Tag: General

Share Your World – 2015 Week 9

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How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?

I think I would be a similar age to the one I am now. I am happy to be 52 and starting to count down the years to retirement or working part-time or casual instead of full-time. My life is more stable the older I get—I only need to plan what I want to do with my husband and not around the many children’s activities I had to arrange in my forties.

Are you left or right-handed? 

I am right-handed. I have never really had the need to teach myself to do anything with my left hand although I do admire people who can use both.

If you HAD to change your name, what would you change it to?

I think the name I would choose would depend on what was going on in my life when I had to make the decision. Names are so important and they have to fit the person. My favourite names vary greatly. I don’t write my blog under my real name and choosing a name for it took me about a week—I am happy with it as it works for me.

Where do you hide junk when people come over?

Most of the time people come to our house we know they are coming so we tidy up. I use this as a great opportunity to sort out the papers I was always meaning to get to. If anyone drops by unannounced I am comfortable tidying up around them. My theory is that they have come to visit me—warts and all—not judge the state of my house. I use the closest closed-door to hide the junk and with a new kitten there is plenty of choice as most doors are closed.

Bonus question:  What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

Last week I was grateful that it was the cleaners week to come as I love coming home from work after they has been as the house smells and looks beautiful. To me as I rarely see the cleaners it is like the fairies come in and fix it up.

During the coming week I am looking forward to starting to work with my new exercise physiologists. I have never had a formal exercise program before and am looking forward to the challenge. I am using the move your body to move your mind premise. It should be fun.

http://ceenphotography.com/2015/03/02/share-your-world-2015-week-9/

Goodbye

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You have the chance to write one last post on your blog before you stop blogging forever. Write it.

 

Greetings friends

Open your hearts

Open your minds

Direction helps with desire

Blogging is your community

You can do it—look for the positive

Even in tough times continue to follow your dreams

 

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/last-words/

Mental Lists

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Remember when you wrote down the first thought you had this morning? Great. Now write a post about it.

Every morning as I rush to turn the annoying noise of my alarm off—my brain turns on its autopilot. It instantly begins reviewing what happened yesterday and deciding on what needs to be done differently next time. Changes noted, my brain begins to make a mental list of today’s tasks. It is usually about this time my focused brain kicks in—broadening out the detail based on the overall days plan. Questions I ask myself:

  • What time do I need to leave the house by? I have a 1 1/2 hour commute  each way to work, so if I have a deadline I have to make sure I leave on time.
  • Am I going anywhere after work that requires me to pack an extra bag in the car as I won’t be coming home.
  • Have I got time to write, post and visit on my blog before leaving for work? Most days I make it happen.

Practical plans met, I go on to make my mental list for the day. What are my top to goals for today that if I do nothing else must get done? At least one usually pops straight to mind. I then consider the remaining things I am hoping to complete today and decide their order of priority. I am looking for my top 5 things to do each day. These will be my focus.

  • Two must be done—bigger or more important tasks first
  • Three hope to be done—simpler tasks

By limiting my tasks I focus on each day and not attempting to everything, I find I get more done. Sometimes I will  write down my mental list to give it more clarity and focus. My earlier post Hand Brain Connection will give you more information on this. Today I am off to a good start as I have completed one of my three simpler tasks—writing this blog post and visiting several sites in my blogging community—all before leaving for work.

Yes. Thanks to my mental lists it will be a great day. Hope you enjoy yours.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/first-light/

Back To Childhood

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Tell us about a sensation — a taste, a smell, a piece of music — that transports you back to childhood.

In today’s world there are many new smells. At times, they converge together  and in some ways diffuse into each other. When I was growing up in the 1960’s and 1970’s things were different. In many ways, life was simpler but with a lot less opportunity. Smells were stronger and often less environmentally friendly. So which smells do I remember from my childhood. There are many—some memories are good, the others not so much, but they are still mine.

  •  Fresh salty sea air made complete by the smell of seaweed—growing up we lived in coastal Australia. We were never far from the beach and many holidays were spent there. They were fun times. Today as I no longer live by the ocean I receive a pleasant surprise when I return. One of my earliest blog posts,  Calm Action is on my latest trip to the beach as an adult.
  • Cherry medicine smell—made to taste like cherry to make it easier for kids to swallow medicine. I am still unable to drink Dr Pepper as it instantly takes me back to my childhood and the not so pleasant taste of this medicine—my husband is the same and our kids think we a making it up.
  • Mud—our house was on slope and not landscaped, so every time it rained we had a lot of mud, clay-like solid mud. It had a particular smell and was slippery when wet.
  • Fairy floss—as a child this had a much stronger smell than the pre-packed fairy floss you can buy today. I found that similar smell in the freshly spun fairy floss we found being sold on the street in China.
  • Aniseed lollies—I was the only child in my family who liked these licorice flavoured lollies, so I could guarantee they were not stolen. On the odd occasion as an adult I have bought these lollies I have been disappointed as the smell and flavour is not as strong as it used to be.
  • Eucalyptus smell of the Australian bush—growing up I spent many hours going for bush walks with my family exploring. It has a unique smell and these days unfortunately it is only on weekends away that I get to re-experience my memories.  Although I do live in  an area filled with individual gum trees—the Australian bush is different.
  • Mothballs—back in the day clothes were packed up at the end of the season and stored to make room in the wardrobe for the next seasons clothes. To stop moths and silverfish eating holes in the clothes, two or three balls made of naphthalene were added to the storage container. These had a strong smell and when it came time to change the clothes back again for the next season, it took a long time for the clothes to lose the smell.
  • Epoxy resin—as a child my father made many things as he is creative and talented. I loved it when he worked with epoxy resin—I loved the smell and how quickly it worked. I am sure it wasn’t good for me but as it wasn’t an everyday occurrence it wasn’t a problem.

I have enjoyed remembering my childhood smells. I will keep this post as a work in progress continue to add smells as they come back to me. If you are from a similar era—what smell do you remember? I would love to hear about them.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/the-transporter/

(Eating Disorder Recovery) for Dummies.

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Take a complicated subject you know more about than most people, and explain it to a friend who knows nothing about it at all.

Well it seems amazing to me that today I celebrate my 200th post. I am also proud to say that is has only taken me 276 days to reach this milestone. Not a bad effort for someone who—works full-time and is writing a book.

It is the topic of my book that I thought may work well with today’s prompt—my thing is—how eating disorder recovery is possible. I have worked in the field since the 1980’s and have many years experience supporting people living with and recovering from an eating disorder. But what are they and how does one recover?

Eating disorders are psychological and physiological disorders that takes over the lives of those living with them as well as their families. They are characterised by an obsession with food, weight and body shape. There are 4 types:

  • Anorexia Nervosa
  • Bulimia Nervosa
  • Other Specific Feeding and Eating Disorders
  • Binge Eating Disorders

People living with an eating disorder use a mixture of various behaviours to control their weight, numb their feelings and control their lives. Behaviours used that need to be manged in recovery are:

  • Restriction
  • Bingeing
  • Self-induced vomiting
  • Laxatives
  • Excessive exercise

Recovery involves stopping the use of these behaviours and replacing them with healthy coping skills. But how?

There are 6 stages of recovery. It is an individual journey and  can take between 2-7 years from the commencement of when people decide to recover. This in fact may be several years after the person was diagnosed.

The stages of recovery are:

  1. Nutrition Management
  2. Stopping Eating Disorder Behaviours
  3. Feelings management
  4. Passions
  5. Relationships
  6. Intimacy

My book—Inspiring Hope: How Eating Disorder Recovery Is Possible covers all of these areas and many more. Breaking the hold an eating disorder has is difficult. It requires addressing many individual issues some of which are initially unknown. There is no map for the journey, but it is definitely one that needs professional help. The quicker help is sought, the better. However seeking help late doesn’t mean someone is not treatable — even if you have had an eating disorder for years. Committing to recovery and connecting with a treatment team is what makes a difference. This is always hope.

Possible Inspiring Hope cover

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/daily-prompt-2/

Will I Go?

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Is there a place in the world you never want to visit? Where, and why not?

I love to travel.

If money were no object I would travel to more countries across the world. From my experience, more can be learnt about different cultures by getting off the usual tourist path—we have traveled recently to regional China and Canada in winter.  Learning about a country through its history joins the dots on why things developed and are the way they are.

When my husband and I are considering traveling to a new destination, I ask myself the following questions to discover if it is a place we can visit now. Even if the answer is no, it doesn’t mean it is a place I never want to visit. Everywhere has something new to offer.

  1. Will we be safe? This is particularly important as we like to get ourselves around places not go on tours where you may have a built-in safeguard.
  2. Will we be able to stay healthy? Is the food and water safe?
  3. What , how and where will we eat? What is it advisable not to eat?
  4. How will we get around the city? Will this be possible? In Nanjing we thought we would catch a train however when we arrived at the train station it was literally packed with people. There no signs were in English, we felt claustrophobic so we quickly left and made other plans.
  5. Where do we plan to stay?
  6. What local rules or customs do we need to follow? Can we live with them for a couple of days?
  7. What is the reason we want to visit the country or area? If this is strong enough it can change some of the other answers.
  8. How do we get from the airport to our accommodation? Once we needed to pre-book a private car for a two-hour trip across provinces in China.
  9. Are injections required to protect us from disease?
  10. All things considered is the risk too great for us to travel to this part if the world at this time? YES or NO.

If the answer is yes, we reconsider visiting if the situation changes. In the meantime we will go somewhere else. We will never stop traveling—meeting new people and learning new things as it takes us out of our comfort zone and allows us to grow in ways we couldn’t imagine. Bring on our next adventure.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/no-thanks/

An Offer I Couldn’t Refuse

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Here’s the title of your post: “An Offer I Couldn’t Refuse.”

Set a timer for ten minutes, and write it. Go!

The most important offer I couldn’t refuse was my first job. I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I finished high school. I was 18. I had my life in front of me and only two prerequisites for my job—I wanted to work with people and I didn’t want to be a general nurse. Th world was my oyster but I didn’t know how to open the shell to get the pearl.

At the time my mother was working in the post office in the telegram department and noticed that the delivery boys were making a lot of deliveries to the local psychiatric hospital, literally up the hill. She inquired and discovered they had advertised for six trainee psychiatric nurses. This was a job mum thought would suit me, so she was excited.

At the time I didn’t know much if anything about psychiatry, but the more I investigated the keener I was. It was a type of nursing that dealt with people not bedpans and I was encouraged to talk to patients. Yes. This was my job and now I had to get one of the positions.

After two interviews, despite my young age I was offered a place. It was an offer I couldn’t refuse. My career psychiatric nursing started 34 years ago on Australia Day—what a way to celebrate. It has been the perfect job for me. Now called mental health nursing, it has many areas of expertise. It has taught me many skills and allows me to help people get through very difficult times in their lives.

I am grateful to Matron for believing in this young woman and helping me find my pearl.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/race-the-clock/

Weekly Photo Challenge: Depth

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Whether visually or emotionally, this week let’s dig (or dive) deep.

This amazing old dead tree has been turned into a work of art. It’s home is the Australian Botanical Garden Mount Annan and it adds depth and character to an otherwise ordinary field. Painting the tree bright blue allows it to be special and blend into the skyline at the same time. The animals and birds can still use it for shelter also helping to sustain the environment.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/depth/

Embrace The Ick

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Think of something that truly repulses you. Hold that thought until your skin squirms. Now, write a glowing puff piece about its amazing merits.

Fortunately for me I don’t have anything that truly repulses me. The closest I come to is anything requiring or pertaining to surgery. I am a mental health nurse not a general nurse, so anything greater than a bit of blood or a few stitches required, needs to be managed quickly. Then I hand the problem over to someone who knows what they are doing quickly and watch. Medical shows on television are usually always on at my dinner time and they are the worst— as for some reason, they like to show the gory details. I am brave however, and force myself to watch so I can learn something.

When I do need to deal with something icky, I breathe deeply and l keep in the present moment. By being mindful, I  get the job done quickly. I put on my professional hat and even if it is at home, I use the experience to improve my knowledge and embrace the ick—even if the knowledge I want to improve is a fascinating icky story to tell at a later date around a camp fire.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/embrace-the-ick/

Hand Brain Connection

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When was the last time you wrote something substantive — a letter, a story, a journal entry, etc. — by hand? Could you ever imagine returning to a pre-keyboard era?

I hand write my first draft of just about everything. I find it helps my flow and connects better with my thinking. When I was editing my book, I would rewrite sections from scratch to help my clarity. From this exercise, I discovered I would often write the same information twice—without realising it. I would use the same words, in the same order and in the same place in the paragraph.  This confirmed to me they were correct. I have attempted this same exercise typing it instead of writing the second time and I get stuck. I  didn’t know what I want to say. For me there definitely is a hand brain connect.

As a Toastmaster, I hand write my speeches—both initially and as a way to learn them. Once again this helps with my flow, but I think in this case it also helps me—write like I speak. Once I am happy with my hand written first draft, I type my speech and make any necessary changes.  After I have my completed my speech, I learn it by writing it out by hand several times. It works for me. This process helps me to remember the main points in the correct order.

Today I learnt why this is so. In our brain is a collection of cells called the Reticular Activating System (RAS). They act as a link between our sub conscious and conscious mind. The RAS’s job is to filter all the information the world has to give us on a second by second basis, only drawing our attention to what we want to focus on. By writing things down we trigger the RAS into action. It begins to focus on the topic we are writing about. This definitely helps to explain why for me hand writing before I type gets the job done much quicker than staring at the computer screen.

Personally, I would never want to go back to a pre-keyboard era. Today with the keyboard comes many new options like the internet and self-publishing. But I am not voting hand writing off the island any time soon either. Variety is the spice of life—I’m using both to get the best result.

 

http://youtu.be/QCnfAzAIhVw

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/pens-and-pencils/