RECOGNIZING 9 EARLY WARNING SIGNS OF DEPRESSION (ISSUE 144) SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

By Diane Gold

Recognizing 9 early warning signs of depression may sound like a thoughtless, insensitive question, uttered by someone who does not understand or is not experiencing depression. Let’s just say immediately that it takes extreme courage and focus to see ourselves, in general, and to see what is happening to us, in specific, while it is happening.

The reason it is monumentally difficult to see early signs of depression is because the small changes in our behavior that started out as subtle itches and repetitions of certain behaviors over and over again are now normal every day events. Once behaviors become habitual, meaning they are second nature, it takes pure focus and understanding to see and the will power of a saint (which we all have) to do something to replace it.

THE HABIT CYCLE

When we get a cue or urge, it triggers a behavior. When we execute the behavior, this leads to some sort of comfort or reward, negative or positive. When we repeat this cycle over and over, we develop a habit, which gets more ingrained with time.

According to Deepak Chopra, MD and spiritual author,

“Once it [a behavior] turns into a habit, depressed people no longer need an outside trigger.”

What this means is that, when depressed, we don’t have to have an outside event like a car accident, a bad mark on our exam or a relationship breakup to trigger behavior that makes us depressed. We are already there. And this reality is not exclusive to depression.

PERSPECTIVE

When we are in a depression, we are not looking at it because we are busy experiencing it. We can think of living in a valley (a depression in the land) in much the same way. We are not looking at our lives from the perspective of mountain dwellers since we don’t live in the upland. Our perspective is from the point where we are, living in the lowlands, the valley.
When it comes to living with depression, people who have experienced it know how it feels. And, in most cases, depression did not appear immediately. And that’s what this article is about: noticing the ever so small changes that contribute on a daily basis to what results as depression.

So, I ask each of us to be diligent. Many of us will say,

“Oh, I am fine. I could never have such a problem,”

or

“Don’t worry. My friend is fine. She’s just going through something right now.”

The truth is we are all capable of great sadness. When something happens, we react. Because feelings are subjective, there is no measure for what emotional reaction is right or wrong. The measure comes from whether we can adjust and bounce back and live well.

THE SIGNS

1) SOCIAL WITHDRAWAL

Little by little, we might see that we are spending more time at home, missing a little work here and there, having difficulty getting dressed to go out to socialize, going to lonely places. As with all actions, when we repeat them, they become more comfortable to do again. Kind of like tying a shoe or brushing our teeth.

2) NOT LIKING OURSELVES

If we find that we are continually deriding ourselves, blaming ourselves for situations that exist in our minds or in our physical circumstance; it’s time to take notice. This could be a sign.

3) FEELING SAD OR HOPELESS ON A REGULAR BASIS

No matter who we are, we can feel sad, hopeless, listless. We may have a billion dollars and be responsible for philanthropy that is responsible for health giving sanitation to a whole country and still be sad. We may be stuck in a CEO or a janitorial position and feel trapped. We may not make ends meet for our family. We may not make ends meet for our family and then find out we have a life threatening disease. We may win the lottery and get depressed over that occurrence. Although we are all connected as sisters and brothers of humanity, we are all affected in different ways.

We may be comedians, making everybody laugh – which increases the lifespan of every laugher, and still be sad. It is, after all a great burden, to be the one commissioned to make everyone laugh. Much like the model or the beautiful actor is expected to be as perfect on camera as off, in case a photo is snapped at an off hour; so the comedian is expected to have a 24/7 smile. We may be parents with kids who sometimes hide our feelings so that we don’t burden the family with our doom.

It’s important to notice whether this is happening and tell someone if it might be, even as a joke over beer. This type of feeling creeps in, most of the time. What was one little bad day may progress gradually until it ends up as far away from where we thought we were in no time at all.

The best crisis phone resource I have seen to date for any crisis is to text the word ANSWER to 839863. It’s text support that responds almost instantaneously. (This resource will be repeated in action steps.)

4) THROUGH 9) CHANGES IN WEIGHT, EATING, SLEEPING, ENERGY, BATHROOM HABITS

Usually when we are depressed, we feel it. However, it can sneak up by body changes. Our weight, eating, sleeping, energy, bathroom habits may change. These, alone, signal any number of things. Together, with any of the other signs, may be the early warning signs of depression we are referencing.

CONCLUSION

The more we know ourselves, the more we will be able to recognize the early warning signs is a false statement. Noticing has nothing to do with how high we have elevated ourselves. The signs are so subtle that the result may hit us like a ton of bricks.

Think of a one-inch square made up of 72 red squares, kind of like a crossword puzzle. And every day, for the next 72 days, one of those red squares turns light red. All of a sudden, in 72 days, the entire square is light red, and we may not have noticed it. That’s the subtle change.

It is the responsibility of all of us to watch out for these signs in our co-workers, our family, our friends. Of course, we can work to see them in ourselves, but we may not want to see them, we may not feel it’s important to see them because we aren’t going to share them with anyone anyway or we may figure we’ll go to sleep today and get back to recognizing tomorrow.

ACTION STEPS

Here are a set of action steps that may be of some help, even if we read them once.

1) TEXTING

Know that you can text a number and get a response: dial ANSWER to 839863. And, if you forget 839863, it’s TEXTME.

I am thankful this exists and can service anyone with a cell phone in the United States, free of charge.

2) BEING WATCHFUL FOR OTHERS

Since most of us will not reach out when we are in dire straits, because we are too depressed to do so, decide to be on the lookout on behalf of others. All of us have the responsibility.

3) RATE YOUR HAPPINESS LEVEL COMPARED WITH THE WEEK BEFORE -1 TO 10

Even if it’s through a social media site on which you really don’t know anyone personally, express how you feel on a scale of 1 to 10, once a week. If you don’t use computers or phones, give yourself a rating and tell it to someone. This is a protective layer so that if the number keeps dropping in your own mind, you will know something is up.

4) RUN TO THE LOCAL STORE OR CAFE TO HAVE HUMAN CONTACT

Being around others, just having human contact, can change our perspective drastically. It can help us start to heal, or it can put us into a tailspin, depending how close we are to that tailspin. More times than not, having 1 or 2 words with a stranger can help us cope.

5) CALL THE LIBRARY

If you really have no one with whom to converse, and you are determined not to go out; call the local library. This seems silly, but talking about a book gets you out of yourself and connecting with a person. This double connection may lead to stepping out in public.
___

This article is dedicated to anyone who suffers from or who has suffered from depression, including Robin Williams. It’s also dedicated to my late ex-, Jaren Levitt, who is in my heart, whom, some said, Robin looked like.

Let us be our sisters’ and brothers’ keepers as well as our own.

If you wish to share your story, please hit reply in your email program to be contacted.

FEEDBACK

We value your feedback very much.

Please leave a comment below.

Please LIKE us on the website and at

WarriorsOfWeight on Facebook.

You can also follow us on Twitter: @warriorsoweight.

Thanks.

DIANE GOLD, PUBLISHER AND AUTHOR

Diane Gold, Founder of Warriors of Weight, Turning Habits Into Health, is a mentor in tai chi, kung fu and meditation, a music, fitness and stress expert, dedicated mom, studying plant-based nutrition, peaceful conflict resolution and habit replacement.

She believes we are connected to each other. She believes we are our sister’s and brother’s keeper. And that it is not righteous to leave them to suffer. She says,

“Depression is subtle, and we may not know it’s creeping in. But, our family might see it; if we have any friends or work associates, they might see it.

“It’s hard to catch it ourselves until it is a full blown depression. But, once it shows up, whether someone told us about it or we are able to see it,; one immediate step can make a difference. I know this sounds callous, but, if we take one of the suggested action steps immediately, we might be able to pull ourselves up.

“If we are in despair and we don’t have the ability to move, hopefully someone else can see it, can guide us or keep an eye out for us. We are not alone. We are part of an entire world. It is true, even if it hurts to think it.

“In our movements throughout our day, maybe we can be a bit more observant. It could save someone else, or we might even save ourselves.

“Finally, let us all take good care of ourselves because we are worth it, even if we don’t feel it!”

OUR HABIT OF WAR: 5 MISTAKES WE MAKE (ISSUE 143) AUGUST 26, 2014

By Diane Gold

Our habit of war is based upon our upbringing. We learn to stand up for ourselves, but we are not always groomed in the world of tolerance and forgiveness. We are taught that courage means fighting for our place, rather than showing that changing someone’s mind through talk is far braver.

1) NOT LOOKING THROUGH OUR ENEMY’S EYES

In order to see what our opponent sees, we must look through her eyes. The only way to do this is to listen to her story, through research or face-to-face meeting. The only way to listen is to place our entire agenda on hold. We may have to imagine that the file cabinet with our belief information is closed and inaccessible for a certain period of time.

Once we do this, we have an easier time seeing another way, even if it is against what we believe. We can go back to our agenda and our belief system later, but, in the meantime, we may learn something about our enemy that helps us progress to resolve.

This is both frightening and brave but may be the true solution to resolving many conflicts. Martial artists, law enforcers and military commanders consider their opponent’s politics, history and reasoning before considering approach. Looking through another eyes takes temperance. Temperance is what is required for a settlement of any conflict.

2) DOING WRONG BECAUSE OF PRIDE

We are all very proud and committed to our birth country, our adopted country, our family’s land, our culture, especially if someone else wants to or has taken it away. The fact of the loss, when someone has taken it away or when we have agreed to give it away, builds our pride even more. In other words, we feel more connected to our birth place, our parent’s birth place or our culture if someone outside it controls it and takes it from our grasp.

When we let pride rule us, we become blinded by it. This does not help create a new agreement.

 An example of successful use of pride can be seen in the first people in the United States, American Indians, whose connotation “Native Americans” currently includes Alaskan Natives, Native Hawaiians and American Samoans. In order for these groups to live in peace on land that was acquired by their ancestors, they had to participate willingly in a process of cooperation, compromise and huge sacrifice. They chose to be proud of their heritage at the same time as they agreed to give some land to get security, restitution and to live in peace. (When I say successful pride, I use the word “success” to mean making the best of a not so good situation.

They chose peace of mind to live stably by giving up most of their land, knowing that no one would ever take it away again and the remaining land would be protected and paid for.)

Here is how it worked. The Europeans came west, across the Atlantic, and claimed land that was already lived on, not thinking it belonged to American Indians, only thinking they found it so would lay claim. They had might, so they thought they had right.

Years later, to make amends for this action, whether for the eyes of the world or for our own consciences, we (Americans, born from immigrants) have made efforts to offer ongoing payment for land and mineral rights we have claimed as our own, we offer military protection, we offer the security of U.S. citizenship with the ability for registered tribes to govern autonomously as independent nations. (Yes, all American citizens pay U.S. federal income tax, whether part of a tribal treaty or not.)

So, we live in peace together, even though no one other than American Indians and Native Alaskans, had those rights.

3) NOT AVIDLY REPORTING SOLUTIONS FROM SCIENTIFIC STUDIES OF WAR

Scientists in all the fields, be they biological, chemical, psychosocial, economic, civil have written brilliant papers on how the mind, the body, the society work. These truly affect how we think about humanity, what we believe and how we live our lives.

These great minds may have created solutions to war, needed by our species; yet no one is talking about this work or publicizing it for use.

We are working on cancer which, like war, is one entity taking over territory where it wasn’t before and where it is encroaching now. We are working on psychology of mind, how people think in common. Our philosophers are working on ethics. And we are geniuses at creating markets and consumers.

So what is the hold up? Why don’t we take the solutions to war that our studies and researchers have unfolded and role play them in our universities, high schools and all our hoity toity charity events for use in the field?

Please don’t tell me the answer is because there are too many industries who make their entire livelihood from wars. This would be as counter-humanitarian as having cures for cancer and not sharing them because the profit from current cancer treatment is so astronomical. Can we hope these are not the reasons?

4) NOT USING THE TREATY OF NON-PROLIFERATION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS AS A MODEL TO REDUCE SMALLER WEAPONS

Many nations signed the Treaty of Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. We did so for the sake of humanity. We realized that using nuclear weapons could annihilate tribes, territories, countries, civilizations, and, ultimately, our entire species; so many of us agreed not to develop nuclear weapons in countries who did not already have them.

This model seems ripe for duplication and edification. We could scale down the use of weaponry by creating the Weaponry Scale Treaty. All signers would admit that all human life is precious, that we will work to avoid any loss of life and that every loss of life, no matter whose, is a tragic loss to someone. Before any weapons would be allowed to be used, countries/territories who signed the treaty would go through a three-level process before any military action could take place:

There would be 3 sets of peace conferences: the first, with representatives at the Secretary of State level. If no agreement were reached here, the second conference would include military commanders at a high level. If no agreement were reached through conference with these individuals, the third conference would include the second in command of the respective territory/country.

Each conference would be for no less than 72 hours. Each subsequent conference would take place 72 hours after the conference before it. Each member of every conference would recite these words at the beginning of the conference,

“We, the representatives of our respective territories, admit that all human life is precious, that we will work to avoid any loss of life and that every loss of life, no matter whose, is a tragic loss to someone. Our territories disagree, but we will make every effort during this conference to create a non-military solution to our disagreement.”

The conference between these 2 representatives would aim to work out the solution as follows: at least 3 suggested compromises would be proposed. Each of these compromises would be publicly listed within 24 hours of creation and circulated to international media.

5) NOT LETTING GO OF PREJUDICE

In a previous article, at http://warriorsofweight.com/prejudice-is-a-habit-we-can-replace, we have talked about how we are trained through repetition to be prejudiced. And that we can replace this training by realizing that we are all made out of the same skin, and that we all breathe the same air.

If we clear our minds every day so that we can put new information into it, we let go of the past repetitions that caused the prejudice. Most of us don’t do this, since there is comfort in being part of a group mindset, and we have been trained that vengeance is good.

It is not. It is a mistake that we keep repeating over and over again. We disagree, we fight, we kill, then we live a little until we disagree, we fight, we kill, then we live a little until… We have never learned the peace process. Isn’t it time?

CONCLUSION

Missing The Ring On The Carousel I am not a military strategist. I am a thoughtful human being who sees the cyclic behavior of human beings and how we keep missing the ring on the carousel. Our habit of war is based upon being trained to take revenge. We omit looking through another’s eyes.

What if we replaced our habit of war? What would our first action be? We would, of course, have to create new products for the companies who profit from war, and we would have to continue to spread action steps for peace throughout the world. But, if we replaced our old habit with the habit of temperance, how amazing would that be!

ACTION STEPS

What is not effective exclusively is training ourselves in personal development. This is necessary and crucial, but if we don’t take this training further; we are not fulfilling the bigger need.

1) SPEAK TO A MILITARY VETERAN

Talk to someone who has seen combat, and ask how peace can be achieved. Should you not know where to talk to one, visit a veteran’s hospital. There are many.

2) JOIN OR CREATE A PEACE PROCESS GROUP

By acting out conflict, we get to see how difficult it is, and we get to use various techniques for progress. Make sure that looking through the other person’s eyes is part of the process.

You can refer to steps at http://warriorsofweight.com/the-peace-process-a-step-by-step-formula-to-achieve-peace-and-replace-overeating-at-the-same-time.

3) ASK 1 PERSON TO JOIN YOU IN THE PEACE PROCESS GROUP

By telling one person, you increase the knowledge and the chance we have to achieve understanding on the road to peace.
The Road To Peace

If you wish to share your story, please hit reply in your email program to be contacted.

FEEDBACK

We value your feedback very much.

Please leave  a comment below.

Please LIKE us on the website and at

WarriorsOfWeight on Facebook.

You can also  follow us on Twitter: @warriorsoweight.

Thanks.

DIANE GOLD, PUBLISHER AND AUTHOR

Diane Gold, Founder of Warriors of Weight, Turning Habits Into Health, is a mentor in tai chi, kung fu and meditation, a music, fitness and stress expert, dedicated mom, studying plant-based nutrition, peaceful conflict resolution and habit replacement.

She believes in the good in all people. Lately, she has been thinking about the immediate challenges of ongoing conflict resolution. She says,

“The most difficult work in the world is getting along with another person when there’s disagreement. It is multiplied by each individual when it is a group conflict. As civilized people, we learn by sheer will that it is possible to cooperate with each other and temper ourselves. Sometimes, we have to hold our words, our actions, our dreams in order to build the bridge of compromise. Sometimes, we just give because we are willing to do it for the sake of a peaceful resolution or because we are better able to place our ego or pride in the imaginary box right outside the door.

“Is there a winner to a disagreement? Hopefully, both parties are willing to look through the other’s eyes. Let us work toward this grand feat.

“Finally, let us all take good care of ourselves because we are so worth it!”

THE HABIT OF MEDITATION: THE TRUE MISSION (ISSUE 142)

By Diane Gold

The habit of meditation has been growing worldwide. It went from being quite common in the East to being quite common in the East and the West.

MEDITATION, DEFINED
A definition for this discipline that mirrors mine is this, given by Deepak Chopra, M.D., speaker and author,

“Meditation is a” [body of work] “that takes us beyond the noisy chatter of the mind into a place of stillness and silence.”

This removes any questions about whether a certain religious base is connected. Meditation is a set of action steps that teaches us to focus our attention. When we do achieve a quiet(er) mind, we may choose to fill it with universally good things which may include some religion. This would be a personal decision and is not part of the meditation process, itself.

RATIONALE

     All throughout the day, each of us has so many stimuli: noises, smells, people, electronics, world events, our own creative projects and work, our family and friends. As we walk to our car, bike, train, we see all the different parts of each person that may draw our attention.

We smell smells, remember experiences related to locations, and we may have our own preoccupations that flood our mind. Then we stand on line to get coffee/tea/wheatgrass juice. We experience all the stimuli of the store providing it. Then we arrive at our destination and have all the stimuli associated with that.

Some of us have the ability to choose which of the stimuli come into our sphere. Others of us, and that’s most people, allow ourselves to be hit like a sponge with everything in our view at the expense of own time.

What meditation gives us is the ability to do is to have time for ourselves, whether it’s sitting in a quiet spot at the meditation center or walking through a crowd.

DON’T MISS At Peace With Diane Gold
TUESDAYS, 2 pm ET on Internet Radio

http://bit.do/atpeace or call in at 1-425-440-5100, 836846#

Past Shows: http://bit.do/at-peace-archives

WHICH METHOD IS BEST?

As with many body/mind disciplines, there are many methods. What is common to them all is this: we focus the mind in one place on a non-stimulating area that is meant to prevent the sucking away of our attention by a myriad of unrelated thoughts and is meant to assist us in being attentive.

When I was 21, I was a member of a philosophy called Radha Soami (sound current yoga). We listened to the words of the head guru, followed a lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet (although not strictly since we knew that cheese contained animal enzymes, and we ate pizza anyway), professed to lead a moral life and sat in the corner to meditate for 2 1/2 hours daily.

We repeated a mantra to hold our attention for the 2 1/2 hour  period. I did this for 5 years and then moved on to other adventures.

When I began tai chi 25 years later and had full concentration instantly from the first movement, I had a realization that has led to what I teach today.

When we concentrate on something other than ourselves, such as a mantra or a cloud or pretty thoughts, we are splitting our attention: we are concentrating on our bodies because we are in them, and we are concentrating on a mantra or thought repetition.

In order to give ourselves a fighting chance of learning one-pointed focus, meaning to do one thing at a time; body movement makes it easier for most people. Watching my tai chi movement did the trick for me as it does for so many. The wave-like movement I made with my hand was what it took for me to be in instant sync. Bam!

When we stand to meditate as in chi kung or we sit to meditate in lots of other types of meditation, our minds usually fly around, unless we have worked on meditation through moving the body first. We may also wonder why we are the only ones for whom meditation doesn’t work. Ha.

When we do tai chi, free dance, body shaking; we’re so absorbed in the body movement that it’s hard to lose our focus since we would we would lose our physical balance if our attention strayed. That’s why it is massively easier to rule out external stimuli when we’re physically moving.

REJUVENATION

The big reason to meditate is so that we rejuvenate. When we expend our mind’s energy from thinking, reacting, working, creating, loving, playing; we need sleep to replenish ourselves. When we are out of fuel and liquid, we need food and water. In the same way, when the mind goes running around grabbing on to lots of different thoughts, we need time for it to settle. It needs time to wipe itself clean, that is, empty itself so that we can fill it again with the next set of (hopefully) meaningful things. This clearing is what meditation is about. When we meditate, we renew our energy. One-pointed work clears all but our one focus. Once we can do this with some ease, the mind will graduate and clear even this one focus.

MEDICAL CONDITIONS

Medical research studies have confirmed that meditation reduces blood pressure, anxiety, PTSD, cholesterol, depression, stress. In April, 2014, a team at Brown University finally structured the coding of verbal responses that can be correlated to quantitative neurophysiological measurements.
This means we are able to measure meditation benefits through scientific method, rather than subjectively only. It should be mentioned that Dr. Shin-Lin of University of California, Irvine, began studying the biomedical effects of tai chi and chi kung using scientific method over a decade ago.

CONCLUSION

Many of us have the habit of meditation. Some call it the fountain of youth because it increases our vital energy flow (our chi). This can keep our body’s organs moving well and our minds sharp and happy. Whatever kind of meditation we do, it makes sense to experience meditation on some level.

ACTION STEPS

Here is a set of action steps to see which kind of meditation you may prefer.

1)   Dance freely to your favorite kind of instrumental music for 1 minute with your eyes closed. Just let it go. Notice how you feel with your eyes still closed.

2)   Stand with chin slightly bent down with knees bent, butt tucked, for 1 minute with your eyes closed. Concentrate 10 feet in front of you, even though your eyes are closed. Notice how you feel with your eyes still closed.

3)    Sit in the middle of a room on the floor or on the floor on a towel with legs relaxed, crossed, if possible, for 1 minute with your eyes closed. Concentrate four feet in front of you, even though your eyes are closed. Notice how you feel with your eyes still closed.

4)   Do steps 1), 2), 3) for 2 more days.

5)   For the next 4 days, do the 1 type of meditation you prefer for 1 minute each day.

6)   Once you have completed a week, decide if you want to devote that 1 minute a day to meditation.

7)   Make sure to write about your experience, go to  CONTACT US
and tell us you wish to share your experience. We will be honored to reply.

If you wish to share your story, please hit reply in your email program to be contacted.

FEEDBACK

Please leave a comment below.

Please LIKE us on the website

and at WarriorsOfWeight on Facebook.

You can also follow us and chat

on Twitter @warriorsoweight.

Thanks.

DIANE GOLD, PUBLISHER AND AUTHOR

Diane Gold, Founder of Warriors of Weight, Turning Habits Into Health, is a mentor in tai chi, kung fu and meditation, a music, fitness and stress expert, dedicated mom, studying plant-based nutrition, conflict resolution and habit change.

She believes it is so important to make quiet time for ourselves daily. She says,

“There are almost one-and-a-half thousand minutes in a day. We can each find a fraction of one minute to take a moment out from regular rat race activity to stop and focus in meditation. It’s good for the heart, the lungs, the mind; and we need it. Imagine if we never tuned up or oil changed our car. Wouldn’t it get run down?

“We are the same in that we require regular periods of meditation, but we are all more worthwhile than an inanimate car. So, as we wouldn’t let a car deteriorate, we cannot disregard ourselves. It might be the perfect time to meditate right now.

“Finally, let us all take good care of ourselves because we are so worth it!”

INFLATED EGO AT THE EXPENSE OF OTHERS (ISSUE 141)

By Diane Gold

THE BIRTH OF THE INFLATED EGO

The inflated ego begins the
minute we are exposed to a pat on the back or the chant of someone’s saying,

“Good job.”

This incantation teaches us, from a very young age,

1)   there is something to judge, and someone is judging us;

2)   we have a lone or team of cheerleader(s) to make us feel safe and not alone;

3)   we work to act in ways to cause the chant “good job” to be repeated so we can feel warm and fuzzy;

4)   if there is a good job, there must be “not a good job;”

5)   we copy the behavior we see, so we begin to judge ourselves and others.

The chanting of encouragement is not a bad thing. In fact, it’s extremely important to have support at every stage of our lives.

Although we all like encouragement, we can become dependent upon it. Unfortunately, hearing we did a good job sets us up to buy into the “compare me” way of living (on which most societies depend), rather than the “no judgment” way of living, on which few societies depend.

With this said, our society judges: our laws are based upon behavior within certain rules; this keeps order, for the most part. Our acceptance into schools and job positions has to do with how well we are judged as people and through academic and personality testing.

PRAISE FROM A RELIGIOUS GROUP

When the preacher or leader of our chosen group discourses that our particular congregation of members is loved more than other religious groups, we are refining how we see the world. Our ego becomes falsely inflated with the knowledge that we are in a special tribe which means we have been taught that there are other tribes less worthy. We have been lifted up while others have been lowered.

SCHOOL

We go to school and get rated on academic prowess. The tests we take for our ratings may be nothing more than our ability to memorize well. For performance of the task that is tested, we may hear,

“Good job,”

by the teacher or

“Not such a good job.”

This reinforces the idea that some people do good jobs and others do not.

Although it is true that some people do better jobs than others, the rewards through smiles and cheers at home, house of worship and school set us up for the laser-focused competition circuit. We get social credibility from classmates and home/ house of worship credibility from the success or failure of our intellectual endeavor.

And so the comparison game is in full swing now. We’re comparing ourselves to others at home, at house of worship and in school. Which means we are pushed to focus on ego issues rather than on the importance of bettering ourselves for ourselves.

WORK

Finally, we choose a field assignment, aka a job, whose acceptance or rejection may be dependent upon our being better than the girl who interviewed before and after we did. We are measured by the grades we received in college and community. Or how many customers buy our product. Being faster, wiser, a better learner all matter on the path to securing the work we desire or that for which we trained.

DON’T MISS At Peace With Diane Gold
TUESDAYS, 2 pm ET on Internet Radio 

http://bit.do/atpeace or call in at 1-425-440-5100, 836846#

Past Shows: http://bit.do/at-peace-archives

WHAT’S MISSING?

It’s great to strive to be the best that we can be. We become more knowledgeable for the effort and may end up helping humanity as a result.

The lesson that is missing, in general, and it goes way back to the first day we were told,

“Good job,”

for the most part. It is that we are all equal. Most of us rarely consider this point, and we are often too busy getting the better clothing, car, phone, vacation to think about it. And, let me be the first to say it’s fun and great to play with new cars, clothing and collectibles. But, without realizing that a human is a human, we may live a sad life.

Comparing our worth based on financial status, color, intellect, college status or vehicle is one way of looking at life; as I see it, this is the plastic dance (plastic referring to something that is not real or genuine). We are not considering that it takes air for each of us to breathe. It takes water for each of us to survive and it takes nourishment for each of us to live healthy lives. No exceptions.

Would we refuse the hand of someone who was unschooled if we were hanging off a cliff?  No.

Would we refuse lifesaving medicine our baby needed from the only doctor on our isolated island because her skin was the wrong color? No, again.

How can we judge that a person with a high profile job is a better human being than someone whose position is low profile?
Electricians may say,

“Teachers have easy jobs. We, the electricians, are the ones who are really working.”

Or teachers may say,

“Those multinational CEOs sit around in their offices all day doing nothing while we work hard.”

Or CEOs may say,

“Teachers have the easiest job. They get to go in late, leave early; and we have 12 hour days every day.”

This inflated ego talk is harmless and never carries over to discrimination that may result from the comparison game.

LABELS

Let’s look at what happens when people are labeled. Being labeled “gifted” does not mean we are better than someone labeled “intellectually challenged,” or as I say, “intellectually different.” It does get us better jobs and acceptance to better schools because the world runs on the comparison system, and with more intellectual expertise, we can engage in more complex projects. Although we may be able to generate more income than the next person; it certainly has nothing to do with our worth as a human being. Unless that worth is being measured by how much financial value a person has; then it is true.

WHEN INFLATED EGO CAUSES CRUELTY

Anyone who teases, bullies, insults  people with lesser intellectual capacity, less expensive clothing, a physical imperfection,  is doing it to inflate the ego. It serves no other purpose. This has come out of the original “good job” that was uttered way back when to encourage us along into the competitive world. This simple statement or one like it started our competition engine, but competition is not the culprit here. It what we were supposed to learn along with this concept.

Anyone who teases, bullies, insults  people with lesser intellectual capacity, less expensive clothing, a physical imperfection,  is doing it to inflate the ego. It serves no other purpose. This has come out of the original “good job” that was uttered way back when to encourage us along into the competitive world. This simple statement or one like it started our competition engine, but competition is not the culprit here. It what we were supposed to learn along with this concept.

I’m talking about the “kindness is more important than competition” rule and the concept that supporting people who ignore this rule means we are breaking it.  

The whole concept of some comedic acts is to tease and bully others. We laugh while one person cringes. I know I’m being dramatic, but comedy can be legal use of a non-lethal firearm in a crowd. We say comedy is in fun, yet comics who rely on singling out individual’s defects in the audience probably never learned that kindness overrules the need to feel powerful.  Worse than this type of comic is the bully who picks on her victim’s ethnicity, religious difference, sexual preference or physical traits.

CONCLUSION

Excelling is great. Belittling someone whose excellence is slower, weaker, less beautiful, less academic wreaks of poor self-esteem, nothing more.
Let us make an effort to keep our inflated ego from causing others emotional harm.

“If it’s not kind, truthful or necessary; don’t say it.”     I have a friend who used to say,

“If it’s not kind, truthful or necessary; don’t say it.”

ACTION STEPS

Here are several steps we can take to insure we turn our kindness up a notch.

1)   Notice the next time you gossip about someone in the same room. Stop doing it as soon as you realize it.

2)   Vow to help someone or converse with someone you have ridiculed in the past or have thought less of for any reason.

3)   Stop yourself the next time you are having a random comparison conversation aka gossiping about someone who is not present.

If you wish to share your story, please hit reply in your email program to be contacted.

FEEDBACK

Please leave a comment below.

Please LIKE us on the website

and at WarriorsOfWeight on Facebook.

You can also follow us on

Twitter @warriorsoweight.

Thanks.

DIANE GOLD, PUBLISHER AND AUTHOR

Diane Gold, Founder of Warriors of Weight, Turning Habits Into Health, is a mentor in tai chi, kung fu and meditation, a music, fitness and stress expert, dedicated mom, studying plant-based nutrition, conflict resolution and habit change.

She believes we must temper ourselves to enjoy a great life. She says,

“Just like any habit, we can take praise and get addicted to it. This happens when we don’t get strong within ourselves. In this case,when we do get praise, we’re seemingly balanced. When we don’t get it, we become savage-like and bully others to cover up our insecurities.

“We will get bigger and better the kinder we are to others. The more we replace our bullying behavior with niceness, the more we will like ourselves.

“Let’s be nice instead of nasty to those we see as weak. Let’s treat others the way we’d want to be treated if we were vulnerable and weak (which we are). This will make us strong and balance our need for inflated ego at the expense of others.

“Finally, let us all take good care of ourselves because we are so worth it!”

PREJUDICE IS A HABIT WE CAN REPLACE (ISSUE 140)

By Diane Gold

Prejudice is a habit we can replace. We are not born with it. It is part of our training: at home, in school, in the neighborhood, from peer pressure, peer example (social proof) and from the media.

When we are at home and have never seen someone of a different color, religion or family belief system; we may surmise that everyone outside our sphere – including color range – is an outsider. When we ask our family,

“Why have you never had a person who is not our color, our religion, our belief system visit?”

and the answer may be,

“The people who come to our house are our friends,”

it leaves an impression. The impression may be subliminal that if only one color or one tribe comes to the house as friends; other people are our enemies. This isn’t always the case, but there are a lot of wrong messages we get from home.

Similar development goes on in school and neighborhood.

These are the simple ways we all cultivate the habit of prejudice.

 The complex ways in which our minds are colored in a certain direction usually come from wanting comfort such as personal protection or to fit into a crowd or feel good about ourselves.

In the neighborhood, we may be pressured into going with one group so that we don’t get attacked by that group or another group. Because we usually let this happen without questioning it ethically; clans begin, prejudice grows and wars take shape. We build up an allegiance to one group, hearing its rhetoric which remodels the way we think about another group or person.

How it usually starts is that we or our family member are disrespected or abused by one person from another family or from across a national border or who was a different color or who prayed to a different deity from ours. Because of this incident, we may become prejudiced toward an entire set of people.

When someone takes our land, in the name of the individual, a cause, a race, a religion; we have a reaction. Because we have been taught that we have the rights to our land, we may equate this takeover with looting and attribute such looting to an entire group of a billion people, for whom we develop prejudice, even if only 50 people were involved.

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

Do we have the right to claim land in the first place? Who assigned it to us? And should we give up the land we have claimed by society’s methods (land deeds) to someone who demands it, for that person may need it more than we?

DON’T MISS At Peace With Diane Gold
TUESDAYS, 2 pm ET on Internet Radio 

http://bit.do/atpeace or call in at 1-425-440-5100, 836846#

Past Shows: http://bit.do/at-peace-archives

PREJUDICE AS HABIT

As we may recall from previous discussions, a habit is a repeated behavior borne from an urge. It leads to a reward. In the case of prejudice, our urge is our need to satisfy the unresolved issue in our head that has arisen due the violation of ourselves, family, friends or friends by association. If we do not approach the person who wronged us, such as the pilferer of our land or the physical abuser of our body; we never work toward a peaceful end to the conflict in our head and the habit we have been groomed to have, the continual birth of revenge flourishes. This grows because we play this in our heads over and over. These replays count as repetitions toward the development of a habit.

If I am wronged once by my neighbor, it’s not so hard to live with the incident. If I am wronged twice, once by my neighbor and once by my neighbor’s cousin, I have stronger feelings. If am wronged 3-10 times more by ethically similar neighbors of my neighbor and I do nothing about my feelings; I start to develop the habit of prejudice toward the broad group “neighbors.”

If after all these experiences, my neighbor’s aunt threatens me at gunpoint to give up part of my land or else she will hurt my children, I associate this action with all the other times I have been wronged. Let’s say I give up the land so as to keep my children safe.

If I do nothing to alleviate my feelings after the fact (my urge to resolve the takeover in my own mind); I start to establish a pattern of mistrust in my head that I associate with any “neighbor,” of the same family, color and religion. I even extend my habit of prejudice to anyone in the world who is that color or that religion or part of that family, because of my experience. This is not rational, but feelings never are.

THE SOLUTION

The solution to replace any habit is to replace the behavior we do when we get the urge that we get. From my experience and from the time it takes our hormones to activate, I calculate we have 15 seconds. This takes into account how strongly and fervently our mind will grab onto our old habit and act accordingly. So, if we have previously done nothing when we have the urge to resolve the conflicts with the particular neighbors who wronged us, our reward, or the result of our actions, is a negative reward. We end up frustrated, angry, forlorn because we have been violated in some way by an entire group. The final reward of this non-action that we do is, you guessed it, prejudice. This is our justification for many irrational, out of scope future actions and current feelings we have.

Let’s review the habit formula: to satisfy an urge, we take an action which leads to a reward. So, to replace prejudice, we must take a new action to the urge to satisfy some conflict. In the past, we may have shaken our fist, joined a group where everyone shakes a fist or done nothing overt, but, internally, blame a person or a group. Those are the old behaviors.

CONCLUSION

ACTION STEPS AND NEW BEHAVIOR

The solution is to talk about how it made you feel:

1) We can talk to the person who wronged us,

2) We can talk to the family of the person who wronged us,

3) We can talk at the religious center of the person who wronged us,

4) We can find a neutral place where people of all colors and all religions will talk about how they feel about having been wronged.

THE TWO RULES

There are only 2 rules for this strategy to work: you can only talk about how the act made you feel, with no judgment placed upon the other person. It’s the slow and steady discussion of how you were made to feel that will replace the old habit and bring the new reward. The second is no yelling or insulting words.

If you would like to discuss setting up a neutral place in your community for this type of discussion, I can help you.

If you wish to share your story, please hit reply in your email program to be contacted.

FEEDBACK

We value your feedback very much.

Please leave a comment below.

Please LIKE us on the website

and at WarriorsOfWeight on Facebook.

You can also follow us on

Twitter @warriorsoweight.

Thanks.

DIANE GOLD, PUBLISHER AND AUTHOR

Diane Gold, Founder of Warriors of Weight, Turning Habits Into Health, is a mentor in tai chi, kung fu and meditation, a music, fitness and stress expert, dedicated mom, studying plant-based nutrition, conflict resolution and habit change.

She believes we can choose to be civilized people, whether we stand to gain billions or our only gain is our dignity. She says,

“We can replace a habit is we use a systematic approach. We have to pre-plan, we have to execute with expediency. It won’t help to compare to anyone else; we are only ourselves.

“If we choose to accept the mission of replacing the habit of prejudice, we can do it. The process, as with any other habit change, requires changes the way we act. No jumping through hoops, only speaking out about how a violation made us feel, not blaming someone else, only expressing our feelings. Should we choose it, we will become very powerful, since we learn a special strength through the process of habit replacement.

“This strategy is one of the ways to world peace, changing on the inside in order to change the outside.

“Finally, let us all take good care of ourselves because we are so worth it!”

AT PEACE WITH DIANE GOLD

SOLUTIONS IN HEALTH, HABITS AND PEACE

Be part of our community of change makers, culture shapers and solutions.
COLLABORATE, MOTIVATE,
GET OUR INSIDER DETAILS.

WE WELCOME YOUR INPUT.
FILL OUT THE FORM ON RIGHT.

Help us in pursuit of peaceful and sustainable solutions for the planet through healthy and ethical choices in nutrition, personal discipline, mind/body lifestyle and kindness to all living things. We talk about issues in health and peacemaking through our interviews in health and wellness, nutrition, all the medicines, therapies, disciplines, through fitness, social justice, human and animal rights, through people and their passions to create solutions for a higher quality of life.

Consider this a reach out to anyone who has a solution. We call out to all who would like to create a solution to entice powerful corporations and institutions to fund a new kind of commercial (peace commerce, I call it) whose corporate success would depend upon using nutrition as medicine, plant-based diets to delete poverty and planet degradation and whose demonstration of ethics would also make them wealthy.

AT PEACE WITH DIANE GOLD

LISTEN TO THE SHOW

WHAT IF NIKE’S LOGO MEANT FOOD FOR THE POOR? IT DOESN’T, BUT WHAT IF? (ISSUE 138)

By Diane Gold

What if Nike’s logo meant food for the poor plus water, clothing, shelter, health care? Or Apple’s or ExxonMobil’s? What if these multinational corporations’

“primary goals were to clothe and feed the world’s poor in environmentally beneficial ways?”

This quote is from John Perkins’ Confessions of An Economic Hit Man who worked for powerful non-governmental United States companies whose job it was to get contracts with greedy leaders to use US firms to build electric grids in poor developing countries causing unsustainable debt through bank loans that had to be paid back, through default, by giving US land access to house military bases or discounts to access natural resources like oil.

IMPORTANT: MISSION OF THIS ARTICLE

Although existing multinationals may not change their mission from money and power to ethics and humanitarian concern, WE CAN build companies whose logos symbolize provision of food, water, clothing, shelter and health care to the poor as well as other companies who teach us, the poor included, self-sufficiency. We are not waiting for any company named in this article. We are collaborating: people, strategies, creativity and technology. This includes you and me, so let us be creative now; for it is time to build the concept.

IMAGINE

Imagine Nike 2.0 Corporation, worth the $18 billion it is now, focusing its primary attention on helping people get adequate and healthy food, clothing and shelter. And all their artists, designers, scientists and sports doctors who know health, shoes, clothing and style; all their marketers and advertisers who know how to create a market and spread the word would be working to this end.

Imagine Apple 2.0 Corporation, worth the $500 billion it is now, focusing its primary attention on helping people get adequate and healthy food, clothing and shelter. And all their artists, designers, technicians and computer scientists were putting full effort into creating the best ways to feed, hydrate, clothe, care for and house everyone adequately.

School children the world over would learn that the logos of these major companies meant safety from suffering because the major portion of these multinational companies had one focus: caring for the human condition.

Imagine if even 20% of the efforts of these companies was spent on ending the suffering we know exists from lack of food, clothing, shelter and health care. It would take a New York minute (this is fast) to be able to use these fine minds, already employed and experienced, to create workable strategies and technology that ethically insured care for everyone.

BEING CIVILIZED

What does it mean to be civilized? Does it mean being more sophisticated by wearing upscale and fancy clothing while we pillage the environment to get raw materials to manufacture modern comforts OR does it mean living sustainably without taking more than is necessary for community survival while insuring the rebirth of the resources used for survival?

I just watched several movie clips about tribes that have not been very touched by “society,” as we of the written word know it. The most “untouched” tribes use what they need, then move their group further down within their tribe’s territory so that the earth can replenish itself. These untouched societies are an inspirational example of how to live, environmentally. Supposedly unsophisticated and less advanced, they live with respect for the earth and its resources.

What happens to us when we get the taste of wanting more? More adornment, more land, more drugs, more food, more power, a bigger house, car, office building, bank account? How does consumerism take over our brains? The answer is simple, although not so simple. It is society’s teachings.

We do trigger certain neurotransmitters in the brain (hormones), in some ways similar to the craving for external things is mostly a whim with no thought teaching ethically and being ethical. We can always run over someone who is weaker. Is this civilized?

MULTINATIONALS WORKING FOR THE GREATER GOOD

Back to the “solution” topic. So let’s say we had these multinationals giving part of their profit to food for the poor, including water, clothing, shelter. health care, not on a random donate basis, but as part of their corporate by-laws. Wouldn’t that fix the suffering, the hunger, the lack of health care? YES, it would.

Wouldn’t living less by manipulation be a good thing for our collective consciences? Wouldn’t we all be more productive because of it, rather than having to be burdened by the weight of knowing we are achieving profit through manipulation of developing countries, individuals or circumstance?

If we figured that among the top 22 companies that made over $100 billion in annual revenue in 2012, 2013 or 2014; we’d have $3.56 trillion dollars in revenue (Financial Times, 2012). If we calculate the profit at the lowest amount I found for any one of them, that’s 3% (according to Forbes’ World’s Biggest Public Companies as of May, 2014). That leaves $106 billion dollars.

If we take 10% of that as per the old British tithing system of one-tenth of the whole, that leaves $10 billion dollars. That would barely make a difference. In the US, alone, according to census.gov, it would take $175 billion to bring every American up to the poverty level.

But if we use the high number of 10-20% profit, common with multinationals, we get $356 billion or $713 billion, each, if divided by 10% achieve $35-$71 billion.

That’s a start and can change our mindsets as to our responsibility for each other. Plus we have to add in all the other companies that make between $1 and $99 billion dollars that I did not include.

Or what if each company making over $1 billion 20%-50% of its profit every other year to helping others. That would truly reduce suffering.

As John Perkins says, again in his Confessions Of An Economic Hitman,

“We must commit ourselves absolutely and unequivocally to shaking ourselves and everyone around us awake.”

What he means is it’s important to let people know that there is manipulation of developing countries who have US engineering firms arrange loans for them to build infrastructure for modernization, only to have the loans end up crippling the countries with debt as their leaders become wealthy.

CONCLUSION

The answer is not as mind boggling as I thought it was. It’s right in front of you and me. It’s tithing, an old English unit meaning one-tenth of something. Much of the developing country manipulation could be monitored, and every corporation that made over one billion one hundred eleven million dollars would be required to give 10% of its gross profit to those in need for food, clothing, shelter, water and health care. The collector of this profit would have to be an independent agent, a non-government, non-profit establishment that published all incoming and outgoing funding to the public.

One other caveat would be necessary. Any US companies doing business with developing countries would be responsible to fund 10% of their gross income back to these developing countries if these developing countries defaulted on their debt after the company engineered new. Also, projects done by US companies in developing countries would have to be posted in a daily column, like the horoscope or the ad necessary to be placed before a US citizen can hire and sponsor a foreign domestic worker.

These two items are food for thought and could make the change, although it’s difficult to see infrastructural deals with developing countries until these countries are already defaulting on their debts, some years later.

ACTION STEPS

Here are several action steps that may be helpful.

1) Do some research, and decide on a cause to fund, or microloan to give if you had extra money.

2) For the next month, take 10% of your net salary and place it in a separate bank account or in a jar marked food for the poor. If you work for yourself, calculate your gross profit for the month, and give 10% of that. See how it feels to be without this income.

At least, we’re not living on $1.25 a day.

3) Once a week, the money in the separate bank account or jar to your favorite place. I know it might burn because we had just saved up enough to buy something important to us, which we will not have to sacrifice. But, as Rob Schneider says in Water Boy,

“You can do it!”

This will give each of us the experience akin to the multinationals. We don’t want to part with the money, but we can. Once we do it and realize we are helping others with it; we will adjust to it.

4) Evaluate whether you can continue to do steps 2) and 3) for another month or two. If yes, do it. If it’s not something you can continue, you might want to think about using that money for long term care insurance since longtermcare.gov suggests that 70% of over 65-ers will need it. And the younger we are when we get it, the more affordable it is. Of course, if we eat well with regard for eating a balanced plant-based diet, this statistic may turn out to be quite high.

5) Pass on this experiment and the general concept for the major players. It takes some getting used to. But, so did the first time our society began teaching that it was OK to bend our ethics.

If you wish to share your story, please hit reply in your email program to be contacted.

FEEDBACK

We value your feedback very much.

Please leave a comment below.

Please LIKE us on the website

and at WarriorsOfWeight on Facebook.

You can also follow us on

Twitter @warriorsoweight.

Thanks.

DIANE GOLD, PUBLISHER AND AUTHOR

Diane Gold, Founder of Warriors of Weight, Turning Habits Into Health, is a mentor in tai chi, kung fu and meditation, a music, fitness and stress expert, dedicated mom, studying plant-based nutrition, conflict resolution and habit change with an internet show about health and peace making, Tuesdays at 2 pm, HERE.

She believes it’s her duty to help some others. She has been able to pick the circumstances, but there is much to do. She says,

“My eyes have been opened by John Perkins and his discussion of his life as an economic hit man. In 1968, while at a community college for 6 months, I joined a protesting group because I believed in democracy. We talked about big business and that the War In Vietnam was wrong, but I had a minimal view of the big picture, until now. I knew big business controlled politics. I didn’t know that bankers and engineering firms could control resources, countries and war, until now.
.
“I am grateful to have my eyes open. I am saddened that my beautiful United States has not developed a system of checks and balances to prevent the corporate mindset from overstepping its ethical boundaries.

“We are an ethical nation. Each of us individually, for the most part, is ethical. When we stand as a group, and each of us steps slightly over the ethical line, disaster hits. And we fall into the quagmire of personal deception. Let us understand why other countries see us as imperialistic, those words I remember from 1968 and why so many citizens in developing countries know about the International Monetary Fund or the World Bank and how these institutions tried to cause debt or did.

“When I told one of my best friends from the Dominican Republic about my having read Confessions Of An Economic Hit Man, she acknowledged having to combat the grasp of these banking institutions on the Dominican Republic.

“We are our sisters’ and brothers’ keepers. Let us act that way from this point on!”

“Finally, let us all take good care of ourselves because we are so worth it!”

PATIENT RIGHTS VS. DOCTOR’S ORDERS (ISSUE 137)

By Diane Gold

Patient rights vs. doctor’s orders is an issue very much ignored. We have been raised with the habit of accepting doctor’s orders, to believe ethics are important to our doctor and that s/he believes in patient’s rights. Growing up in the New York Metropolitan area, I was raised that way. But, that was 50 years ago.

Through the years, though, I now know it is my duty to myself and others to gather my own information about my health, including recommendations from qualified doctors and many other sources.

VIOLATION OF PATIENT RIGHTS

So, here I am, in 2014, being all sophisticated and thinking I am completely prepared to make my own choices about what drugs I allow into my system, what tests I consent to have, what health care providers and process I choose for my ultimate health care.

So I choose to go to a breathing specialist because I had what felt like phlegm (sorry, gross) somewhere around my vocal cords, and my vocal range (how high and low I can sing) had seriously diminished (which could be from age). So I walk into the doctor’s office to have a breath test because the previous week, I had consented to it with this specialist.

So, the tech directed me to sit in a booth where we go to breathe into a machine to measure lung capacity, and the technician asked me to blow into something outside the machine. No explanation of anything we were about to do.

I did not have my glasses on so did not see that I could have been about to blow into something with drugs in it. My fault, absolutely, since I know no one will advocate for my patient’s rights as well as I will. I stuck my head outside the booth and breathed into what the tech had in her hand and immediately felt dizzy. I asked if I had just inhaled a drug and received the answer,

“Yes.”

I asked which drug to which I got the reply,

“Albuterol.”

I objected that I had not been given the choice to inhale a drug or not before I got it and stated my objection and surprise.

I finished the test with no major reactions and went on my merry way, although I felt violated. Almost immediately after leaving the medical office, I started feeling speedy. And then more speedy, and then more speedy, to the point where I was sweating with my heart’s racing; I knew I was sick and was having a reaction to albuterol.

I researched whether albuterol was close in structure to epinephrine to which I am allergic. Although it’s not, it causes similar issues, especially in people with sensitivities, like me. Somewhere, in the back of my mind, I recall being informed and refusing any drug for a similar test 3 years ago, although this refusal is not in my chart. Be it in there or not, this time, I was not informed that the test involved administration of a drug or that blowing into a hand-held device would administer the drug.

Unfortunately for me, the tech forgot to look at the epinephrine allergy in my chart and mistakenly administered this drug. But, the worst part was not being given the choice, even though the allergy note was sitting on the top of my chart waving a flag.

I had the good old American reaction to sue, sue, sue the doctor’s office. According to my attorney, the only way to sue for loss of work, pain and suffering, the actual few hundred dollars I might have lost for the day, not being able to work, or the sick time which I can never get back; would have been if I had had a heart attack, a major cardiovascular event like a stroke in response to the drug or died.

SOLUTIONS, OTHER THAN LAW SUIT

Since I lived, my mind started to run away with me, and I thought about running to get my medical records for the attorney. I calmed down and realized a much better solution instead of pointing fingers, blaming and taking to the legal system I so revere.

My solution was to tell the doctor that I would agree not to write an expose, only a helpful article, and I would not call the county health commissioner or the doctor board or the AMA with complaints. I would also refrain from going to one of the health care rating websites to tell my tale since we are all human, and we all must recognize it’s our job to be diligent about making sure that doctors and staff read our charts and give us choices. It shouldn’t be our job to teach this; medical schools should make this ironclad. Because we have allowed doctors’ egos to forget us and dictate our care; they have been taught to give orders, and we have taken them. We all must change this.

I was pleased with my solution, much more lasting for many future patients, than an attempt to defame people who have worked hard for so many years and may learn their errors from this experience. I also requested to be placed on the local Hospital Ethics Committee with the doctor in this story, for which I await a response.

ACCEPTING DOCTOR’S ORDERS

Many of us believe the doctor and go with the doctor’s advice, because this is the habit with which we have been raised – trust the doctor, doctor knows best, the doctor is the expert, and doctors have the impressive answers. Some of us ask the doctor to proceed without explanation. Others of us listen to explanations and put them in our folder along with other advice. Some don’t have enough money to go to the doctor, although the Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act in the United States has had a positive impact.

Although the Hippocratic Oath, taken by every MD, includes keeping oneself away from seduction; the biggest seduction and the one most difficult to see as we are being seduced is the seduction of the ego, thinking we are the skilled, the almighty and the awakener with a better solution than the patient. The Osteopathic Oath mentions retaining the respect of the patient. If we are filled with ego and if we disrespect our patient’s rights, how are we fulfilling our oath?

PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY

It comes down to our taking responsibility for ourselves. Doctors can guide us and make us aware of the latest research studies, new pharma and their favorite integrated medical technique. But, we are truly the responsible party when it comes to our health. Who better than we can advocate for us?

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, it’s important to be aware that the doctor is a consultant from whom we can hear expert opinion. S/he has studied hard to be able to evaluate a certain brand and branch of medicine. Unfortunately, the doctor who has studied Eastern medicine, Western medicine, Native American medicine, Latin American plant medicine and international tribal medicine is in the best position to give medical guidance; but  I don’t know of any who have all this training.

The bottom line for all these medicines is that accepting doctor’s orders is only valid once each of us has done our research through reading or second or third opinions of other specialists. Since most of us don’t have the time, money or lifespan to live with the dis-ease; we usually go with the first doctor’s advice. That’s all well and good as long as we are given full and transparent information, time and encouragement in researching the recommendation and our other treatment choices and all choices are offered by a doctor or researcher with ethics and value for patient rights.

ACTION STEPS

Here are several questions to ask your doctor that may help you evaluate whether your patient’s rights are important to your doctor. Any doctor who is not open to discussing the below may not be thinking enough about patient’s rights and you or your family member.

1)   I want to get a second opinion since you just gave me yours. How does this make you feel?

Any doctor who would feel slighted or annoyed at this very important right is suffering from ego seduction and needs to be advised so, whether by you or by someone. Make sure you do not suffer because of it since it is a patient’s right to explore as many options as s/he sees fit.

2)   I have found a health benefit from this nutritional strategy. Do you feel comfortable discussing it and do you value this type of medical strategy as much as your suggestions that are non-nutritional?

3)   How much direct coursework, if any, were you required to do on nutrition in medical school? Did you do any nutritional coursework on your own?

____

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Wouldn’t it be nice if the plant based food industry were a cooperative in itself and could get a direct benefit from creating such a course for medical professionals the way pharmaceutical companies benefit directly from courses they give on their new drugs as solutions for specific diagnoses.

____

4)   Is your opinion more important than the patient and can you explain your answer?

5)   Would you give a patient who seemed to completely disagreed with you time to explain why s/he felt the way s/he did, or would you just write in the chart, “Patient refused treatment,” and move on to someone who was cooperative?

What feelings would the fact that the patient disagreed stir up in you?

If you wish to share your story, please hit reply in your email program to be contacted.

FEEDBACK

We value your feedback very much.

Please leave a comment below.

Please LIKE us on the website and at

WarriorsOfWeight on Facebook.

You can also follow us on

Twitter @warriorsoweight.

Thanks.

DIANE GOLD, PUBLISHER AND AUTHOR

Diane Gold, Founder of Warriors of Weight, Turning Habits Into Health, is a mentor in tai chi, kung fu and meditation, a music, fitness and stress expert, dedicated mom, studying plant-based nutrition, conflict resolution and habit change.

She believes it is crucial to maintain personal ethics and that the more powerful we become, the stronger we must display our ethical stance. She says,

“While we are struggling to develop a work environment that feeds and clothes us as well as our families, we are busy finding our way. But, once we have passed this level, as I see it, if we choose to rise up as higher humans, it is our duty to humanity as a whole to demonstrate ethics in our daily decisions.

“As usual, I am not suggesting that we do nothing but pro bono work, nor am I suggesting we not make wonderful profits. I am saying that it is not sporting, that is, in good, ethical fashion, to prey upon those who are ignorant of their own rights. Prey upon someone who understands the preying field.

“What I’m saying is that it’s our duty to show right from wrong, even when circumstance, technicality or ignorance could have led to our easily taking advantage of someone with less or no knowledge.

“Living well within ourselves is the way. Let’s do it.

“Finally, let us all take good care of ourselves because we are so worth it!”

OUR HABIT OF TRUSTING MEDIA: 5 MISTAKES WE MAKE (ISSUE 135)

By Diane Gold

Our habit of trusting media begins at a very young age. We are raised to become knowledgeable through reading and watching news reports, more or less based upon the habits of our parents or caretakers, and we have assignments in elementary school reporting on the current news events.

Similar to being raised to accept the word of the family doctor, trusting media is part of the foundation of our youth, a cornerstone of our society. Some families raise their children to be seen and not heard. Others raise them to question everything, as in my family. Today’s children are raised closer to the question everything model due to the abundance and availability to 3-year-olds on their computer tablets.

POPULATION

So how, in today’s world, do we make mistakes in trusting media?

People are still the same, although technology has changed. Unless we have been scorned between birth and 18 months to 2 years (according to Erik Erikson, psychologist), we learn to trust the world. Nothing has changed here. What has changed greatly is the population, which, as my friend J will emphasize, affects everything.

When he and I were growing up, there were more jobs, more food, more land, less greed per capita because there were less people. When more people started vying for the same jobs, ethics and greed led to corruption and dishonesty. This leads us to mistakes we make in trusting media.

MISTAKE 1) READING OR WATCHING THE SAME NEWS OUTLETS

Most of us don’t take the time to read 10 news reports every morning. We start with 1 and may get through the headlines and 1 article plus the financial section if we have investments. That means we get a very small view of what happening. Often, it’s the view of the news outlet that was subscribed to in our youth; and, if we continue to get our information from the same news outlets, we may limit our growth.

MISTAKE 2) FORGETTING TO LOOK AT MEDIA OWNERSHIP

We all advocate for our own company, want it to thrive, want to give a good product or service, really want to do the right thing – to start. When we get so powerful that we are on the board of directors of lots of industries about whom our journalists might write; we might consider censoring what gets written.

In 1983, 50 companies owned American media. As of 2011, there were 6 in America (Disney, News Corp, Fox, Time-Warner, CBS, Viacom with Comcast and Sony following). That’s a huge amount of power for just a few companies to wield.

MISTAKE 3) FORGETTING THAT JOURNALISTS ARE PEOPLE, TOO

As mentioned earlier, including news reports in our lives is part of the foundation with which we were raised, whether it’s to check a stock, read a comic, be connected to our neighbors, check the lotto numbers or read about the daily condition of the world. People have different methods; they read a printed newspaper, watch video news or read news commentary through rss feed technology. What we might not consider is that journalists are people, too. They have families to feed, mortgages to pay and editors who can censor their work.

a) When a journalist presents a story that negatively impacts friends or family of the media conglomerate’s owner; the story will be disapproved or edited to create a softer version of the truth. It’s similar to the “blood is thicker than water” principle where we protect our families from harm at all cost. An example could be an environmental disaster that is attributed to a company that the media conglomerate owns.

b) If a journalist presents too many stories that might impact powerful friends of the news agency, the journalist fears for losing her/his job. This brings us back to the population issue we mentioned earlier since the larger the population, the more journalists will be waiting in line for a job.

c) Journalists want to further their careers, as do we all. In order to do this, we sometimes befriend the people we end up writing about. Should a story with negative impact cross our radar, aside from the vetoing power of our editor; it would be our ethical responsibility to decide whether to protect our career and softening or hiding the story or going ahead full speed ahead for full disclosure.

MISTAKE 4) FORGETTING THE ROLE OF ADVERTISING IN MEDIA

Trusting media would be great, if each company did not make self-sustain through advertising contracts. Every media company sells some form of space to media buyers who represent companies with products and services who hire the buyers to spread the word of how we can’t live without their ware.

Therefore, each media company goes out of its way to protect its asset, the ad contract. If any information would negatively impact the relationship of the media company and its income, the ad contract, the media company will be do everything in its power to be protective. This means vetoing articles that may step on toes. This binds the editor and the journalist from disclosing the whole truth as the owner sees fit.

MISTAKE 5) DEPENDING UPON OTHERS TO EVALUATE MEDIA FOR US

When we absorb the views of others, exclusive of our own research, we pass by the opportunity to create and discover. It’s almost like drawing on white paper with a white pencil that has no textures at all. Everything blends in with no thought, never giving ourselves an anchor or foundation with which to come out of the box of other people’s thoughts.

CONCLUSION

There are lots of ethical issues attached to trusting media. In fact, in my opinion, all journalists take an oath upon embarking on their profession. Unlike the medical doctor who recites the Hippocratic Oath or the veterinarian who recites the Veterinarian’s Oath (oh, the thrill at watching my daughter do this one), the journalist’s oath is implied. This unspoken oath includes being truthful, writing unbiasly without preconception to the outcome, protecting sources of information, resisting the temptation to be swayed by political, financial or popular gain and never omitting reportable information that would compromise an interest or person in any one direction.

Unfortunately, due to greed, convenience and human nature; the journalist doesn’t get to exercise her/his oath due to editors, politics in so many places for some of the reasons listed above. And we never know when and where news is omitted, spun, softened or flat out reversed.

When it comes to trusting media, we can trust outlets that are not attached to advertising, politics, other multinational companies and the like. Oh, wait. Those parameters knock out the biggest names in media. Suffice it to say, as long as we are aware of the mistakes named above and then some, we can have an understanding and be aware of trusting media. Networks that are financially unattached and journalists who are encouraged to omit nothing can be hailed as true and trusted well.

New media companies are being created since the existing major players are susceptible to omission and favoritism. These new networks, if all goes well, will have a system of checks and balances in them to insure their transparency. After all, the main ingredient in trusting media is independence from influence and full transparency.

ACTION STEPS

Here are several action steps to replace blindly trusting media.

1) Decide whether you would like a slanted view of the news. If yes, look for your favorite provider (unless you find a miraculous, objective source). If not, obtain your news from, at least, 5 different places on a regular basis. (The really good way to get a clearer picture would be to change news sources to a new 5 every week for a year. That would give a great overview, and I’d love to hear about it.)

2) Notice the relationships within your newspapers, news magazines or news video services of choice: who owns them, who the advertisers are, which way they slant. A simple way to know which way they slant is to read the editorials.

3) Notice which news sources always omit or downplay certain stories, and decide if that’s acceptable to you.

4) Click HERE if you would like to learn more about a new media network. Choose Other Stuff and type in LEARN with your contact info.

5) Click HERE if you would like to contribute to a new media network. Choose Other Stuff and type in CONTRIBUTE with your contact info.

If you wish to share your story, please hit reply in your email program to be contacted.

FEEDBACK

We value your feedback very much.

Please leave a comment below.

Please LIKE us on the website and at

WarriorsOfWeight on Facebook.

You can also follow us on Twitter @warriorsoweight.

Thanks.

DIANE GOLD, PUBLISHER AND AUTHOR

Diane Gold, Founder of Warriors of Weight, Turning Habits Into Health, is a mentor in tai chi, kung fu and meditation, a music, fitness and stress expert, dedicated mom, studying plant-based nutrition and habit change.

She believes we can choose to believe what we hear or not. She says,

“It is truly important to think on our own. If we listen to cliques excluding creative thought, where will we be? If we learn to put a value on the place or person from where what we hear came, we will learn to hear ourselves.

“Listening to media is a great thing, as long as we realize its biggest advantage is to encourage independent thought. Let us be selective and moral, based on what resonates with our truth. Although it may feel cozy to emulate someone’s words or some journalist’s article; our own words are the most powerful, if we let them be.

“Be thoughtful in trusting media, knowing it is comfortable to believe a convincing story. Let’s think it out, making certain we are looking at the whole picture, who owns what, who is independently reporting.

“Finally, let us all take good care of ourselves because we are so worth it!”

PROFIT FROM PEACE – THE PEACE INDUSTRY TV SHOW (ISSUE 134)

By Diane Gold

Profit From Peace is an ideal that has fallen through the cracks in discussions at the university level, in primary and secondary schools, across diplomatic and corporate tables. It’s not really in the back of our minds, yet, either.

Peaceful coexistence is talked about a lot. Personal peace of mind is a popular topic. Yet making profit in a peace environment is not considered.

Well, why not? As I see it, people know what currently works for profit and don’t want to do the exact opposite of that, infrastructurally. But, brilliant entrepreneurs can create a new industry of peace that can transition us into an entirely new method for profit: The Peace Machine. Let’s think outside the box as to what a TV show like this could accomplish.

Let’s consider the peace industry show, Profit From Peace, in development. Just as Donald Trump’s The Apprentice, runs a competition-like job interview show whose prize is running one of his corporations; the British The Apprentice: UK’s prize has evolved to become an investment in a business of the winning candidate’s creation. The British version is more the concept we have for Profit From Peace, discussed here.

Each candidate would pitch the business plan of her/his created company, including how to finance and manage it. The show would include role playing a board meeting run by the prospective director of the company.

To qualify, the business being pitched would have to profit from peace and peaceful coexistence similar to the way we now profit from war: only the peace economy would include green transportation instead of petroleum or diesel spewing vehicles and energy efficient lighting on all our roadways including photoluminescent paint that depicts roadway lanes and current weather conditions.

It would also have to be funded, in part, by a multinational company whose products typically are used in wartime, business investors and/or celebrity investors, all of whom are TV judges of the ideas being presented before them.

The challenge of the show is to come up with a lucrative enterprise that can, eventually, replace the current war economy enterprises so that profit motive is removed from influencing whether or not we go to war. If we remove the profit temptation, we look through different eyes.

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

I want to make it very clear that I support our military’s being strong. But, as with martial arts, just because we have the training and the equipment doesn’t mean we use it to solve a conflict.

I also stress the importance of creating a new infrastructure that can stand on its own, inclusion of the business of war, so that the powerful business concerns that currently fund war products would be motivated to support peace profits for profit purposes.

THE CONCEPT OF MAKING MONEY THROUGH PEACE, NOT WAR

We already know how to make money from war. Military equipment, location and protection technology and gear, air, land and sea vehicles need manufacturing, technological assembly, fuel for transport, human personnel, financing up front to pay for the above, medical costs during and after war. We have mastered this art. Let’s explore another.

What if we focused our attention on making money from peace? That would be a game changer. By doing so, we would be taking away the demand for extra war products by not creating wars, which would entail developing other industries than those making money from the projectile products of war. Plus, we who would like to develop this profit from peace set of industries would be motivated to examine the ways to seduce multinational companies to begin coming on board.

INTERNET SEARCH FOR PROFIT FROM PEACE

When I looked on the almighty internet for the phrase “profit from peace,” there was one entry. In 2011, on a ted.com site, one person questions “what if we had peace industries.” Not surprisingly, the discussion was closed with only 2 comments. I found lots of links showing discussions of people making peace with money but none specifically targeting making money from peace. Furthermore, when I searched for peace products, I found flags, clothing, mugs with a peace sign, jewelry; but no infrastructure for profit from peace.

THE OPPORTUNITY

Although there are big bucks to be had from war; people die, families get fractured, cultures get lost. So, as with every strong habit, if we can replace it; it will go dormant. That is to say that if we start showing strategy that will work, we can turn companies who profit from war into companies who profit from peace and support us.

BUSINESS INVESTORS

There are some business investors who tend to favor projects that involve human rights. There are also those financiers who are looking for the next best start up. Finally, multinationals donate money to worthy projects, as this one might be viewed. So there are many possibilities for funding.

CELEBRITY PEACENIKS

There  are many lists out there of celebrity peaceniks. They are mostly written by non-peaceniks and may include people with a broad range of charitable interests. So, even if I called Woody Harrelson, Jane Fonda, Diahann Carroll, Harry Belafonte, Jeremy Gilley of Peace One Day, together; each might have a very different agenda. But, together, we can do it, meaning get celebs on board!

CONCLUSION

Profit For Peace, The TV Show, is such a huge idea that, I think, any celebrities who actively pursue upgrading human rights would jump on board. I’d like to think so, and only time will tell.

ACTION STEPS

Below are several action steps we can take that can contribute to the TV show to further the infrastructure of industries making profit from peace.

1)   Create 1 business idea that can take the expertise of a company that currently makes profits from war and use it and its already built manufacturing plants for the purpose of peace. An example might be  having an airplane manufacturer shift their emphasis from military planes to human rights ambassador planes for protection of human rights throughout the world.

2)   Make a list of 3 industries that can be used for profiting from peace.

3)   Write down what you think would happen if we kept looking at new ways to profit from peace.

Hopefully, the profit from peace concept is now embedded in our minds. It can only grow as we talk and refine it. If we are consistent, don’t disrespect the profit position of war manufacturers and give them an alternative; we might have embarked upon something that will work.

4)   Last, but not least, if you would like to be involved in this project; please connect.

If you wish to share your story, please hit reply in your email program to be contacted.

FEEDBACK

We value your feedback very much.

Please leave  a comment below.

Please LIKE us on the website and at

WarriorsOfWeight on Facebook.

You can also follow us on Twitter @warriorsoweight.

Thanks.

DIANE GOLD, PUBLISHER AND AUTHOR

Diane Gold, Founder of Warriors of Weight, Turning Habits Into Health, is a mentor in tai chi, kung fu and meditation, a music, fitness and stress expert, dedicated mom, studying plant-based nutrition and habit change.

She believes there is a way that is within our grasp to profit from peace. She says,

“Before there was an auto industry, or a computer industry; someone had to have the concept. Once there, focused, systematic attention had to be paid to each task devoted to success. The conceptualizers of our time figured out the next step. This meant many, many failures, each of which, as we know, brings us one step closer to success.

“Let’s focus our attention on the idea that the peace industry is active and that it is worth creating products and services, funding and supplying and distributing products. Let’s make more money, which would have nothing to do with war, from peace concerns now. We can put our minds together and work toward profit from peace and can help in the development of Profit From Peace – The Peace Industry TV Show.

“Finally, let us all take good care of ourselves because we are so worth it!”