Category: Brain Health

The Choice: How to Forgive Others and Yourself and Enjoy Freedom!

Did you get any nonfiction books for Christmas? You know, the ones you (or the giver) thought may improve your life in 2019?

If you didn’t get any literary gifts (a standard and favorite present in our family), and you aren’t primed with any for the new year, may I recommend one to you?

If you’re a lover of memoirs, a WWII history buff, or a studier of the Holocaust, you’ll delight in this read.

If you’re looking for a book that will inspire you to greater heights, show you how to forgive the atrocities of your past, help you understand yourself and your pain, and encourage you to never give up hope, this is one you’ll want to read!

 

The Choice: Embrace the Possible is Dr. Edith Eva Eager’s memoir, the story of a girl who dreamed, had her dreams destroyed, survived Auschwitz against all odds, and learned how to heal herself. And in that process, she learned how to help others heal.

Her parents are killed, the feared, notorious and deadly Dr. Josef Mengele “forces Edie to dance for his amusement and her survival.”

As the back cover blurb says,

 

“Edie spent decades struggling with flashbacks and survivor’s guilt, determined to stay silent and hide from the past. She raised a family and studied and practiced psychology. Thirty-five years after the war ended, she returned to Auschwitz and was finally able to heal and forgive the one person she’d been unable to forgive—herself.

“In The Choice, Edie weaves her remarkable personal journey with the moving stories of those she has helped heal. She explores how e can be imprisoned in our own minds and shows us how to find the key to freedom. A wise, compassionate, and life-changing book, The Choice will provide hope and comfort to generations of readers.”

 

The Choice is brutally honest and revelatory. It’s a poignant coming-of-age story that will touch women and men and adolescents. It’s a story of pain, forgiveness, hard choices, undying love, and reconciliation.

 

I was drawn to the book for several reasons, one of which is its Holocaust story, something I started studying in high school. My father was part of the military group that liberated Dachau in Germany. I’ve seen pictures of the horrors he encountered there, although he could never bring himself to the point of being able to describe them to me.

 

I’ve dog-eared numerous pages in this book that’s filled with psychological insights that gave me “ah ha” moments and a better understanding of grieving loss of a dream or a person.

In her introduction, Dr. Eger says,

 

“If you asked me for the most common diagnosis among the people I treat, I wouldn’t say depression or post-traumatic stress disorder, although these conditions are all too common among those I’ve known, loved, and guided to freedom. No, I would say hunger. We are hungry. We are hungry for approval, attention, affection. We are hungry for the freedom to embrace life and to really know and be ourselves.”

 

Could that be on your “wish list” for your life in this New Year and beyond?

The freedom to embrace life and to really know and be yourself?

 

Maybe you’re on the continuum and have made great headway toward harnessing and enjoying freedom. Maybe you don’t know how to gain it and need a kick start.

If you find yourself in either of these situations, I encourage you to add this book to your 2019 reading list, sooner rather than later!

 

Until next Friday (and next year!),

think about how you can embrace life and really be free!

Blessings,

Andrea

May you prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers (3 John 2).

I receive no monetary benefit from recommending this book or the sale of it.

Doing a 2018 Health and Wellness Checkup and Planning for 2019

Even though Christmas 2018 is now in the annals, you’re undoubtedly looking ahead already to 2019 and all that you hope to accomplish in the New Year. And maybe thinking about what you didn’t accomplish that you hoped to in the outgoing year.

Specifically,

 

Did you achieve your health and fitness goals for the year?

 

I would recommend you don’t spend too much time dwelling on the areas where you missed the mark. Instead, I encourage you to look forward to what you hope to accomplish and how you plan to get there.

Be realistic, and hopeful.

Spend some time thinking seriously about what your priorities will be, and commit those to the Lord in prayer. He may have different (better) plans for you.

Think improvements and changes in bite-sized increments, not huge chunks or grandiose changes that are certain to make your brain rebel.

 

And make sure you write them down, read them often, and post them in a place where you can regularly read them. People who actually write down their goals are far more likely to achieve them!

I recommend starting with no more than three. If you accomplish those, then you can add a few more. Or, if necessary, alter or adjust what you did plan for.

 

Personal successes and failures—

Even though my beloved and I managed to scale the Pyrenees in our Camino de Santiago journey, I certainly—for a variety of reasons—fell short of my hopes.

I ended up having a major surgical procedure that curtailed my training. That added to the difficulty I had on the Camino, with my bad knees giving out on me.

Old, athletic injuries from decades ago were aggravated and are still hampering not only my workouts but also my daily life.

A bone spur removal surgery before Thanksgiving has further irritated my knees and slowed me down. But the surgery was worth it, and I’m already have much less difficulty with the range of motion in that toe. That will help my gait, which was severely compromised.

But even with the stumbles and failures, I’m looking forward to 2019 and the health and wellness program I hope to implement, like:

 

  • More outdoor exercise in a variety of settings—hiking, walking, cycling, swimming, canoeing and camping.
  • A probable regenerative procedure in March or April that will (hopefully) restore cartilage health to my knees! I’ll be filling you in on the process as I prepare for and undergo it.
  • Building a large vegetable garden area in our backyard, something we’ve wanted to do for a long time. But gardening in the Southwest is challenging (we refer to it out here as Blast Furnace Gardening); and what the sun and wind don’t burn and whither, the wildlife devour. So that means fences, netting and shade cloth. We’re already in the planning and preparatory stages. (Yes, this does fall under the heading of health and wellness, for several reasons. I’ll cover those as I keep you up-to-date about our successes, and failures.)

 

And I have a lot of current topics planned for you too! Like:

  • The Benefits of Low Impact Exercise
  • Blue Zone Living Methods
  • Exercises to help you Maintain Your Balance
  • Cognitive Exercises and Brain Beneficial Supplements
  • How to Effectively Re-train Your Brain to Change Your (Negative) Habits
  • and More!

I’m excited to share all of this with you in the new year; and I hope you’re looking forward with excitement to the changes—big and little—you can make to enhance your health and fitness,

 

so you can live a better, more balanced—and energetic—life!

 

Happy end of 2018!! (Make sure you celebrate what went well!)

Blessings,

Andrea

May you prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers (3 John 2).

The True Meaning of Christmas Joy

Have you sung this famous Christmas carol yet during your celebrations?

“Joy to the world, the Lord has come. Let earth receive her king.”

It’s an uplifting, boisterous song, oozing happiness and promise.

Are you feeling the joy it describes?

 

For many, Christmas is a season of deep joy and peace. For others, the lights, decorations, presents, celebrations, and peace to all men of goodwill talk are the polar opposites of what they’re experiencing in their homes.

Their lives are a stark reminder of why Jesus had to come to Earth in the first place.

And all of the trappings don’t erase their pain and suffering.

And it’s also likely that the “joy” so many are experiencing is not real joy at all but temporal happiness that changes as circumstances change and disappointment sets in.

 

But the promise of Christmas is the real, everlasting joy that Jesus brought to Earth over 2,000 years ago and still offers us today.

But His joy had little to do with temporal happiness or comfort, as His life demonstrated.

As David Brickner says in the December Jews for Jesus newsletter:

 

“[The joy set before Jesus] (as noted in Hebrews 12:2) had very little to do with His personal happiness on earth. Certainly, Jesus was looking past the shame of the cross to fully restored fellowship at the right hand of the Father. But that joy before Him also included the prospect of relationships He would enjoy with those who put their trust in Him. And I think He also had in mind the joy that His suffering would make possible for you and me.

“Jesus’ joy became ours when we trust in Him, and remains ours as we enjoy true fellowship with Him regardless of life’s circumstances.”

 

That’s a statement to meditate on: Jesus’ joy was based on the joy that would result for us from His suffering. He suffered so we might experience joy. And that act brought Him joy.

 

But for a moment, let’s go back to the song.

 

There’s another phrase in “Joy to the World” that says, “Let every heart prepare Him room.”

The message from Scripture, David’s words and the words of the song are clear: without Jesus residing in your heart, it is impossible to experience or possess true joy.

While God gave His son because He loved the world so, the truth is that we must believe in that Son in order to have eternal life, to avoid perishing. To have joy, in all it’s heavenly splendor and depth of meaning.

 

And one more thing about that wonderful Christmas song.

It wasn’t actually written for Christmas—the birth of Jesus—at all.

It was written about His return. A future hope. His return to Jerusalem to establish His kingdom on Earth.

As David Brickner also says:

 

“When you sing that carol will you be thinking about the little town of Bethlehem or about Jerusalem? There are only sixteen miles between those two cities, but for Jesus, that journey took a lifetime of endurance and suffering and death so that He could bring forth an eternity of joy and rejoicing.”

 

So this year when you’re belting out “Joy to the World” at your Christmas Eve service or church service Christmas day, or as you continue to hum and sing it through the rest of the year, I encourage you to think about not only Jesus’ miraculous birth but the joy of His return.

And while you’re at it, make sure you share that joy with others, so they, too, can experience true joy, regardless of any circumstance they face.

That’s the best gift you could give anyone!

 

Until we get together next Monday, I pray you

Have a truly blessed Christmas,

Andrea

May you prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers (3 John 2).

Photo by Ben White on unsplash.com

Enjoying the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I just love this time of year. The lights, the celebrations, the dressing up in Christmas finery to attend plays and parties. I listen over-and-over to Christmas songs I’ve heard and sung a million times, spend too much, eat too much, and stay up way too late binge-watching Christmas movies, which we now have a healthy collection of in the Owan home.

In spite of the world’s sorry state, we can set aside the sometimes-drudging reality of our lives to live in wonder—the wonder of heaven tearing open the thin veil between Heaven and Earth, God’s spirit indwelling human flesh, the beginning-of-time prophesy being fulfilled, the hope and promise of prophesy yet to come, the real beginning of the march toward Easter sunrise three to four months later.

 

I don’t care if the dead of winter really wasn’t the Lord’s true birth date, or the Catholic Church borrowed the green winter solstice tree from the Druids and Celts and re-invented a celebration in order to appeal to the pagans to join the church. (Happy Winter Solstice Day, by the way.) I don’t even care that celebrating birthdays was a pagan tradition (who knows that kind of stuff now, anyway, except the Jehovah’s Witnesses, some Messianic groups, and trivia buffs?) and Christians didn’t want to celebrate it because of that. (The real practicing pagans believe that evil spirits lurk around during days of major changes, like the day you turn a year older.)

Jesus said, “I make all things new.” And this time of year, I’m going with that.

The genius author Charles Dickens managed to re-focus Christmas into a worldwide celebration, (if you haven’t seen the movie The Man Who Invented Christmas, you’re missing out!) where people set their hearts on others and try to bring joy into someone else’s life (and there are a lot of people who need some extra joy). Dickens shed light on the terrible plight of the poor (which he had experience in) and opened people’s hearts to look around them, to see beyond themselves, to lighten the burden of the downtrodden and disadvantaged.

To make people think about how God views our attitudes and behavior toward our fellow man. (Something that should stay with us all year.)

Of course, we have gotten carried away with the commercialism, but we can turn away from that and enjoy the holiday for what it is—a time to truly turn our hearts toward and honor and celebrate the birth of the man known as

  • Immanuel (God With Us)
  • Wonderful Counselor
  • Almighty God
  • Prince of Peace

 

In the back of my mind, I know January 2 is coming, when the festivities will end, I’ll need to reconcile my checkbook and finances, my monthly income will drop like a rock for half the year in order to satisfy the social security taxes due for 2019, and I’ll be back to living out the day-to-day, which isn’t always very exciting, or forgiving.

But today, and for the next several days and especially Monday night and Tuesday, all day, I’ll be celebrating. It’s a veritable peek into the wedding feast of Heaven I’ll enjoy some day.

 

I hope that’s what you’re celebrating too!

 

Until next time—quiet or boisterous—make it a very Merry Christmas!!

After all, if you are a follower of Jesus, you have MUCH to celebrate!

So Rejoice!!

Blessings,

Andrea

May you prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers (3 John 2).

Orthorexia: When Healthful and Clean Eating Become Dangerous

Here on the Workout Wednesday edition of my blog we’ve been talking a lot about how you successfully make it through the holidays health-wise with careful, healthful food selections.

 

But I have a question for you?

Are you so fixated on “healthy eating” that you’re in danger of being obsessed with it, and close to damaging your own well-being?

If you didn’t think focusing on healthful and clean eating could be a problem, think again.

 

Being so healthful and clean eating focused might land you a diagnosis of what behavioral scientists call “orthorexia,” although the term is not yet officially recognized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual.

 

Awareness of this disorder—an obsession with proper or “healthful” eating—is on the rise, though.

 

Identifying orthorexia—

Some of the hallmarks of orthorexia include:

  • Unusual interests in the health status of what others are eating. (You know, like the person who’s always evaluating everyone else’s food choices.)
  • Spending hours per day thinking about what food might be served at upcoming events.
  • Showing high levels of distress when “safe” or “healthful” foods aren’t available.
  • Obsessive following of food and “healthy lifestyle” blogs or articles on social media sites or in health and exercise magazines.
  • Compulsively checking ingredient lists and nutritional labels.
  • Eliminating an increasing number of food groups—like sugar, all carbs, all dairy, all meat, all animal products—from your diet.
  • A psychological inability to eat anything but a narrow group of foods you’ve deemed healthy or pure.

 

But unlike anorexia or bulimia, concerns about body image may or may not be present.

Yet like an anorexic, an orthorexic is prone to malnutrition because she is likely to restrict the amount and variety of foods she eats. Because of this, anorexia and orthorexia share many of the same physical health issues.

 

Orthorexia treatments—

Although there are no clinical treatments designed specifically for orthorexia, “many eating disorder experts are treating orthorexia as a variety of anorexia and/or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).”

I think that makes sense because the definition of the disorder indicates the person is driven to exert unbending control of the kind of food they’re eating. Like other eating disorder sufferers, they’re obsessed about food eating, healthful eating in particular.

And being focused (obsessed) on healthful eating 100% of the time doesn’t always equate to having a healthful (balanced) lifestyle. It seems that you might just be too tipped in one particular direction. And rigid in your thinking and behavior.

 

There are some treatment techniques, which include:

  • Psychotherapy to help the patient increase the variety of foods eaten.
  • Exposure to feared foods that stimulate or provoke anxiety. (This is also a treatment technique for anxiety and phobias.)
  • Weight restoration protocols. (I would guess that the psychologist would enlist the help of a registered dietician for this too.)

 

Can you identify?

Concerned you or a loved one may suffer from orthorexia? If so, you might be interested in the following.

 

For more information, watch the brief YouTube video about “The Dangers of Dieting and Clean Eating” produced by the National Eating Disorders.

 

 

Take the eating disorder assessment—

And if you are concerned about your eating habits or the possibility that you may suffer from an eating disorder, you can take this on-line assessment. nationaleatingdisorders.org/screening

 

Don’t be a slave to your food!

Eating disorders can rob your holidays (and daily life) of joy and peace and good health. They affect the quality of your life. As the registered dietician says in the video, they hamper or curtail your spontaneity. And that can make life dull and rigid.

As I used to counsel my patients, everything in moderation, including moderation.

 

I think you get the point. Unless you’re really allergic to a certain food, (or consuming certain foods sends your body into reactive contortions), I think it’s okay to occasionally bend your own eating rules.

I’m not advocating for turning your back on organic, healthful foods prepared without preservatives and with minimal to no sugar, etc., etc. What I am encouraging you to do is to “let your hair down a little” as the old saying goes.

And stop eyeballing everyone else’s food choices with a critical eye.

I think you really will enjoy life more! And if your body is in a healthy state, it will be less likely to react negatively to an occasional break from perfect.

 

Until next week,

Have a joyous Christmas!!

And enjoy your feasts!

WoBlessings,

Andrea

May you prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers (3 John 2).