WHAT WORKS: HOW TO MAKE HEALTHY CHANGES

It is one thing to know what you have been advised to do or change to make your life healthier. It is quite another matter to know how or to be inspired to get out of a rut.

You may be faced with a serious illness and chronic suffering. You may want to lose a few pounds. You may have other needs.

Most certainly, you will have questions.

I will offer tips about how to make changes that I have learned from you during my twenty years of practice or via the medical literature I have read.

Your invitation is to share your own tips and your own stories about how you have been able to make changes in any aspect of your life. It may be a quick hitting one liner, or it might be more of a narrative.

Who does not want to be able to make the kinds of changes in unhealthy thinking or behavior that will result in greater health and wellness. Each of us has our own challenges. You may not know it, but something you consider insignificant may inspire and inform someone else. You may not know who it is “out there” who shares your struggles. This is an opportunity for you to share your insights or ask a question for others to answer.

You may withhold your name or give permission to use initials or simply remain anonymous.

What I want is to provide a forum for all of us to share ideas about how to make positive changes, to move closer to real recovery, to discard unhealthy and unwanted habits, and to find real and practical motivation from real people who have struggled with whatever challenge they have had and who have succeeded.

What works? What has motivated and inspired you? Do you have a question to which you would like me or others to respond?

All I ask is for someone to take the first step.

And here are some of you who have taken that first step:

Take a 10-30 minute walk every day. And while you walk, smile. It is the ultimate anti-depressant.

2. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.

3. Buy a DVR and tape your late night shows and get more sleep.

4. When you wake up in the morning complete the following statement, ‘My purpose is to _________ today.’

5. Live with the 3 E’s — Energy, Enthusiasm, and Empathy.

6. Play more games and read more books than you did in 2007.

7. Make time to practice meditation, and prayer. They provide us with daily fuel for our busy lives.

8. Spend time with people over the age of 70 and under the age of 6.

9. Dream more while you are awake.

10. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.

11. Drink green tea and plenty of water. Eat blueberries, wild Alaskan salmon, broccoli, almonds & walnuts.

12. Try to make at least three people smile each day.

13. Clear clutter from your house, your car, your desk and let new and flowing energy into your life.

14. Don’t waste your precious energy on gossip, OR issues of the past, negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.

15. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.

16. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a college kid with a maxed out charge card.

17. Smile and laugh more. It will keep the NEGATIVE BLUES away.

18. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good.

19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

20. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

21. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

22. Make peace with your past so it won’t spoil the present.

23. Don’t compare your life to others’. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

24. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.

25. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: ‘In five years, will this matter?’

26. Forgive everyone for everything.

27. What other people think of you is none of your business.

28. REMEMBER GOD heals everything.

29. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

30. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.

31. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.

32. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

33. The best is yet to come.

34. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

35. Do the right thing!

36. Call your family often. (Or email them to death!!!)

37. Each night before you go to bed complete the following statements:  I am thankful for ________. Today I accomplished ________.

38. Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed.

39. Enjoy the ride. Remember this is not Disney World and you certainly don’t want a fast pass. You only have one ride through life so make the most of it and enjoy the ride.

40. Please Forward this to everyone you care about. I just did.

M.G., NassauCounty