[Your Rx For Sanity eNews]

Pat Raymond's holiday gift to you, a feature article on taking better care of yourself, plus more of what you've come to expect in the holiday humor department!

My gift to all you hardworking HCP's this month, my thoughts on making YOU a priority to YOU in 2004....

Finding the Time?

Right. In addition to your busy life as a medical caregiver and 21st century human being, we also want you to find the time to care for yourself too; what I call "Turning Care Inward"*. And with New Year's resolutions, you're destined to add a bunch of self-care tasks to your plate this time of year.

Things like:
* Exercise vigorously 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week.
* Pack a nutritious lunch and snacks
* Meditate, journal, do yoga, or be spiritual daily.
* Plan for your financial future.

In your dreams.

Where are you supposed to find the time? We all have but 1440 minutes in each day, and I want you to find, lets see, about one to two hours just for you?

Here's the deal. Consider pruning, clearing out the debris in your life. You need to sit down and refocus on what is important to you RIGHT NOW, and ruthlessly discard the rest. See it as debridement--it ain't pretty, but clears out the dead tissue, and allows healing to occur.

How to begin? Well, first find about an hour of quiet and solitude. Do your best. Sit down with a cup of hot tea, a glass of wine, or your favorite libation, and a pad of paper and pen.

Label the top of seven large sheets of paper:

Food
Clothing
Shelter
Work
Fun
People
Money

Ready? Now canoodle. Regurgitate everything on any to-do list, any distant dream or 'whenever' idea, and anything at all you should or must do. Put the stuff on the most applicable list. Try for about ten things on each list--some'll have more, some less.
* Balancing your checkbook (finally?) goes with "Money", as does seeking a retirement or debt counselor.
* I put exercise in with "Food"; the packed lunch goes there too, as does going out with friends to a restaurant at least monthly.
* "Shelter"? Time for touch up painting, planning your garden, moving?
* Who inhabits your life? The "People" list gets family, friends, significant others, acquaintances, committees...

Done? Whew. Your brain should feel empty and still, like a placid lake. All those little things on your plate should now be listed before you. Now comes the tough part- the debridement.

Go back to each sheet individually. Circle the three most important things to you right now on each page, and number them 1-3. Then tear out the pages to put the pages themselves in their appropriate order for you. Recopy the twenty-one things you have circled on a fresh page. These are the things you should focus on. Put this list in your purse or wallet. Look at it at least once a week. Put your energies there.

The stuff that didn't make the final list? Twenty-one goals are enough for anyone, even a multitasking health care professional, to tackle for now. Ignore, quit, delegate or hire out the unchosen. By not having circled it, it doesn't belong in your life right now.

Some of the stuff you'll debride will be shocking. Friends or acquaintances won't make the cut. Career advancement plans may not have made the final limit. Stick with the twenty-one goals you've chosen.

Don't worry about the things you've discarded. You'll repeat this exercise in March, June, September, and December--your goals will change, your priorities too. But your debridement will have focused your actions, and hopefully shown you what can be discarded to find that time for yourself for care...self-care. Care for yourself first so that you have something good left to use in caring for others.

Debride yourself.
(Read this article in print when it appears in Real Life Health Care, a publication of the Sacramento Bee in early 2004!)

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Just in time for your holiday carolling.....Psychiatric Christmas Carols!

Schizophrenia: Do you Hear What I Hear?
Multiple Personality Disorder: We Three Queens Disoriented Are
Dementia: I think I'll Be Home For Christmas
Narcissistic: Hark the Herald Angels Sing About Me
Manic: Deck the Halls and Walls and House and Lawn and Streets and...
Paranoid: Santa Clause is Coming to Get Me
Personality Disorder: You Better Watch Out, I'm Gonna Cry, I'm Gonna Pout, Maybe I'll Tell you Why..
Borderline Personality Disorder: Thoughts of Roasting on an Open Fire
OCD: Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock..

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Amused by slightly fractured humor? Need to take a little holiday stress out with harming anybody? You've got to check out:
http://ww12.e-tractions.com/snowglobe/globe.htm

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