Post-Mortem from my ‘Holiday’
Did you have a nice holiday? Do you feel rejuvenated, relaxed and ready for the New Year? Good for you if you are! Now stop reading and get to it. This message is for the rest of us that are so thankful that ‘the most wonderful time of the year’ is over, at least for now. For me, the holidays this year were much more stressful and challenging. I suffer from depression, I take medication for it and it helps. I know I’m not alone. In fact, according to mental health studies, one in five of us suffer from some kind of mental health...
read moreFeeling old? Try a bite of summer
Recently my wife asked me “What’s wrong with you; take a look at your face!” I barked back, “What are you talking about? I’m fine!” Then I looked in the mirror and got scared. How did this strange, angry, depressed guy get into my mirror? What the hell happened to the ‘happy go lucky, fun loving me’ I once knew? “I’ll tell you what happened…”, I growled to myself, “I’m feeling old”. Now, I understand that ‘feeling old’ is a relative thing; it depends on who your relatives are, genetically speaking. But...
read moreAre You Becoming a “Palm Zombie?”
In the film ‘The Sixth Sense’, Cole Sear is a boy who is able to see and talk to the dead. I don’t see ‘dead people’ but I do see people everywhere staring at the electronic devices in their palms. I call them ‘palm zombies.’ I resisted becoming a palm zombie for as long as I could. I was very happy with my cell phone because I found it very useful for MAKING PHONE CALLS! Besides which I was already spending too much face time with my other ‘computer machines.’ My wife was even nagging me to trade my antique, so yesterday,...
read more“Dad, It’s Time to Move”
My mother told me not too long before she died, “you’ll never know how much you’ll miss me until after I’m gone”. That was my mom, and of course she was right. Now that’s not exactly the point of this post but it does set the stage. There are some things we can’t know or be completely prepared for. We can only imagine (or try to avoid imagining) the realities of losing a parent and becoming the caretaker for the other. My mom died three years ago this month and my dad has done amazingly well adjusting, especially given that my...
read moreIntegration & Collaboration
I’m working on a special program for the North Carolina Health Information Management Association. It seems there is an interest in helping them to deal more effectively with the tremendous changes that are occurring not only in healthcare but in life! So, my contact at NCHIMA and I came up with the title: ‘Integration and Collaboration in Times of Great Change.’ This title seemed to fit nicely with their theme and capture the essence of what people might be able to take from my talk. Now, all I had to do was figure out what I was going...
read moreLessons in Higher Learning
In 1979 Jimmy Carter was the president, Sony introduced the ‘walkman’ and with only a few semesters to go I dropped out of college. I’m not really sure why. I never gave it much thought. That is, till now. Dropping out was just ‘what I did, no big deal…end of story.’ But on an emotional and psychological level, dropping out of school, was not the ‘end of the story.’ There was an underlying feeling of anxiety and shame over my ‘failure’ to finish college. What if someone were to ask, “So, where did you go to...
read moreSomething for Valentine’s Day
My wife is really ‘something’. Why do I say this and what do I mean? I mean, first of all that I really love her. We are together now for ten years – in a row! Given my track record this is a good long run! At least part of what makes her ‘something’, besides living with me for the past decade, is the fact that we eat together, sleep together, walk most everyday together and, most importantly, negotiate the television channels together (together is used loosely here; in the sense that I agree to watch what she prefers and...
read moreHelping Employees Handle Eldercare
Eldercare responsibilities are a reality in today’s workplace, costing employers $47 billion per year! According to MetLife cost surveys, these stressed-out, distracted employees cost businesses $33.6 Billion a year in lost productivity. The number of employees who are shouldering eldercare responsibilities is about to explode as the largest generation, ‘Baby boomers’, postpone retirement while juggling multiple caregiving, work and personal responsibilities. Not only are ‘boomers’ raising children, but over one-half provide care...
read moreWhy We Need a Training Camp for Consciousness
Some of us have worked hard to change our world; some of us have worked hard to change ourselves. And yet, for many of us, no matter how hard we have worked and no matter how much we’ve progressed, something is still eluding us. It’s not an illusion. Something is still eluding us. It is the experience of oneness, the experience of thriving in a thriving world, the experience of going beyond our own narrow self-concerns and living from a place of inspiration and connection, from the place of safety that can come only from knowing...
read moreA Well Being, at Work
I ate too much ice cream last night and my stomach is upset. I’m worried about dad because I’ve recently moved him into a retirement home. I’m stressing about having enough business next year and I feel anxious about all of the uncertainty around politics and the economy. Other than that, I’m fine. Sound familiar? I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to ‘be well’. We’re always asking each other, ‘how’s it going?’ ‘How are you doing?’ If you’re asking me, I am happy to say as of this writing, ‘I’m well,...
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