Month: September 2012

A medical system where patient harm is part of standard care, yes, here in the USA

The debates about health care reform frustrated me because our complex system of health care and culture of medicine were reduced to simple sound bites. People pushed the idea that changing the payment system would solve the problems. But I observed every day what I see to be the main driver of health care costs: the massive variation in the quality of care – across the country, within cities, and even within good hospitals. I saw this variation in quality and the alarmingly high error rates, and it hit me that unless we can be open and honest that up to 30 percent of health care is unnecessary, and that 1 in 4 hospital patients are harmed by a mistake, then we’re just going to be continuing to beat our heads against a wall trying to pay for a broken health care system, instead of fixing it. (and more about pharma's part in it too)

Thoughts about the change of seasons…fall is upon us, winter approaches

I'm loving the approaching fall this year!! The last several years I've dreaded the coming of winter...but not anymore...I embrace both the summer and winter of the planet and my own being too... Last year...as the seasons changed at the same time of year I wrote this: I wonder why if one’s feelings changes with... Continue Reading →

Mental health professional: first heal thyself

HEALER HEAL THYSELF... (graphic)

To the mental health professional: first heal thyself. ~~ I spent about 15 years in social service agencies in the United States as a social worker serving folks with a large spectrum of mental health issues.   I've spent another 20 years helping those harmed by psychiatry find healing, while I did the same for myself. What I learned is that, as a generalization, most mental health professionals are not comfortable with their own unchartered psyches and therefore, project their fear onto the people they are charged to help. This unconscious habit contributes in large part to the incredibly unsuccessful mental health system in our country. It's much more appropriate to call it a mental illness system as that is what it breeds and perpetuates.

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Hatha yoga!! and Buddhist meditation meet: Savasana with B. Alan Wallace

My long-term chronic illness actually taught me that meditation can be done from any posture and that, in fact, one's life can be a meditation. I love Shavasana or (Savasana, as I spelled it in my posts) and because I've been so ill I certainly used it to meditate when I could not sit upright for two years. I've put two photos on here from the position as well because I love it and do it daily. In the spring and summer I do it outside.

Shaming children is emotional abuse

Shaming children is abusive and it's one of the many hidden sources of trauma since people sometimes need to learn what shaming behavior is. This is especially true if parents were subjected to shaming themselves by their own parents and have never recognized it as abuse.

To be alone is essential

To be alone is essential for man to be uninfluenced, for something uncontaminated to take place...

The necessity of madness and unproductivity

We are not meant to be slaves to capitalism and yet, that is what happens to far too many of us. Mental well-being cannot be sustained given how people are forced to harm themselves just to survive. John Breeding argues for the necessity of madness and unproductivity in his book by that name.

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Shame: a painful emotion caused by a strong sense of guilt, embarrassment, unworthiness, or disgrace

Insights about shame...I think of shame as an unclean emotion. It's laden with ideas of unworthiness and inferiority that are separate from the root emotions. These ideas attached to emotions, make shame extra tricky to sort out. Pure emotions without the baggage are much easier to deal with, process and integrate. It's worth thinking about shame and how we experience it.

Every (human) is capable of uttering profound truths: here’s how

Every day we slaughter our finest impulses. That is why we get a heartache when we read those lines written by the hand of a master and recognize them as our own, as the tender shoots which we stifled because we lacked the faith to believe in our own powers, our own criterion of truth and beauty...

Saturday mellow

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Festive winter root veggies

Fall has arrived on this hemisphere... I found the recipe that inspired this dish from Dr. Weil . I pretty much did exactly what he suggested but I only used some of the veggies he suggested. I didn’t include potatoes as I don't eat them. I also roasted the vegetables in a bit of coconut... Continue Reading →

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