November 30th, 2016
I don't recall reading The Secret when it first came out. I saw a video and heard people talking about it. I did read The Magic which teaches us to be grateful as a way to elevate our frequency in order to manifest our goals. I did The Magic's 28 day challenge and I was amazed at how my life changed. I would get up every day and write ten things I was grateful for in my journal. The key was to not only write what I was thankful for but why. The why helps you feel the emotion behind your gratitude. So, writing that I am happy to be healthy becomes more concrete when I write that my health allows me to be present for my children, take care of them and watch them grow up. I also got into the habit of writing Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! after each gratitude. There was a different energy to my life during those 28 days. I had just released my Have You Hugged Your Alien? book, it was self-published and I only ordered a small quantity because I was basically printing copies for myself, to use during workshops and sell to teachers. The book exploded, I sold out, parents, teachers and therapists were ordering it and my workshops took off. I was invited to speak on radio and tv shows and I was totally unprepared.
I got very busy and, even though I always end the day giving thanks for whatever happened that day, I fell out of the habit of weaving gratitude into my every day life. How The Secret Changed My Life by Rhonda Byrne, caught my attention. The cover had the trademark wax seal with the letter S stamped in the middle. I immediately recognized it and purchased the book. As I read stories of people who had stories similar to the one I had a few years ago, I felt my own energy start to fine tune itself. I was feeling that electric surge again. Things in my life were getting easier. I coupled the journalling about what I am grateful for with my vision for 2017.
This past fall, I attended a publishing bootcamp and was taught to write my "heart's desire" list every day. I repeat many of the same items every day. There is usually a new item or something gets re-worded but it's generally the same idea. You write your list in the present tense as if it has already happened. You focus only on what you want to attract into your life. The list should be as specific as possible.
The Secret taught me to really experience the items on my list, thinking about how it would feel, smell, look and sound to manifest this. So I create vision boards, write affirmations and design visualizations of my life in 2017. How The Secret Changed My Life came into my life at the best time. I am working on my new book, The Mommy Monologues. I need to feel confident that people will come forward to share their stories and that my book will get published. I have no idea how people will hear about my book or how it will make it to the bestseller's list but I don't have to worry about the "how". For now, I picture the book in my hands by Mother's Day 2017. I see it as a bestseller. I imagine myself donating funds to two charities that are on my mind and in line with the message in the book.
Practicing gratitude, having a plan and anticipating how great it will feel to reach my goals is not difficult and doesn't require that much energy. I can, however, attest to the shift that happens when I apply these practices. I feel happier, my relationships are more positive and, through synchronicity, I seem to meet the right people at the right time. Works for me!
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
Showing posts with label quality of life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label quality of life. Show all posts
Wednesday, 30 November 2016
Monday, 19 September 2016
Positive Psychology and Community Support
September 19th, 2016
Tonight, I took my girls to their first gymnastics class of the semester. I watch them and give them a thumbs up as they walk the beams, bounce on the trampoline and spin on a tiny pole at impressive heights. They weren't in the same group, much to their disappointment but, they didn't get paired with the mean girl which was an improvement over last semester.
I have started listening to Ted Talks while I watch the class. I have been thinking about the mental health of my children. My eldest feels anxious at night at bedtime. My youngest is totally mellow. My eldest has troubles falling asleep and sleeping on her own. My youngest will sleep anywhere. My eldest always wants to stay home. My youngest and I love going out, seeing people, having adventures. Over the summer, these differences in their temperament is very obvious.
My eldest was anxious about the start of school. She worried about her teachers and classmates. We talked about it. She just couldn't settle. We listened to Headspace, practiced our breathing, I told her stories about our pets to help help her calm down and massaged my daughter's back.
This whole different approach to situations got me thinking about mental health. I read up on childhood depression wondering if my daughter's anxiety was linked to depression. She loves drawing and is really good at it. She hasn't lost interest in this activity. She has friends and was at a party last weekend and has another one next weekend. This reassured me that she wasn't depressed. However, I plan to take her to a reputable acupuncturist for a treatment to see if it can help with her anxiety so she can sleep better at night.
One of the Ted Talks I watched was about Positive Psychology. Martin Seligman talks about our focus on pathology and how this leads people to fear psychiatrists because they feel that they will be judged and that professionals will try to fix them. He explains the need to focus on the strengths of clients not just their challenges. He also poses the question, why aren't we trying to help the average person have a better life?
This has also been on my mind. While I am comforting my eldest, my youngest daughter is not getting attention. While we are focused on people with symptoms, we are missing an opportunity to improve the quality of life of others. Psychology should not just be about solving problems. It is also supposed to study well-being and promote it.
Another interesting talk was provided by Vikram Patel. He explained that there aren't enough professionals for the amount of people struggling with a mental health issue. In some countries where the patients largely outnumber the psychiatrists, they have started training ordinary people to support others while receiving supervision from skilled professionals. He unveiled some significant data which proved that these regular people were making incredible differences.
What if clusters of people were trained to recognize depression, anxiety or risk of suicide and they were paid to perform home visits in their neighbourhood? What if they reported back to local physicians and booked follow-up appointments for clients considered at risk? Would less people go undiagnosed? Would less children fall through the cracks? I think this is a valid solution to our overburdened mental health system. Friendly visitors could provide support, education and referrals all from the comfort of the client's home. This may be the new approach to mental health services-worth considering.
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
Tonight, I took my girls to their first gymnastics class of the semester. I watch them and give them a thumbs up as they walk the beams, bounce on the trampoline and spin on a tiny pole at impressive heights. They weren't in the same group, much to their disappointment but, they didn't get paired with the mean girl which was an improvement over last semester.
I have started listening to Ted Talks while I watch the class. I have been thinking about the mental health of my children. My eldest feels anxious at night at bedtime. My youngest is totally mellow. My eldest has troubles falling asleep and sleeping on her own. My youngest will sleep anywhere. My eldest always wants to stay home. My youngest and I love going out, seeing people, having adventures. Over the summer, these differences in their temperament is very obvious.
My eldest was anxious about the start of school. She worried about her teachers and classmates. We talked about it. She just couldn't settle. We listened to Headspace, practiced our breathing, I told her stories about our pets to help help her calm down and massaged my daughter's back.
This whole different approach to situations got me thinking about mental health. I read up on childhood depression wondering if my daughter's anxiety was linked to depression. She loves drawing and is really good at it. She hasn't lost interest in this activity. She has friends and was at a party last weekend and has another one next weekend. This reassured me that she wasn't depressed. However, I plan to take her to a reputable acupuncturist for a treatment to see if it can help with her anxiety so she can sleep better at night.
One of the Ted Talks I watched was about Positive Psychology. Martin Seligman talks about our focus on pathology and how this leads people to fear psychiatrists because they feel that they will be judged and that professionals will try to fix them. He explains the need to focus on the strengths of clients not just their challenges. He also poses the question, why aren't we trying to help the average person have a better life?
This has also been on my mind. While I am comforting my eldest, my youngest daughter is not getting attention. While we are focused on people with symptoms, we are missing an opportunity to improve the quality of life of others. Psychology should not just be about solving problems. It is also supposed to study well-being and promote it.
Another interesting talk was provided by Vikram Patel. He explained that there aren't enough professionals for the amount of people struggling with a mental health issue. In some countries where the patients largely outnumber the psychiatrists, they have started training ordinary people to support others while receiving supervision from skilled professionals. He unveiled some significant data which proved that these regular people were making incredible differences.
What if clusters of people were trained to recognize depression, anxiety or risk of suicide and they were paid to perform home visits in their neighbourhood? What if they reported back to local physicians and booked follow-up appointments for clients considered at risk? Would less people go undiagnosed? Would less children fall through the cracks? I think this is a valid solution to our overburdened mental health system. Friendly visitors could provide support, education and referrals all from the comfort of the client's home. This may be the new approach to mental health services-worth considering.
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
Tuesday, 7 June 2016
Quality of Life
June 7th, 2016
Years ago, I was hired to complete quality of life surveys in Chronic Care Hospitals throughout Ontario. I loved this work because I got to sit with patients and talk for a bit before and after each survey. They would tell me why they were there and what they missed about being healthy and at home. I got to learn from them what made their stay at the hospital more tolerable. There were hospitals where staff welcomed us and others where we were definitely not wanted. I could get a sense of each unit by the way staff interacted, or failed to interact, with the patients. I saw a lot of lonely individuals but I was also impressed with their resilience. Some people remained optimistic despite really tragic situations.
One of the favorite parts of my job was the challenge of communicating with individuals whose ability to speak was impaired. Some people had computers attached to their wheelchairs. They would move their eyes, tongues or fingers and the computer would type a message. In some cases what they wrote would be spoken out loud by the computer. I would scroll through the lists of names that were deemed unable to complete the interview and I would visit these patients. We would usually find a way to complete the interview which thrilled me. It came down to decoding their language. I would ask Yes/No questions then encourage them to blink, look up or down, stick out their tongue, lift a finger or raise eyebrows in order to say yes. I think these interactions led me to my future career in art therapy. I was so moved by the experience of understanding someone's language, of knowing that this person's voice was heard despite the challenges we faced. Art therapy also gives a voice to individuals who feel invisible, mute or otherwise limited in their ability to express themselves.
I was touched by the simple things that improved quality of life-privacy (knock before you enter a room), kindness (staff who spoke to them and made eye contact every time they entered their room to administer care), connection (having opportunities to interact with others through recreational programs or volunteer visits) and dignity (being treated with respect, not like a number or an inanimate object). There was a really intelligent woman paralyzed from the neck down. She missed having intellectual stimulation. In my time with her we found a wand that she could wear with a band strapped to her head. We could obtain a book holder and use the wand to turn the pages as she read books. She was ecstatic at the thought of reading again. I had suggested audio books initially but she was visual and the audio books did not engage her, she would fall asleep. I thought about this woman for some time after our interview. I can't imagine how difficult it would be to have a perfectly functional brain but an unresponsive body-to have all these ideas and never be able to act on them.
When I wrote my art therapy thesis, I examined the factors that contribute to quality of life and mental health for older adults living in long term care. My goal was to link self-expression through art therapy to each factor. I can now see how each factor would be challenged during a hospital stay.
You are admitted to the hospital because you are no longer able to function the way you used to, you are cut off from your neighbourhood, family and friends, you depend on others for food, hygiene, entertainment, you have less control over your life and you don't have a well-defined purpose when you get up in the morning.
Once in a while, when I feel bummed by events in my life, I remind myself that I am so very lucky that I can get up on my own, drive where I want to go, eat, make plans, choose the activities that fill my day and interact with many lovely individuals along the way.
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
Years ago, I was hired to complete quality of life surveys in Chronic Care Hospitals throughout Ontario. I loved this work because I got to sit with patients and talk for a bit before and after each survey. They would tell me why they were there and what they missed about being healthy and at home. I got to learn from them what made their stay at the hospital more tolerable. There were hospitals where staff welcomed us and others where we were definitely not wanted. I could get a sense of each unit by the way staff interacted, or failed to interact, with the patients. I saw a lot of lonely individuals but I was also impressed with their resilience. Some people remained optimistic despite really tragic situations.
One of the favorite parts of my job was the challenge of communicating with individuals whose ability to speak was impaired. Some people had computers attached to their wheelchairs. They would move their eyes, tongues or fingers and the computer would type a message. In some cases what they wrote would be spoken out loud by the computer. I would scroll through the lists of names that were deemed unable to complete the interview and I would visit these patients. We would usually find a way to complete the interview which thrilled me. It came down to decoding their language. I would ask Yes/No questions then encourage them to blink, look up or down, stick out their tongue, lift a finger or raise eyebrows in order to say yes. I think these interactions led me to my future career in art therapy. I was so moved by the experience of understanding someone's language, of knowing that this person's voice was heard despite the challenges we faced. Art therapy also gives a voice to individuals who feel invisible, mute or otherwise limited in their ability to express themselves.
I was touched by the simple things that improved quality of life-privacy (knock before you enter a room), kindness (staff who spoke to them and made eye contact every time they entered their room to administer care), connection (having opportunities to interact with others through recreational programs or volunteer visits) and dignity (being treated with respect, not like a number or an inanimate object). There was a really intelligent woman paralyzed from the neck down. She missed having intellectual stimulation. In my time with her we found a wand that she could wear with a band strapped to her head. We could obtain a book holder and use the wand to turn the pages as she read books. She was ecstatic at the thought of reading again. I had suggested audio books initially but she was visual and the audio books did not engage her, she would fall asleep. I thought about this woman for some time after our interview. I can't imagine how difficult it would be to have a perfectly functional brain but an unresponsive body-to have all these ideas and never be able to act on them.
When I wrote my art therapy thesis, I examined the factors that contribute to quality of life and mental health for older adults living in long term care. My goal was to link self-expression through art therapy to each factor. I can now see how each factor would be challenged during a hospital stay.
You are admitted to the hospital because you are no longer able to function the way you used to, you are cut off from your neighbourhood, family and friends, you depend on others for food, hygiene, entertainment, you have less control over your life and you don't have a well-defined purpose when you get up in the morning.
Once in a while, when I feel bummed by events in my life, I remind myself that I am so very lucky that I can get up on my own, drive where I want to go, eat, make plans, choose the activities that fill my day and interact with many lovely individuals along the way.
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
Wednesday, 11 May 2016
Book of the Week-The Happiness Equation by Neil Pasricha
May 11th, 2016
Prior to our trip, I ran out of time to go into town and purchase a book. The Happiness Equation caught my eye on a table at Walmart. It's a thick and heavy book, impractical for a trip but it appealed to me and I purchased it anyways.
I like to read when the Vincent and the girls have gone to bed. I curl up on the couch with a cosy blanket, enjoying the quiet. This book had me hooked from the start. It's filled with quirky little diagrams and observations.
Neil talks about this community that lives long, healthy, happy lives. The key is "Ikigai". They all have a sense of purpose, a reason to get up every day. I started to think about my Ikigai. My daughters are mine-loving them, nurturing them and teaching them the important stuff in life. What is your Ikigai?
The author then divides the week into three buckets of 56 hours: one for sleep, one for work and a third to pursue our passion. I was impressed with this, 56 hours per week to pursue my passion. That sounds like a lot! My passions are learning, reading, teaching, creating, writing, public speaking and offering art therapy workshops to children and adults.
In the book, Neil describes how being at work provides social interaction, structure, intellectual stimulation and a story (you are part of the company's story re: who they are and what they are trying to accomplish). He explains how our delusions about retirement being the golden years where we get to do nothing rob us of the four Ss (social, structure, stimulation and story). We are meant to keep working and if we love what we do then it doesn't feel like work.
He believes happiness is only 10% affected by our circumstances, the other 90% comes from our perception. He explains that we pursue success thinking it will make us happy but we need to focus on our happiness first. Neil differentiates between three types of success: making money, earning the respect of others and, feeling proud of ourselves. As long as we depend on others to feel successful, our achievements will never be enough. That's why it's so important to find our bliss and dive in, then we can feel fulfilled.
We are encouraged to achieve a more balanced life by dividing our time evenly between doing and resting. In order to make time to think, Neil recommends we limit the number of choices we make every day to avoid decision fatigue and use that energy constructively. He also believes we need tighter deadlines so we have no time to procrastinate. One of the ways he did this was having 5 minute speeches at his meetings. That way people would get to the point. Everyone felt that their time was well spent. He also proposes having some down time where you can not be reached or distracted so you can just feed your brain.
My favourite part of the book was the three tests on page 245. The point of these tests is to find your authentic self. The tests consist of three questions:
1) What would you do on a Saturday morning if you had no obligations (you are completely free to do what you'd like)?
2) How do you feel when you put yourself in a new situation?
3) Who are the five people closest to you and what do you love most about them?
Neil says the five regrets of the dying are all related to authenticity. It's important to be true to yourself in order to live a happy life. What keeps us from being authentic? Fear. That is why we are encouraged to take action every day. Is there something we can do, even something small to move towards happiness ad fulfillment? Do it. The more we do, the more confident we become in our ability to get things done.
This book really got me thinking and moving in the right direction. Here is another question for you to consider...If you did not need any money, what would you do with your time? Where would you be? Who would you spend time with? What activities would you continue to pursue? Can you find a way to bring this into your life now?
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
Prior to our trip, I ran out of time to go into town and purchase a book. The Happiness Equation caught my eye on a table at Walmart. It's a thick and heavy book, impractical for a trip but it appealed to me and I purchased it anyways.
I like to read when the Vincent and the girls have gone to bed. I curl up on the couch with a cosy blanket, enjoying the quiet. This book had me hooked from the start. It's filled with quirky little diagrams and observations.
Neil talks about this community that lives long, healthy, happy lives. The key is "Ikigai". They all have a sense of purpose, a reason to get up every day. I started to think about my Ikigai. My daughters are mine-loving them, nurturing them and teaching them the important stuff in life. What is your Ikigai?
The author then divides the week into three buckets of 56 hours: one for sleep, one for work and a third to pursue our passion. I was impressed with this, 56 hours per week to pursue my passion. That sounds like a lot! My passions are learning, reading, teaching, creating, writing, public speaking and offering art therapy workshops to children and adults.
In the book, Neil describes how being at work provides social interaction, structure, intellectual stimulation and a story (you are part of the company's story re: who they are and what they are trying to accomplish). He explains how our delusions about retirement being the golden years where we get to do nothing rob us of the four Ss (social, structure, stimulation and story). We are meant to keep working and if we love what we do then it doesn't feel like work.
He believes happiness is only 10% affected by our circumstances, the other 90% comes from our perception. He explains that we pursue success thinking it will make us happy but we need to focus on our happiness first. Neil differentiates between three types of success: making money, earning the respect of others and, feeling proud of ourselves. As long as we depend on others to feel successful, our achievements will never be enough. That's why it's so important to find our bliss and dive in, then we can feel fulfilled.
We are encouraged to achieve a more balanced life by dividing our time evenly between doing and resting. In order to make time to think, Neil recommends we limit the number of choices we make every day to avoid decision fatigue and use that energy constructively. He also believes we need tighter deadlines so we have no time to procrastinate. One of the ways he did this was having 5 minute speeches at his meetings. That way people would get to the point. Everyone felt that their time was well spent. He also proposes having some down time where you can not be reached or distracted so you can just feed your brain.
My favourite part of the book was the three tests on page 245. The point of these tests is to find your authentic self. The tests consist of three questions:
1) What would you do on a Saturday morning if you had no obligations (you are completely free to do what you'd like)?
2) How do you feel when you put yourself in a new situation?
3) Who are the five people closest to you and what do you love most about them?
Neil says the five regrets of the dying are all related to authenticity. It's important to be true to yourself in order to live a happy life. What keeps us from being authentic? Fear. That is why we are encouraged to take action every day. Is there something we can do, even something small to move towards happiness ad fulfillment? Do it. The more we do, the more confident we become in our ability to get things done.
This book really got me thinking and moving in the right direction. Here is another question for you to consider...If you did not need any money, what would you do with your time? Where would you be? Who would you spend time with? What activities would you continue to pursue? Can you find a way to bring this into your life now?
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)