet me $400,000 that he could pee all over your desk and you’d be happy about it!”‘

Enjoy the laughter!!

Blessings!

Crisis fatigue is used to describe the emotional and physical response to prolonged periods of stress that develop due to economic depressions, war or pandemics, political instabilities, natural disasters and racial injustices.

The USA is experiencing crisis fatigue spawned by rampaging COVID-19, ravaging fires, hurricane flooding, economic depression, food and shelter insecurities and political upheaval.

Physical and mental exhaustion, changes in sleep patterns and diet, unexplained body aches and pains, feeling numb or empty, feeling anxious or helpless, difficulty concentrating, lacking empathy for others, more frequent use of drugs, alcohol and cigarettes, becoming withdrawn…all can be symptoms of crisis fatigue.

Some people are at greater risk than others for experiencing crisis fatigue; poverty, bereavement as a result of crisis, unemployment/financial uncertainty, homelessness, trauma, limited mobility, pre-exisiting mental health condition and discrimination are all significant contributors.  These symptoms can last for weeks or months in prolonged periods of crisis.

The following are suggestions for coping with crisis fatigue:

• Disconnect from media
• Maintain your routine
• Take a break, a time out
• Engage an activity that re-focuses the mind
• Physical activity
• Talk to someone
• Ask for help
• Ask others if they need help
• Prayer and meditation
• Listening to calming music
• Breathe

These are challenging historical moments.  We will get through them.  Be kind to yourself and others.  Plug in to your belief system; turn the bright light on and keep it on.  Take good care.  Stay safe.

Blessings!

Looking at our future from this moment of time can be frightening and overwhelming.  We are suspended in a seemingly unending COVID-19 nightmare, a profound disturbance in our normality.

The future is fluid; very little is set in stone.  Part of our future is determined by circumstances, part by ‘fate’ and then there is ‘free-will’; our personal effort and commitment and the consequence of our decisions or lack of decisiveness.  As 2021 begins it is a good time to take a personal inventory and make plans for your future.

I invite you to do an exercise of intention.  Create some quiet, centered, personal space, and write a letter to yourself  from the future you desire.  The focus can be in your career, your relationships, personal habits you want to overcome, and/or personal goals you would like to achieve.  You can address one issue or multiple issues.  Be as specific as possible not only regarding the end result, but also with the behaviors it will take to accomplish these goals.

Be realistic.  Be thoughtful.  Be kind.  As you write your letter treat yourself with respect and encouragement.  Affirm and support yourself.  Acknowledge your fears, soothe and remove them, choose to entertain faith, not fear.  Create a neat, clean document because you deserve  to be the recipient of a beautifully written letter from your future.

When you are finished, put the letter in an envelope and address it to yourself.  Then give it to a trusted friend, asking them to mail it to you in one month.  Do not omit this important step.

In this exercise, you will have set and defined your intention, and created usable strategies for attaining your future goals.

Start now…your future is waiting!

Blessings!

I have always thought it strange that we end and begin a ‘new year’ in the middle of the winter season.  Yet, there is an aspect that seems to fit for me regarding the reflecting, planning and goal-setting for the coming year.  The winter season is a perfect time to go within; to assess the past year and all it’s glories and defeats; and, to create a plan for the coming year.

For the first time in a really long while I am feeling  excitedly optimistic about the coming year.   I have been mulling over ideas  for the past three weeks.  I am now ready to commit  my goals to paper.

There is no doubt that part of my optimism comes from the acknowledgement of how amazingly blessed I am.

I have a good roof over my head; I can turn on a faucet and not only get potable water, but hot potable water, and,  I can shower in this luxury in the midst of cold, dark and murky weather; I have reliable transportation; good, healthy food in my belly;  amazing services (phone, utilities, mail).  I have the love of friends and family; I am free to come and go as I please; and  I can worship the God of my choice without fear of being nailed to a cross or burned at a stake.

I invite each and every one of you to take a year-end inventory.  Give ‘thanks’ where thanks is due.  Open your mind and your heart to the possibilities awaiting you, like dormant seeds patiently preparing to sprout.

What crop are you going to plant this year?  What seeds are you going to sow?  Plan now!

Your future is in your hands!

The winter Solstice is today.  This Solstice is extra special.  The Great Conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn appears at it’s closest today.  So close that in some circumstances they appear as one very bright star often called the Christmas Star.

Jupiter is expansive, good luck, healing, abundance and fun.  Saturn is rigid, uncompromising, restrictive, responsibility and long-term lessons.

On the Solstice we enter Aquarius, the air element, leaving Capricorn, the earth element.  The Air element is associated with mind, information, communication, innovation, technology, humanitarianism, reform and independence.

Great Conjunctions usually mark a time of immense change.  (Numerically 2021 adds up to 5 and 5 is about change).  Jupiter and Saturn will play significant roles in the years to come…contrasting, conflicting and complimentary.  Expect radical shifts, growth and renewed expectations.  Interestingly, COVID-19 vaccine’s rapid development, using MRNA technology, coincides with this upcoming conjunction.

It is a time for creating solutions for the myriad challenges facing humanity.  It is a time for the growth of greater personal responsibility.  It is a time for finding opportunity in crisis.

Winter Solstice invites rest and reflection;  a time for going within;  a time to honor the past, and let go of that which no longer has positive value;  a time for setting future goals and intentions.  It is a time for hope.

Many Blessings!

Courage is the ability to conquer fear; to confront danger, despair, pain and uncertainty.

Physical courage is required when facing the above, and, for most of us, death or the threat of death.  Moral courage is ‘acting rightly’, especially in the face of opposition, popular opinion and/or peer pressure.

Ernest Hemingway defined courage as “grace under pressure’.  Maya Angelou said, “Courage is the most important of the virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.  You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.”

In the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy, Scarecrow, Cowardly Lion and the Tin Man form a supportive relationship, helping each other to overcome their individual fears and weaknesses, enabling them to follow the Yellow Brick Road.  Along the way they endure many trials and tribulations.   Arriving at Oz they discover a splendid truth; that courage resides within each of them.

Daily living requires courage.  At times, just the act of getting out of bed and facing the day is valorous.  Overcoming trauma, a difficult childhood, striving to become an independent and authentic person all demand courage as an integral part of the journey.

This week I invite you to reflect on your personal courage.  Own the integrity, dignity and resilience that arise naturally from the practice of this essential virtue.

We all have personal belief systems.  The basic tenets are most often rooted in our family of origin.  However, as we mature our belief systems shift, change or simply fall away.  We get on with the tasks of achieving and surviving in an increasingly challenging world;  and, taking our beliefs for granted, they frequently go untested.  It is when tragedy, illness, loss, separation, strife, any of the frailties that the human condition is heir to occur, that we reach out for the comfort and hope of our faith.

As a race we are moving rapidly toward the birth of a new age and the labor pains are getting closer and harder.  Now is the time to ‘plug-in’ to your belief system, to your faith.

The word faith comes from Old English, Old French and Latin.  All define faith as belief, a confidence in or trust (of), especially without logical proof.  Faith is certainty.  Do you have the comfort of certainty in your life?  Does your belief system bring you peace in the face of crisis?  Inner harmony in the midst of strife?

The time is now.  Put your faith to work for you.  If needed, test, explore…rework your belief system to suit who you are; where you are; and, where you are going.

“Heal yourself with the light of the sun and the rays of the moon.  With the sound of the river and the waterfall.  With the swaying of the sea and the fluttering of birds.  Heal yourself with mint, neem, and eucalyptus.  Sweeten with lavender, rosemary, and chamomile.  Hug yourself with the cocoa bean and a hint of cinnamon.  Put love in tea instead of sugar and drink it looking at the stars.  Heal yourself with the kisses that the wind gives you and the hugs of the rain.  Stand strong with your bare feet on the ground and with everything that comes from it.  Be smarter every day by listening to your intuition, looking at the world with your forehead.  Jump, dance, sing, so that you live happier.  Heal yourself, with beautiful love, and always remember … you are the medicine.”  ~Maria Sabina, Healer & Poet

During times of great challenge, self-care is more important than ever.  Breathe, Center, Relax and Heal.  Take good care!

Blessings!

The Holidays are here!  A time for gathering together with family, friends, neighbors and co-workers to give thanks, to celebrate and to socialize.

Gathering is an assembly of people coming together for meetings and events, especially for festive and social ones being held for a specific purpose.

As covid-19 continues to ravage our country, gathering together can be hazardous to our health, and to the health of others.  Logic dictates that we don’t celebrate with anyone who is not a full-time member of our household.  Yet, emotions tug and cajole hard,  encouraging us to go forward with festive plans.  There are positives and negatives in either decision.

If you are choosing to entertain, or be a guest, the following list may be of assistance to you.

• Limit the number of people
• Stay six feet apart
• Have hand sanitizer available (at least 60% alcohol)
• Require masks when not eating or drinking
• Avoid poorly ventilated spaces
• Place central AC on continuous circulation
• Use hepa filters
• Clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces
• Use single towels in bathroom or paper towels for hand drying
• Use gloves when removing garbage, trash or recycle bags/containers
• Do not let pets interact with anyone other than immediate household
• Wear a mask while preparing and serving food to guests
• Have one person serve all the food so utensils are not handled by multiple people
• Launder table linens, dishcloths, kitchen and bathroom towels immediately after the event
• Dispose of sponges
• Use no touch trash cans if possible
• Consider plastic utensils, paper cups and plates or a combination of
• Limit people going in and out of areas where food is being prepared
• Check your State and Local government for the latest rules governing size of groups allowed to gather together
• If you are a guest, bring your own hand sanitizer and masks

Recently, I had a small gathering, five people total.  The weather dictated indoors.  We had three hepa filters (two large which we borrowed) placed in a triangle, and we had three windows cracked open slightly.  If we didn’t have the hepa filters, everyone would have been required to wear a mask.  Hand sanitizer dispensers were placed in obvious and easily accessible places. Paper towels in the bathroom, and one person plating and serving dinner as well as one person cleaning afterward, were additional protocols.  We did not eat together at the dining table, choosing instead to eat our meal distanced from each other, but still able to connect and enjoy each others company.

“This is the power of gathering: it inspires us, delightfully, to be more hopeful, more joyful and thoughtful, in a word, more alive.”  ~Alice Waters

“Every gathering of Americans – whether a few on the porch of a crossroads store or massed thousands in a great stadium – is the possessor of a potentially immeasurable influence on the future.”  ~Dwight Eisenhower

The above quotes reflect both the positive and negative consequences of our collective behaviors throughout the festive season.

If we want to relish being ‘more alive’, if we want the ‘immeasurable influence on the future’ to not be a continuing upward spiral of casualties, I invite you all to take the necessary precautions suitable to your situation.

Many blessings for a joy-filled Thanksgiving!