Caffeine and the reversal of Alzheimer’s

July 6, 2009

July 7th Lunar Eclipse in Capricorn

July 6, 2009

canyonlands lunar eclipse blog smallA lunar eclipse is a time for beginnings, endings, exposure and major changes. It always has to do with “relationships.”  The changes are tied to how we relate and will have a lasting impression.

Emotions run high, causing upsets and feelings of disorientation.  Actions taken often do not have the expected results, but they do bring awareness and enlightenment.  The energy of an eclipse is strongest during the two days before and the three days after its occurrence.

At lunar eclipse we merge, unite, announce, contact, present ourselves, bring something out into the open, make decisions, engage, rise to the challenge, make an effort, change, get a new perspective, join with others, take on greater challenges, travel at a faster pace, feel restless, feel pressured by deadlines and a buildup of emotions, and experience excitement and crisis.

This lunar eclipse is a supercharged full moon.  The blocking of the Moon’s reflection of the Sun’s light by the Earth suggests that our material viewpoint stands in the way of our “seeing the light.” It serves as a reminder that we need to realize how we are held in the dark by virtue of our perspective.

Eclipses always arrive in pairs two weeks apart, and they always coincide with a new moon and full moon. Eclipses have three times the power of a new moon or full moon rolled into each one, and are felt over a much longer period.

The eight eclipses of this new family of eclipses, that begin with this present one, will come over the next two years and will fall in different, quite random, mathematical degrees. This means that not all the eclipses in this family will affect us in an equal way. In fact, depending on your birth time and date and the other planets in your chart, you may not feel too much of an effect at all, but others could be incredibly dramatic.


Illness and other fortuitous misfortunes

July 5, 2009

I’ve been thinking a lot about the many fortuitous misfortunes which happen in our lives, detours which often lead to some amazing bouts of self-discovery and positive transformation.

For example, I saw Garrison Keillor on PBS the other night.  He told the story of his early years.  His dream job at that time and only goal as a young writer was to work at the New Yorker Magazine.  Then fate stepped in with a timely and “fortuitous rejection” from the New Yorker, a rejection which lead to a very different future for him.  He greatly appreciates the results of that misfortune today!

Sheryl Crow also now speaks of what she calls “detours” which show us we really have very little control over what happens next in our lives, even though we think we do.  One week after she broke up with Lance Armstrong, she learned she had breast cancer.  She feels these type of detours “remind us who we are and what is important in our lives.”  After finding a cure for her cancer, she felt confident enough about her future to adopt a son and buy a ranch outside of Nashville.

These two celebrities are not experts on life.  They just call them as they see them.

My own experiences have paralleled theirs.  It seems sometimes the only way for life to get our attention when we are determined to pursue a path which may not be good for us, is by conking us over the head (sometimes literally!) with some apparently accidental happening or illness.

My fortuitous misfortunes have been many in the past few years. I now count my ex-husband and my mutual decision to divorce in 2001 to be among my luckiest.  For without that major bump in the road, I never would have learned so much more about who I am and what I need to happen before I die.

By spending much time alone with myself, studying who I am and how I relate to others, I created a true transformation within which led to my meeting many amazing and wonderful new people.  For example, I met my soul mate and life partner Mike.

Without my divorce and subsequent job loss,  I probably wouldn’t have learned how much better my life could be.  I may never have experienced the kind of boundless, unconditional love and support I have today.

Now I’m learning from some other misfortunes, a traumatic brain injury and a toxic case of Candida albicans.  The lessons are varied and many, but the student is ready to learn!


Ten easy steps to enhance your sense of well-being!

July 3, 2009

fireworks blog size

Happy Independence Day!

To escape the gloom and doom of the latest news (and the relentless gory details of Michael Jackson’s sad demise) I would like to provide you with my own version of how to cheer up your life:

  1. Hug your sweetie, your pet or get a massage!
  2. Eat a healthy, anti-inflammation diet.
  3. Start believing in yourself today!
  4. Write down your feelings, fears, frustrations, everything.
  5. Clear out your work space and your head!
  6. Exercise. Whatever you do is better than nothing!
  7. Go have some fun. Decide what you like to do and do it!  Don’t forget to be creative!
  8. Feel gratitude for everything in your life, even your difficult emotions because they are the ones that will wake you up!  Watch this short video to help you appreciate it all!
  9. Ask for exactly what you want. Plan your best possible future and then create a vision board to see it now!
  10. Say “I love you and accept you exactly the way you are” everyday to yourself in the mirror until you believe it!

Pursuing love at any cost

July 1, 2009

I find the recent news story about South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford to be an interesting case of midlife love.  One way it MAY be different than the standard midlife philandering stories like that of Eliot Spitzer or President Clinton, is that Mark Sanford believes that he found his soul mate in this Argentine woman.  I believe that is possible.

In the end, we all seek to feel unconditional love and acceptance at some point in our lives.  That was my quest after my own divorce in 2001.  I wanted to believe it was possible in this crazy world.  We also do not choose when we will meet others we can truly share our world with on so many different levels.  It is so very rare to meet someone of true soul mate quality ever in this lifetime.

Mark Sanford did what was expected of him.  He married young and had a family.  I believe it is quite rare to find your soul mate in those we marry at an early age.  So the question then becomes, do we deny ourselves ever experiencing that kind of closeness again in our lives?

Mark has answered that question for himself.  He committed at least emotional adultery with Maria Belen Chapur.  He made his choice knowing full well the consequences of his actions.  He is willing to accept the judgment of others as well as that of his God.

I am glad that he at least took full responsibility for his choices and his actions.


Midlife Crisis: What could be more natural?

June 30, 2009

cultural_creative

After all I’ve been through, and speaking from the perspective of one who is well into her second midlife crisis (at least!), I realized today:  What could be more natural than stopping in midlife to seriously consider where I’ve been and where I hope to go next.

An elder friend of mine said to me yesterday that the best thing you can do for yourself at some point is to forget about your past and begin living for today.  I completely agree, but I have found it useful and necessary to first stop and consider how all that I have experienced in this lifetime has made me what I am today.

Imagine all the relationships you have been through and all you have learned from them.  All the good and not so good jobs with the many, varying bosses and coworkers.  All the positive things that have happened to you and the misfortunes.  This myriad experience is your life and this is how we learn.

I believe the greatest advantage there is to considering my past is to see what worked and what didn’t.  I made a list the other day of  “What works for me” because I want to quit fighting with life, trying to make myself do things that don’t work for me.  I want to start going with the flow more successfully.

Here are a few things I have found work for me:

Only spending time with those that honor and respect me

Exercise and healthy eating

Balancing the needs of my mind, body and spirit

Asking for help, love and support when I’m in need

Writing about what is important is me

Taking good care of myself

Asking for EXACTLY what I want!

I am searching once again for a kind of right livelihood that comes naturally, something I enjoy and feel useful doing in the world.  I am tired of the constant struggles and stress involved in selling my writing.  Marketing feels ugly to me and absolutely not who I am.

I am a cultural creative who struggles with her culture.


It’s Carnival Time Again!

June 29, 2009

Dina over at This Marriage Thing has put together an amazing new Blogging Boomers Carnival just for you!  Quick, go see!


MIDLIFE CRISIS, ONCE IS NOT ENOUGH!

June 26, 2009

Body wisdom

On Google I notice the apparently endless questions about midlife crisis.  It sometimes seems these requests are couched in a strong desire to somehow curtail or avoid the myriad of gifts provided by a life crisis.  The problem with this way of thinking is that there is NO WAY to avoid an occasional crisis, and you will never learn and grow if you don’t bottom out every now and then!

Let’s go through the five things we cannot change about our lives:

  1. Everything changes and ends.
  2. Things do not always go according to plan.
  3. Life is not always fair.
  4. Pain is part of life.
  5. People are not loving and loyal all the time.

If we can somehow learn to accept these five truths then we will never be in crisis again.  Unfortunately most of us cannot.  By the time we hit midlife we are old enough to have experienced a number of life’s ups and downs.  We know anything can happen at any time to any one of us, and therefore we have learned to cherish the good times in life.

We have also learned how frail and vulnerable we can feel when we hit a bad patch.  This is our opportunity to feel human, fallible and just like everyone else.  If we are lucky we can find some  compassion within for both our own flaws, and for everyone else who struggles everyday to care for themselves with just a tiny bit more loving kindness.

Circumstances change, life becomes confusing, and we must sometimes accept how out of control our life can be at times, and how fundamentally ordinary we are in this world of troubled souls.

I just realized this morning that I’m now well into my second midlife crisis.  I changed lots of important but external circumstances in my first crisis.  Now it’s time to deal with that nasty internal baggage, that which is so much more difficult to acknowledge and change.

Issues with my health have final gotten through to my psyche strong enough to demand proper attention.  Between a serious accident and traumatic brain injury last year, and my recent experiences with Candida overgrowth, I finally see my body is trying to tell me something!  The question is, what will it take to make me wake up and listen?

I’ve heard quite a bit from my body in the past few days.  It informs me through a difficult case of skin infections, that I must now acknowledge and accept how I have stuffed my feelings by way of a serious sugar addiction.  I also see how much I have been in denial about the mental deficits brought on by a traumatic brain injury.

The wisdom of the body is amazing!  It just keeps talking until we finally listen or die!


Post-concussion syndrome

June 25, 2009

brain photo blog sizeAfter struggling for over a year with some difficult and confusing symptoms which emerged after a traumatic brain injury last May, I finally did the needed research yesterday. I found that I have been contending with a well-known set of symptoms called post-concussion syndrome.

I know, I’ve made a few jokes about my spaced out condition, but I finally decided my difficulties were no joke to me because they continue to get in the way of my work and my relationships with others.

Here are some of the primary symptoms of post-concussion syndrome:

  • Attention deficits, difficulty sustaining mental effort
  • Fatigue
  • Impulsivity, irritability
  • Low frustration threshold
  • Temper outbursts and mood changes
  • Learning and memory problems
  • Impaired planning and problem solving
  • Inflexibility
  • Lack of initiative
  • Dissociation between thought and action
  • Communication difficulties
  • Socially inappropriate behaviors
  • Self-centeredness and lack of insight
  • Poor self-awareness
  • Impaired balance, dizziness and headaches

Medications and cognitive rehabilitation have been found to be ineffective in treating these symptoms, but neurotherapy (EEG biofeedback) has found some success in teaching the injured patient how to promote normal functioning in the brain by normalizing dysfunctional brainwave patterns.


Who are the new entrepreneurs?

June 23, 2009

If you were thinking those innovative youngsters are the “new entrepreneurs” of today, think again.

According to a report from the Kaufman Foundation, Baby boomers age 55 to 64 have the highest rate of entrepreneurial activity.

I guess we need to do SOMETHING when we lose our jobs.  That explains why everyone I meet seems to think they are entrepreneurs.  However, that number gets greatly reduced when we see how many are actually making money with their enterprise!