Struggle and Gratitude 

Most everything worth doing or achieving contains struggles. 

As we pause in the USA to remember our nation’s history and its path to independence, all our foodtalk4you readers around the world should take a moment to recognize and honor their own personal struggles, and how they dug deep within themselves to get to the other side of those challenges. 

We have had more than a few challenges this week at our blog site.  

Our editor, Sheree Alderman, is probably shopping for a wig because she might have pulled out all her curly red locks. She had to untangle technical difficulties many layers deep to rebroadcast last week’s post to alert you of an important poster and linkage, showing the signs and symptoms of heart attacks. Please check that post out HERE – it makes so much more sense with the poster. 

Trying to unravel that problem opened a hornet’s nest of other woes – but with perseverance and an undauntable mindset, she finally got the clarification and technical help she needed.  

My heart is full of gratitude for Sheree and for the one person who finally helped her – and us – otherwise, you would not be reading this.  

And a big thank you goes to a long-time reader of foodtalk4you and author, Shaun L. Griffiths, in Poland, who alerted me of the missing link. I’ve reviewed Shaun’s books on foodtalk4you before – do check out his awesome young adult fantasy books HERE.

Sheree is an author as well! Check out her beautiful and inspiring children’s books HERE.

Speaking of books and gratitude – my deepest thanks to each one of you who so generously pre-ordered my future new release, Toolkit for Caregiver Emotions. Your identities are hidden from my eyes, but I am so touched and humbled by your support for this book and its success.  

You also know by now that your pre-order has been canceled. The Emotions book is still going to be published, but the time frame for that new release could not be modified enough, following Amazon’s guidelines, to get the job done in the way I wanted. 

As I mentioned in the 20 June post, the Caregiver Series is going to get the ‘Cadillac treatment’ it deserves through new cover designs, formatting, advertising – the works. I am creating added follow-up support for readers based upon their needs. This all takes time, effort, and perseverance through struggles.  

So, let’s all pause for a moment to reflect on what personal characteristics have helped us move through the challenges of life. How did you power through adversity? How did you find inspiration, the answer to a problem, or that last burst of energy? What priority did you use to do the right thing? How did you find patience? 

Those are great starting points for writing that personal identity and affirmation statement I wrote about on the 20^th – have you penned yours, yet? Please let me know if you have and how you use it. 

I am enough. 

I am learning. 

I am changing and growing. 

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In health and gratitude –  

Deidre  

Note from Sheree: We’re just real people here behind your computer screen, working hard every week to share our knowledge, experiences – and sometimes, the chaotic and crazy moments of our everyday lives.  

Happy Independence Day – Let freedom ring! S’  

Subtle is an adjective used especially to denote a change or distinction, so delicate or precise as to be difficult to analyze or describe. 

With heart attacks, men are usually not subtle. Men more often experience the classic chest pain, shortness of breath, and dizziness. They frequently describe the feeling of, “an elephant sitting on their chests.” 

Women? Not so much.  

Check out the difference in heart attack symptoms between the sexes. 

You can see in everyday life how women’s symptoms could go unrecognized. Just last week I was feeling: 

Tired? Absolutely! Who wouldn’t be after the fun-filled week I had been having with extra activities outdoors – (closed those exercise rings, buddy!), cooking extra yummy food for gatherings, visiting with family, Graduation party, Father’s Day cook out, and writing for my books. 

Indigestion? I might get heartburn once every week – especially with spicy foods. Nothing unusual. 

Extreme fatigue? I had said to our company I was exhausted before retiring that night – especially when I just learned we’d be getting up extra early to take them to the airport, and we were slated to keep going on down the road to visit more family. 

Stress on board? Oh yes, especially since I had just learned I would not be able to push the publication date of my Caregiver Emotions book to any day later than September 1^st.  

But climbing into bed did not generate that ahhh feeling. Nope. That area of … pain? … just under my left shoulder blade would not go away. 

Hmmm. Had I pulled a muscle? Not that I could recall. Those baking dishes had been heavy … 

No other symptoms. Things didn’t get worse, and I was able to finally get comfortable and sleep a couple hours later to awaken pain free in the morning. 

Hmmm. That had been a new place for me to feel heart-related discomfort. I was still pretty tired and now I was torn about what to do. 

Can you sense the indecision in evaluating all of these subtleties?  

There’s one hard and fast rule I always taught my students and have always tried to follow for myself: 

PEOPLE WHO MIGHT BE HAVING HEART ISSUES DO NOT HAVE A BRAIN TO MAKE GOOD DECISIONS. 

Do not listen to a possible heart attack victim about not going to the hospital – they really do not have the ability – or medical degree or diagnostic equipment – to make that choice.  

If others say you should get checked out, then get checked out. 

So, my schedule that morning got changed, and I got checked out. 

EKG was good. Blood work was done to verify there were no bad markers and no blood clots. Chest x-ray was normal.  

No heart attack.  

Would I go to the ER again? 

Absolutely! 

I also will manage my personal commitments better. The Emotions book will be published just fine a little earlier than I had hoped. It’s all good. 

So, bottom line – learn the subtleties of heart attack symptoms and don’t hesitate to get checked out. The best treatment is prevention, and an excellent summary can be found here: HEART ATTACK PREVENTION.

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In health – 

Deidre  

Cascading.

The extent to which we control our health is the subject of my recent deep dives in reading.  

As a culture, we have come to understand that controlling factors in our external environment – along with what we put into our bodies – has a direct correlation to our health and longevity.  

Nicotine, for example, is bad for our lungs and cardiovascular system. The link of cigarette smoking and secondhand smoke to cancer and heart disease was eventually accepted by our society, and policies to restrict its use and exposure to bystanders are now the norm – although that process took decades. 

Not so for other countries around the world who think we are unreasonably possessed and controlling in our zealous quest to stop smoking. They light up whenever and wherever they please, thank you. 

So, it’s easy to see it’s going to be a harder ‘sell’ to shine a light on how influential our inner environment – created by how our thoughts change the chemistry in our body – is on our health. 

Even when I am learning about the influence of positive or negative thinking, the application of my knowledge is spotty. 

Sigh. 

But we learn from our mistakes, right? 

I know that everything I think is my choice. Sure, I may have been conditioned by circumstances to respond to situations in a certain way, but as a reasoning adult with access to the latest information, I can gain tools to think and respond differently.  

One of my new tools is, You Are the Placebo, by Dr. Joe Dispenza. This book is broadening my understanding of what is physically happening when we think and how thought can change so much relating to our health. 

So – returning to last week’s mention of an exploding glass dish that sprayed tiny shards all over my kitchen and beyond – I had a choice to make. 

Explode like that glass bowl – or not. 

After the initial reaction of dismay – this was a marvel in glass breaking, I must admit – I was immediately disheartened at the extent of the damage.  

An open dishwasher with clean dishes exposed to breakage. Open deep drawer of dishes sprayed with glass shards. A just-cleaned floor littered with glass and carpet nine feet away with glitters of glass. 

Everything in sight had to be cleaned, recleaned, and cleaned up again. Broom. Gloves. Vacuum. Wiped. Over and over.  

Surely, I deserved a meltdown or just a bit of rage. You think? 

I knew I was in control of my reaction. My mantra is, after all, my mind believes what I tell it. I needed to be careful how I related to this inconvenience. Really, it was not life-altering, after all. 

The slow burn of discouragement of having all my earlier work wiped away came to a crescendo when I was asked, “What happened”? 

Then I chose to let loose. I chose to label all the negative things directly and capped it off with how ticked off I was.  

So there! 

Probably even a little dramatic. 

I thought venting would help. Wrong. A wave of negativity physically flowed through me even hours later.  

I was emotional earlier in the day. What I was feeling that night was physical. 

Examining why I had chosen to be as emotional as I was at the time, has proven to be helpful. Sometimes there are subplots to our outbursts. 

I am not advocating ignoring emotions – but a few messages were driven home for me.

1) I could have chosen to laugh at the absurdity of my predicament.

2) I could have asked for help.

3) I could have measured my verbal response to be less dramatic.

It was a matter of choice. I am here to tell you that I physically felt the ramifications of that choice hours later. 

We’ve heard, “you are what you eat.” I can add another aspect to that, “you are what you think.” 

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Right there learning with you –  

Deidre  

Sometimes the inspiration and application of an idea can come from a familiar message that’s been put into new words.

That old idea will grab us in a new way, when it’s presented from a different angle.

I’ve written about taking small steps for years, both here and in my books. But this book about Kaizen I referred to last week, has been just what I needed.

And look – even its size reflects its message!

As I stood in the chaos of moving boxes, not sure of which way to go because some of the options required other efforts to complete, I put Kaizen to work.

Clearly, the whole project, or even part of the project, was not going to be finished that day. What was one tiny thing within my reach that I could put away? One thing.

Easy enough. Done.

Next?

By the end of the morning, I had finished moving my things into the bathroom: Shelving assembled under the sink, objects sorted, discarded, and put away.

This job had been put off for several weeks. I had enough personal hair, make up, and tooth brushing supplies – it was not an urgent task, but to complete moving in, required me to get these things out of the ugly box in my new bedroom.

You can imagine the sense of accomplishment – albeit small – that propelled me to tackle one more object in another box. Ultimately, four or five boxes were processed that day. Wow!

Reading Maurer’s book opened my eyes to another reason why small is good.

Approaching any topic from the point of view of making the smallest changes is simply more user friendly, because we are comfortable with small steps.

When faced with change involving big ideas and big leaps, our fight-or-flight response is triggered. Our body prepares for physical action (fight or flight) and the circuits for less critical operations are shut down.

In a fight-or-flight response, we do not need to digest lunch, or think about our relations with Aunt Sarah. We need to stand and fight, or get out of Dodge as fast as possible.

The problem we face in everyday situations that bring on this response is that it also brings on some degree of fear. We fear departing from anything that takes us away from the norm – and we often end up like deer in the headlights. Stuck. Frozen.

Looking at major projects can leave us wringing our hands and walking in circles.

But, learning to take the smallest step possible keeps that fight-or-flight response asleep. We can tiptoe right around it.

I’m not opening and putting away fifty boxes today. I’m going to find a home for this bottle of Listerine.

Twice weekly, extreme gym workouts aren’t happening; but I did 5 minutes of arm exercises with 3 pound weights during the commercials last night – several times. Whenever I relocate my 5 pound weights, I’ll use them to ramp up the experience.

Little things.

How can you dissolve the potential fear of facing a large or difficult project by finding the smallest possible step to take?

What’s one thing you can do for your health today?

How can you incorporate one more glass of water into your day?

Are you looking at a mess? What is one small object you can put away?

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Quietly stepping around that fight-or-flight tiger.

In health –

Deidre

Bet you thought I had forgotten. Life was such a whirlwind last year, I did forget – at least to write about it.

This year, the ripples of past words and ideas returned to me – this time through an author friend, Otakara Klettke – who posted a query to her friends about what they had chosen as their 2023 Word of the Year.

Brilliant!

I grow so much from 1) setting a mindful intention for my new year and 2) spreading out the contents of last year’s blessings jar – and doing it now, the day after epiphany (as I write this), seems appropriate.

Besides, blessings are pouring in for 2023, and I need an empty jar to hold my notes!

My unspoken word of the year for 2022 had to have been GROW. What a ride of new experiences! Looking back, I am grateful for how life unfolded: I learned new things and improved on them; how I will do some things better; and how I had such amazing support every step of the way.

With most of these life changes complete, Otakara’s query about my 2023 Word of the Year gave me pause to think. Only one word popped into my mind and spirit: LOVE.

Not that love was lacking at any time in 2022, but my soul wants to turn its striving and focus to love.

Certainly, all intentions need to start at home. I’ll be mindful how I explore and show love to myself; but I long to show love more completely to others through my presence, helpful acts, and remembrances.

So, what is your Word of the Year for 2023?

I think it’s better than a resolution – any day – because it’s an intention set deep in our hearts that colors how we think and proceed. Resolutions fade away even before January ends, but an intention can stick with us.

Write it on a sticky.

Make a pretty drawing around your word.

Paint it on a canvas.

Sharing these easy ideas. Just use the options on the MORE button below to share this post with others.

In health and love –

Deidre