HOW SLOUCHING DESTROYS HEALTH (ISSUE 121)

By Diane Gold

Slouching destroys health. It may stop our breathing, but it can certainly compromise our power and our vitality. Not only do we compress the spine when we slouch, but we limit our respiration and cause our body to atrophy . We don’t usually think about these events, but they are obvious when we do.

Shoulders over the hips is the proper alignment for standing or sitting. This can also be done for people who spend their days in bed, with a small alignment trick below.

HEALTH AND SLOUCHING

One of the ways we stay healthy is to pump lots of fresh oxygen into our systems. The cleaner the air, the better off we are. The freer the airway is, the easier it is for it to flow.

Think about what happens when we have unwanted mucous in our body. We have difficulty breathing. This is because our airway is blocked.

Or think about when someone falls on top of us in gym class or martial arts training; we have a hard time breathing because our lungs get compressed and our oxygen level is restricted.

The same thing happens when we slouch: we restrict our own airway. It does take some effort to hold the torso up without slouching, but our bodies will thank us for the unbounded occasion to suck up oxygen with no obstructions.

MISSING THE OPPORTUNITY TO WORK THAT BODY

Every time we are standing or sitting, or even lying down; we have the opportunity to work the abdominal muscles to hold the torso straight. Every time we don’t use this chance, it goes away.

It feels really good to have strong abs. They can do amazing things. Strong abs allow for a great life and great digestion, too.

We also have the chance to learn how to relax our chins, necks and shoulders with good posture. This, too, goes away if we don’t grab the moment.

PERPETUATING THE HABIT

When we keep slouching, we get used to it and it becomes normal. Unless we take a good long look, there are probably 5 times a day we slouch without noticing it: tidying up, cooking, working, driving, sitting on the toilet are some examples. We know that we develop a habit from a cue. The cue is the urge to relax or the urge to rest. What could possibly be wrong with letting the shoulders go while we are cooking? Isn’t this activity supposed to be mellow and fun?

Carving out relaxation time is crucially important. It doesn’t mean we have to slouch. After the cue, (wanting to relax) we do a behavior (letting the abs, shoulders and butt go out of alignment) that brings us the reward of ending the work it takes to stand, sit or keep the bones aligned. If repeated, this becomes the norm. Thus, we habitually slouch. Until we replace this behavior.

ACTION STEPS

1) USING THE LEGS

When we look at daily activities that require us to carry weight, we have to use our legs to take the pressure off our backs and our knees. Take vacuuming, sweeping, carrying out the recycling bin. These tasks require us to exert effort. When we bend the knees to engage the legs, we can do the pushing, pulling, carrying without compromising our spine. When an object is fairly bulky or awkward, it’s important to use some type of leverage (bent knees, a wagon, a dolly or a partner to avoid slouching the back during this enterprise.

2) USING THE ABS

Funny as it may sound, using the abdominal plate to hold the back erect is the easiest way to insure a healthy posture. This would mean this set of muscles has to be strong enough to endure the weight of the undertaking.

The labor can be as gentle as standing at the mirror to brush our teeth.

I bring this one up because several times this year, I have looked at my posture while grooming my teeth; it was in need of correction. Either my shoulders were slumped, I was leaning over the sink with an out of alignment back or I relaxed my abdominal muscles enough to slouch.

The action step is to notice yourself at tooth brushing time, and get the shoulders over the hips while you brush, floss and tongue brush.

3) TUCKING THE BUTT

So often, when people hear,

“Tuck the butt,”

they tuck the hips forward (which is correct), and they compromise the spine (obviously not correct). The purpose of this butt adjustment is to take the pressure off the joints and the back and place it on the bones which were built to do the heavy lifting (pun intended).

Standing in line is the perfect place to tuck your butt. Since we have decided to stand in this line, rarer and rarer with online banking, taxes and government paperwork;  we can use this instance to work on our slouching habit by changing our behavior. It takes just as much effort to stand straight as to slouch, even though we think the opposite; so we might as well maximize our own energy by aligning the body.

Large-chested women will find this particularly helpful as they have the challenge of not leaning too far back or forward to compensate for the weight of the chest.

The action step are these:

a)   While standing, feel like a soldier by rotating the belly button forward at the same time as tucking the butt so that the body is in a straight line. If you have strong abs, it’s OK if the torso is slightly forward of the hips.

b)   While sitting in your chair or on the couch (or sitting up in bed), tuck the butt so that the lower back presses against the lower back of the chair or couch. If this leaves space between the upper back and the chair or couch back, place a pillow there so that the center of the shoulders stay over the center of the hips.

If you are seated on a seat with no back, tuck the butt in the same way and use the abs to hold the shoulders over the hips with straight back.

c)   Especially for people who spend most of their time in bed, tuck the butt while lying down. Press the lower back into the bed. If possible, and for best leverage until you have rock solid abs, bend the knees  upward with feet flat on the bed.

CONCLUSION

 Slouching is insidious. It pops into our lives when we least expect and becomes normal unless we manage and fix it. When we are younger, it doesn’t seem like a big deal, except that the earlier on we make our move, the earlier we will develop the habit of an aligned body.

We need our breathing for health, so let’s help it out. We need to train our bones, muscles and tendons to keep us straight.

We feel better when our bodies are in line. There’s no time like the present to make slouching a thing of the past in our lives.
___

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.

Please LIKE us on the website and at WarriorsOfWeight on Facebook.

Please follow us on Twitter @warriorsoweight.

Thanks.

DIANE GOLD, 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.

If she knows one thing better than anything else, it might be how to align the body for maximize health. She says,

“We have lots of time to live and make changes. Our lives will power up once we pay attention to body alignment. It’s as if someone turns a switch on the world; but we have done it. That’s how important posture is.

“It’s climactic. Replacing slouching helps our health. It is poignant. It’s like lighting up our lives because we let in more oxygen when we sit and stand well.

“Do it once. Then do it again. Keep on going.It’s good for all of us and makes us strong.”

THE REAL SCOOP ON THE HEALTH CARE LAW! THE CASE OF THE SHRINKING WORK FORCE (ISSUE 117)

By Diane Gold

The Health Care Law Is Projected To Shrink The Work Force. This headline looks at full-time workers in an estimate from the Congressional Budget Office. According to Jason Furman, Council Of Economic Advisors Chairman, the change in number of workers has to do more with people’s choosing part-time assignments rather than that employers are deleting jobs to avoid employee’s health insurance costs.

Let’s remember that the Affordable Care Act subsidizes those who work, for the most part. And, if people have enough money to pay for their insurance and their lives; they are contributing to our economy whether it’s with a full-time, part-time or self-employment situation. This is the exercise of beautiful freedom of choice.

THE HABIT

Here’s the habit, though. We, the sheep of America, have been groomed to go to school, strive to get a corporate or non-profit job, in part, for the health insurance benefits provided. Getting the right job that happens to include health care benefits is fabulous. It’s not the only way, and now, it is becoming a less chosen option.

Certainly, we are bound to contribute to humanity in a way that sustains us in some financial way and in order to leave a personal human legacy. We don’t have to get it by having a J-O-B in an environment, where group health care was the only reason we took the job. We can be CRE-8-TIVE and do what we love, which, for most people, is not what they do at their J-O-B. They can be small business owners, putting them in a category to be able to pay for themselves, but out of the headlined category: full-time W-2 worker, about whom the CBO is estimating.

THE ARTIST

There are those of us lucky enough to have trained in a field that we adore and actually work within that field. Or there are those whose job title is “artist,” and we have been fortunate or talented enough (both) so that people don’t think twice about calling us “artists,” which, of course, brings in income from the many who love us. (We are in the habit of calling people who paint, play music, write “people who fool around with art” if they don’t have popularity, and, therefore, aren’t financially sound, unfair as this can be.)

THE ENTREPRENEUR

There is so much creative energy that we all possess that is channeled by some into entrepreneurship. The people in this division make some of the breakthroughs that make our country great and make us happy Americans. We are thriving spiritually because of choices like entrepreneurship. Yes, there are just as many, if not more people who have that same spark of invention who don’t make a living at it and struggle. But they deserve the time to keep working at it.

THE FREEDOM

As I see the health care law headline about shrinking jobs, it makes me grateful to be American. Why? Because I believe America’s greatest benefit is its FREEDOM. We are free to be our wonderful selves, in all our creative glory, to choose what is right for us, based on our current situation. What may be seen as a bane in shrinking corporate workers could produce the next breakthrough in health care, technology, space, famine, peace. Isn’t that huge!

SPIRITUAL HEALTH

It’s fair to say that what keeps us happy and healthy is our own personal foundation. When we have a belief system or a set of ethics by which we live; this drives us to do act the way we do and make the decisions that we do.

As I see it, this category is the most important one we have. If we are personally “together,” as they used to say back in the day; we have what it takes to go on from there.

If we have our own value system, we know how to act as human beings, not just based on what feels good to us (hedonism), but based upon how we can benefit humanity and create a legacy of our own. I’m talking about the fact that building our virtue builds our legacy of choice. Spiritual health may not collect a billion dollars in money. Yet, if we have set up an ethic that helps others or creates harmony; we contribute spiritual health to the world.

When we work less, we have more time for this type of growth.

THE HEALTH CARE LAW

The Health Care Law aka The Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare is part of the legacy of Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States. It allows for people previously uninsurable due to health issues to be insurable. It allows for people who could not afford health insurance to be subsidized enough to get it.

Another feature of this policy is that some citizens get to choose a lifestyle that does not include working full-time in a distasteful position just for the health care benefits. Although most of us cannot afford to work part-time or at our dream task; the law, formally called the Affordable Care Act, offers a new and unscheduled benefit: that of personal freedom.

We knew the ACA would give us more security, a way to reduce health care costs by having many more insured and not expending enormous medical costs by emergency room health care. No one talked about the freedom that might become available to some. According to the predictions, the economy will not suffer from these choices because we will have more contented citizens who maintain a higher level of health due to peace of mind from health coverage and spiritual wholeness and we will be using less expensive health care services.

CONCLUSION

I’m quite a fan of the ACA, since I have seen, first hand, its benefits. As with most headlines, though, it’s important to evaluate alleged proof and investigate media slant. In the case of the Health Care Law, the prediction of shrinking of employees is not a bad thing. It may mean people are choosing to work less and spiritualize more. It may be the trend of our current generations’ understanding of the importance of personal growth. It definitely will have to do with our lowering our health care costs, another plus.

This example of headline grandstanding is an opportunity to step back and see for ourselves. It’s also a good time to inventory our own choices that may or may not be possible for us at this time but that may give us some insight.

ACTION STEP INVENTORY

This might be eye opening and only takes a minute. Answer as if you were in the particular situation, even if you are not. And actually ask yourself the question. When I asked myself one at a time, they had more of an impact:

1) On scale of 1 to 10, 10 being high, if you were single, would you rather have a steady large organizational job or a steady part-time job and the time and freedom in which to be creative?

2) On scale of 1 to 10, 10 being high, if you were single, would you rather cut down on spending to afford a steady part-time job and the freedom to be creative or keep your steady corporate or non-profit job?

3) What is more important to you, money or spiritual health?

4) If you were responsible for a family, what would you want to show your kids, that it’s more important to provide luxury for them and have a corporate job that you don’t like or live with no frills and have a part-time job which afforded you time for creativity, spirituality and family?

5) Are you surprised at yourself?
___

If you would like to share your answers, please hit reply in your email program with the questions answered.
___

Finally, it seems as if freedom of choice is the reason for the shrinking employee headline. We’re all different. There’s no one way to be. And, through the ACA, the United States has just happily extended our freedom.

FEEDBACK

We value your feedback very much. Please leave a comment below.

Please LIKE us on the website and at WarriorsOfWeight on Facebook. Thanks.

DIANE GOLD, 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 all deserve health care. She says,

“I believe it is a right in the civilized world. Because of the Affordable Care Act, more people can be insured. A brilliant feature that is a secret benefit is the reduction in full-timers that is predicted. These are not the dedicated folks whose work is their passion. It is the people who have yet to find their passion. And their part-time status may lead them to it which will lead them to become more productive citizens to benefit us all.”

THE NUMBER ONE METHOD FOR HABIT CHANGE: THE SECRET IS OUT (ISSUE 116)

By Diane Gold

Before we reveal ”The Number One Method For Habit Change” for free, in this very article; let’s look at habits, in general, to understand how many we have and the potential simplicity of changing them.

PERSONAL HABITS vs. NON-PERSONAL HABITS

Our habits are either personal or non-personal. We all easily identify with habits and actions that relate to ourselves, since we are usually quite concerned with ourselves: whether we can or cannot control our eating, drinking, drugging, picking, blinking, speaking. These habits are physiological or mental and connect to our senses, rather than related to ways we act toward the outside world.

Non-personal habits define how we act toward our environment through repetitive actions passed down from families – political agendas, belief systems, what paper towel brand we use, what is acceptable to wear, eat, the way we were brought up to speak, the way we do or do not speak with people on the street or in our neighborhoods, listening to certain music because that’s what we’ve been exposed to, the amount we allow ourselves to dance in public, our understanding of social customs of our area, the way we treat others, the way we resolve conflict, whether we are first to help or wait for the crowd to do it first. These are all external to our own personal habits. They influence them and cross over into the personal, but they are outside them, for the most part.
__

Both personal and non-personal habits make us who we are. Although we will focus on the personal, the number one method for habit change is the same for each.

APPEARANCE

We develop habits based on how certain actions make us feel. Whether we wear designer clothes, keep our hair immaculate or stay fit because we enjoy people’s staring at us; we act out behaviors regularly to achieve these good feelings, aka rewards. The cue, which is the original feeling that makes us do a behavior urges us to work so we have access to buy clothing, get our hair done, so we look how we like. This urge also pushes us to work out so that our bodies look good, which gives us the end result: the reward of having people acknowledge our beauty. Appearance

These are only examples of appearance habits we may have. There are others of us who specifically wear clothing to make us invisible, since we don’t like it when people stare. And there are others of us who do not consider what people think; they are busy with their own lives and work.

PHYSICAL CRAVINGS

Quite often, our habits become founded in the urges we feel. By acting out a certain behavior, we can receive a hormonal rush of happiness. Because we want to experience this “reward” again, we repeat the same behavior to get it. That’s how habits begin, with repetition.

The craving, urge, cue, whatever we call it, that drives us to behave a certain way can be a similar feeling no matter what reward our end product (the result of our action) achieves. Whether we eat a yummy food, take a tranquilizing drug, drink a drink that makes us tingle, play a card game that thrills us; we are seeking the end delicacy that our hormones produce.

TIME FOR HABIT CHANGE

As may be common knowledge, once we have a habit, it belongs to us. Like gene expression, it can be dormant or active. We don’t unlearn to ride a bike, and we don’t lose our blue-eyed chromosome that may express itself in our children, even though our eyes are brown. When we turn social drinking into excessive drinking, we own it. That doesn’t mean we have to express it in the future.

When we choose to change one of our habits, we replace the habit that was there with a new one. The old one is still there, but it is a “habit in the closet,” so to speak. As long as we are doing a new behavior and not opening the closet, the habit will stay put. For as long as we choose. Habit In The Closet

So the big trick to creating a new way of acting is SPEED, not the drug, but the swiftness with which we act after a cue. We have to be ready starting now for the very first cue that comes that has previously made us do the habit we want to change. From now on, we must replace this action within 15-30 seconds of getting that cue so that the mind doesn’t have a chance to intervene.

Once we have made the decision to do something different, that is, change a habit, we can remember,

“Immediate Action Required.”

That’s the simple answer to what could seem a monumental issue. Rather than struggling with “not” executing an act we have done over and over again, like giving in to our desires that lead us down a path we want to avoid, we take our attention and our bodies to a new place, a new action and, therefore, a new, but rewarding, outcome.

ACTION STEPS

1) As soon as the almighty urge shows up that sends us to get our reward, IMMEDIATELY DRINK WATER, TWO GLASSES AT ROOM TEMPERATURE. Bam! That’s it.

2) OK. That’s not exactly it for some people. We may need another action to lead us to the reward we want which is to look good, feel good and, ultimately, change our habit. We may need to VERBALIZE that we have had the craving out loud to another person or people.

Of course, if we have an appropriate friend, we can tell the friend. If not, we can tell a stranger. It’s surprising how many people want to listen to what we have to say, even if we just know them from shopping where they work. Naturally, we can reach out in social media, but this digital admission does not give us the same mirror reflection that telling a live person gives us.

We may be afraid, nervous, embarrassed to admit our urge. That’s fine. That has nothing to do with taking the action. We have plenty of time after we admit our urge to be afraid, nervous, embarrassed. As long as we take the action of saying it out loud first. This works best if it is done within 5 minutes of drinking the water.

If you’re near the beach, tell a lifeguard. If you’re in-city, tell a librarian. If you’re on the farm, tell a fellow farmer. The worst that can happen is that you will be judged by someone else. Most people are not qualified to make a judgment, so the judgment would be like someone not liking the color of your eyes. Those who are qualified to judge who make a negative judgment about someone’s decision to change a habit lack the compassion and humility that are found in a quality human being.

Think about it. What’s worse, not changing a habit whose time has come or the possibility of embarrassment? The obvious answer is not changing.

Granted, it does get tricky when we have children and they will be heckled in school. In that situation, it is time to trust the children and speak to them honestly.

3) Here’s a quick step in not being embarrassed. FOCUS on discussing your urge and on doing the new behaviors. When you are finished drinking water and verbalizing, you will have time left to be embarrassed. Or you may feel the power that comes with self-help.

CONCLUSION

What habits we develop depend on who we are, what we decide and our body and mental chemistry. Not every person raised in luxury with servants and dinner parties has the habit of overdrinking. Not every person raised in poverty who gambled in the park to feed her family lets gambling take over her life when other financial opportunities appear. The number one method for habit change works universally.

THE NUMBER ONE METHOD FOR HABIT CHANGE

When we are ready to change a habit, this is the process:

1) Make a contract with self to replace a behavior for a day or a week. The contract must include the action step to be taken immediately upon having the craving that starts the habit process in motion (such as when the urge to drink alcohol or eat a cookie comes; drink water, not alcohol or drink water, instead of eating a 3:00 pm cookie).

2) Take the contracted action step immediately every time the urge shows up, starting immediately. It’s only for a day or a week. You can un-contract yourself at any time after the first contract or renew it. Your choice.

3) Be consistent with the contracted behavior every single time you feel the craving or you start to think about it. It’s only for a day or a week, whichever you have chosen.

Once this process is completed, you have the choice to renew the contract or stop. The choice for changing a habit is yours.

HELPFUL HINTS

If this process does not work the first time, it’s okay to start again and again.

If someone says anything about your habit change question, it is not important. What is important is to do the action steps. That’s it.

It is not necessary to believe you can do it to succeed. What is important is to act. By doing so, your belief in self will arrive, while you are changing your habit. You will believe when you see what you have done.

FEEDBACK

We value your feedback very much.
Please leave a comment below.

Please LIKE us on the website and at WarriorsOfWeight on Facebook. Thanks.

DIANE GOLD, 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 complicate. She says,

“Simplify, simplify, simplify. When we make things so complex, we miss what’s right in front of us. When we have one choice, we take it. When we have one road on which to walk, we walk it. The habit change process outlined as ‘The Number One Method For Habit Change’ proposed to do just that: offer one choice and one road on which to act out the choice.

“When we look at one thing at a time, we just might accomplish our goal. So let’s make a contract, act on it and repeat the actions for the contracted duration. That’s all we need, and that’s plenty.”

THE MANIPULATION OF EVIDENCE-BASED MEDICINE (ISSUE 115)

By Diane Gold

HABIT OF BELIEVING

It is always a good idea to trust, to believe the next person, give credence to what we read, being astute when credentialing who’s saying what and knowing what authors are attached to an agenda other than truth is present.

This means it’s important to keep in mind,

“Everybody wants a comfortable lifestyle, but what are you going to do for it? Where do you draw the line?”

said by Brad Murawski, a computer specialist from Troy, NY, familiar with scams and hacking, when polled by GfK and AP about trust.

I think most people want to live clean lives, where we would be proud to tell our children every decision we have ever made. But egoism and greed can lead us to deceive, omit and distort. And once we’re in the habit of doing our habit of ego and greed; we’re doing our habit of ego and greed.

How many times have we convinced ourselves that:

1) because of all the work we do, it’s okay to falsify the hours we invoice to a client,

2) because of all the money our employer makes, it’s fair to take home office supplies or make copies of our completely unrelated creative project using company copiers,

3) if we support someone’s project, that someone will support ours; so, it’s acceptable to support what we don’t believe in.

The last of these is the most common way that medical information gets corrupted, as far as I can see.

EVIDENCE-BASED MEDICINE DEFINED

Evidence-based medicine is the use of proof or high quality information and research in medicine, the science of prevention, diagnosis and treatment of a disorder of function, often called disease. Factual testing is used to assess benefits and risks of specific treatments prescribed by learned people in the medical field. How many times does one academic support another’s study, body of work, thesis – even overlooking its controversy – for the primary purpose of getting support back, be it money or editorial byline?

We, especially in the Western World, but common everywhere, have developed the habit of believing that, if a clinical trial has taken place, if a certified doctor has uttered it, if a governmental agency assigned to evaluate and cure illness has said it, if our pharmaceutical companies claim it (since they are so very regulated by the FDA and other government agencies), if it’s published in a medical journal; the information publicized from this event must be ethical, honest, conscientious, and, most of all, clinically based. This is a strong habit that we have been repeating since we were young, having been taught to trust doctors, nurses and other medical personnel as well products from the wonder drug companies whose breakthrough can cure disease.

The term, evidence-based, is the current term for irrefutable proof, documentation based on science. What has happened out of greed and ego is that there is not one body of standard regulators whose job or future job does not depend upon their regulating. There is not one standard for study parameters; when articles are published, publishers take big money to print; when drugs are approved or in process, pharmaceutical companies working with academic institutions hire ghostwriters to write favorable reports so that the FDA will be encouraged to approve and doctors will be convinced to prescribe medicines based on what can only be called marketing.

How can evidence-based medicine not contain flaws when doctors and researchers are beholden to drug companies: for their continuing education, for the perks that drug companies give them – like hotel and air fare to conferences. Some doctors even work for the drug companies instructing other doctors in what drug to use. (Does your doctor take money? One of mine does, and he doesn’t believe what he teaches is influenced by his paycheck or end of year bonus based on number of prescriptions written).

DATA SOURCE

Medical professionals incorporate information of the latest experiments and trials along with their own research, college research and academic experience to make decisions.

In all circumstances, we are presuming the information in our tool kit has been derived through truthful, ethical and legitimate means. It comes to us as follows:

1)    In reputable medical journals;
2)    Through academic research reports;
3)    By lecture from professionals and speakers at conferences;
4)    Through summary of a research abstract;
5)    Through reading the entire published article if there is time for the whole read and if we pay to subscribe to the publication;
6)    Through promotional marketing materials publicizing a drug or technique;

7)    From  pharmaceutical representatives, whose companies often times are the sponsors and controllers of the clinical trials and the data published.
8)    Socially at lunch or golf with colleagues;
9)    Across the dinner table at a family of doctors or medical professionals.
10)  At monthly or quarterly lectures given by doctors who are paid by pharmaceutical manufacturers.
11) Through media attention to failed patients who are damaged or die as a result of information withheld from unpublished clinical trials.
12) In medical schools that get large funding, possibly enough money for entire laboratories, from various pharmaceutical companies.

We, the medical community, are given much opportunity for bias. We, the public including the student, are given much opportunity for bias. How do we know where the evidence is based?

OUR HABIT OF INFORMATION GATHERING

We, humans, and medical personnel in particular, pick up information when we hear it, because we are investigative. We have a habit of listening to information, even when we are not listening to it and, as astute individuals, will remember random information even if we are not able to remember where we heard about it. This phenomenon can lead the best intentioned professionals to validate or parrot information that has been disseminated for marketing purposes or that has no clinical protocol attached to it.

The same happens to plain, old non-medically trained individuals. We hear a commercial on TV, and, if it’s catchy enough, the brand being advertised sticks in our mind. Or a doctor has samples of various products that we see lying around the office, so we believe the product must be good. Or one person has her treatment paid for by a pharmaceutical company and it works; as happens often, that person shouts out her success more loudly than the 100 people who had adverse reactions to the same treatment.

Of course, it is possible to hear about a one-shot treatment occurrence that absolutely saved a patient’s life that was paid for by a company or whose marketing is the reason we heard about it. And, if we are this patient, we are thankful and ecstatic and swear by this one single, random, non-duplicable effort because it saved us and we live. This is a dangerous way to get information, though.

But, in general, we use the data sources listed above and our own good judgment thrown in. If we are not employees of the research sponsor, which can be the pharmaceutical company or the university whose board members are on both boards or connected to someone with a financial interest; we will rarely have access to unpublished research information, since all of it belongs to the originating sponsor as part of the sponsorship arrangement. We will also not know how accurate the investigative reporting has been.

WHERE DOES THAT LEAVE OUR ACCURACY AND UNDERSTANDING?

We come back to trust, which, as we’ve said, is good. As long as we add in all the factors that can bias evidence, we can evaluate whether the results of the evidence-based medicine we so cherish have any basis in profit or furthering political careers or paving the way for employment at a pharmaceutical company.

Should we conclude that the research in front of us was conducted for the purpose of furthering humanity, we can hope for the best and still judge for ourselves. Most studies start out with good intentions, and the researchers involved usually demand pure science. But research costs money, and sponsorship usually comes with promises of non-disclosure and the sponsor’s ability to change study parameters that will manipulate the data.

CONCLUSION

There is lots of medical research both in academia and in companies in the pharmaceutical industry, from medical student projects, from already working doctors and medical professionals that is outstanding, amazing, monumental, life changing, life saving, cooperatively integrated with every other discipline that exists, evidence-based for real with no prejudice based on agenda that is the pure truth. Our arms go out to you in thanks, praise and commendation. Keep up the great work. We are counting on you.

But there are those of us who, because we wanted a better life, to send our kids to a better college or just because we wanted the money for the research that we love to do, crossed that line.

ACTION STEPS

If the line concerns the safety of human lives, such as having knowledge of unpublished trials that prove a negative reaction in humans;

1)   Please consider crossing the line back over to the right side again. If we are a company or an academic community, do we not want to show our children how to be good citizens? If we are individuals, do we not want to be the examples our children will follow?

The manipulation of evidence-based medicine exists. But the truth seekers are also here.

2)   Let us continue to strive for knowing the difference, difficult as it is, and to encourage the line-crossers to cross back over.

We have all (well, most of us, anyway) crossed some line, whether it’s been to embellish on a resume, let a research student do our research to which we put our name, or whether we took a job with an unethical company.

We owe it to each other to keep medicine clean so that the principles of evidence-based medicine can prevail.

3)   Let’s be aware of factors that can taint, and let’s be good examples of truth.

FEEDBACK

We value your feedback very much.
Please leave  a comment below.

Please LIKE us on the website and at WarriorsOfWeight on Facebook. Thanks.

DIANE GOLD, 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 in people’s ability to be truthful and ethical. She also knows that habits can make us who we are not. She says,

“Be trusting, but be diligent. Know people for the emotions they possess.

“We all have feelings that can trap us or not, depending upon how we control our habit mechanism and our desires. There is never really a steadfast good reason to be dishonest. When our children are starving, we may choose to steal bread. Other than this desperation, we are responsible for truth.

“We know people who have chosen medicine started out to help their flock. Let us point them in that direction again and be diligent in seeking out true evidence-based medicine.”

HABITS IN MEDICAL CARE – PART 3: READY FOR CHANGE? (ISSUE 112)

By Diane Gold

This article looks at 7 habits well ingrained in our standard behavior in those of us who have put our faith in the medical care system without realizing the pitfalls and the dangers and before examining the outcome. Its purpose is to highlight our automatic acceptance of these behaviors and to offer alternative options to anyone ready for change.

1)   Depending upon a primary care physician and giving up our personal responsibility for our care.

In the previous article in this series (June 24, 2013), I mentioned I was still looking for a primary care provider. I have found her. It is I, an unlicensed, non-medical person who knows a lot about nutrition and mind, body, spirit fitness. So far, I care the more about my own care than anyone I have found; I don’t treat myself like just another chart; I know the details of my case without having to look at a chart which is brief, at best; I have done research on nutrition and fitness and body processes and interactions that no medical personnel I know has done.

I work on always being open, as I believe it is a great way to live. But I am responsible for myself and count on specialists for specific parts of my body. Shouldn’t we all be responsible?

2)   Having to pay for a 2nd doctor’s visit to get the results of the diagnostic tests whose prescription we paid to get at the 1st doctor’s visit.
When we have a question, we must make an appointment to ask the question: unless we have some type of concierge version of a relationship with the medical pro. In days to come, it is likely that we can use telehealth (virtual medicine) to get our question answered. Of course, we will pay for the medical pro’s time in school, cost of school, cost of overhead including office staff, whether face-to-face staff or virtual, and medical expertise.

 Although I am looking forward to the day when all medical professionals offer  electronic consults, the telehealth-telemedicine industry is already having us form a new habit, should we choose to accept what it is pushing. Their business model saves provider overhead, saves the government emergency visit costs for patients who get government subsidies, but the patient pays the same as before. As are many infrastructures, this one is abusive.

The televisit might be no more than 50% of an actual face-to-face visit if we were taking into account there are no office to clean, no employee needed to meet and greet, no sterilization of instruments and no need to prepare an office for the appointment. Further, more of us would be happy not to have an in-person visit if our virtual encounter cost less. It doesn’t. Why would it not, except that the industry has made a pact not to train us patients to pay a non-reduced cost?

3)   Taking doctor recommended drugs from doctors who are paid by the pharmaceutical companies to prescribe.

Does your doctor work for a pharmaceutical company? Did you know that some are commissioned to recruit patients for a new drug, getting paid per each head brought to the study? They are also trained to educate other doctors about the possible benefits of the drug so that other doctors will recruit patients to take the drug. Don’t know for sure, but I suspect that the educating doctor gets a cut of the stipend that every other doctor gets for bringing patients to the study. If this is the structure, it is multi-level marketing which I firmly believe in. But, in medicine, might there be agendas pushing prescribing techniques?

Just like the pharmaceutical rep I met the other day, the doctor paid by big pharma has been trained by the pharmaceutical company on the merits of the drug. Had s/he seen all the trials, even data of patients who didn’t finish or on patients who dropped out because of side effects? Makes us wonder.

4)   Accepting that doctors don’t get to see the full data on drugs they prescribe.

Doctors and health professionals only get to see a summary of abstracts or the full abstract if they pay for a medical journal subscription that houses the abstract. The abstract is some editor’s summation of facts which may not reflect study results. How weird that drug study results are not open to patients. We’re the ones who have to decide to take them or not. These data are also not open to doctors. Should we just say,

“Yes, ma’am. Thank you, ma’am,”

when told to take a drug when we don’t even know whether evidence collected shows its merit or not?

5)   Accepting that the drug administrator in our country permits pharmaceutical companies to hide drug trials from doctors and patients.

6)   Not being told, in advance, the cost of what we are purchasing at the doctor’s office.

7a) Not being given full explanation before a procedure is done at a doctor’s office so that we can decide whether we agree to have a procedure done.

7b)  Not standing up for ourselves and asking for full explanations at a doctor’s office before we have a procedure done.

CONCLUSION

We all have habits in medical care. Whether we are aware of them or not is another story.

The way to better ourselves is to notice how we treat ourselves and notice how people we pay in the health care system treat us. We deserve good treatment. This may mean changing our habit.

WHAT YOU CAN DO, THE ACTION STEPS

These action steps require that we be our own advocates. It’s not as hard as we may think. And, many providers will be willing to talk and change, should be we bring our concerns to their attention.

1)   Study how the body can be made to be healthy, and do this for the rest of your life.

2)   When you call the provider’s office to get the results of your test, have the provider fax or email you your results. Then you can decide whether a follow-up appointment is necessary.
Ask your medical provider if  you can confer by email and what it would cost.

3)   Ask your provider if s/he is in any way affiliated with the pharmaceutical company of any drug prescribed.

4)   Ask your provider how much data she has read on any drug she suggests. Ask that she get that data to you for your review. This does not mean the insert inside the drug box or the summary of any abstract that is available online.

5)   Call the drug administrator in your country, and talk about how you want drug trials to be public, not proprietary.

6)  Call you provider a day before an appointment. Request of the front desk that they tell you up front what your responsibility will be for the visit. This may mean they have to call your insurance company to find out what your responsibility for payment will be. I they say you have to wait, you can tell them you would need to know this information before you go to the appointment.

If you have no insurance, ask the provider’s office person for what you will be responsible if you have a routine visit, an x-ray, anything else commonly done in your type of provider’s office. Of course, the office person will say s/he won’t know until afterwards. At this point, mention that you are asking for the cost for an office visit and 3 x-rays. If you don’t have the x-rays, you can deduct that amount. Also, if you have no insurance, request of the office personnel that they request of the provider to be permitted to pay the allowed amount paid by people on an in-network insurance plan. Sometimes, they will have mercy. But, if you don’t ask, you’ll never know.

7)   Tell your provider that you are always interested in a full explanation of anything that s/he wants to do so that you will feel more comfortable with the process. Be clear the provider knows you have full confidence in what she is doing but wish to understand the process before it happens. That way, no ego gets bruised, and you can still decline the procedure once you understand what it is.
_

AWARENESS

Be aware of how many habits in medical care we have. We can change them today to support our lives.     Awareness

FEEDBACK

We value your feedback very much.
Please leave  a comment.

Please LIKE us on the website and at WarriorsOfWeight on Facebook. Thanks.

DIANE GOLD, 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 are responsible for our health and its treatment. She says,

“When we allow a medical provider to work with us, we are giving opportunity. True, we are also fortunate to have the benefit of such a person, especially if we find a caring and competent provider.

“But part of our responsibility, as I see it, is to ask questions about every step of our medical care and to inform all providers how we want to be treated. Otherwise medical professionals will not know that we want discussion and disclosure and may not realize we wish to approve or disapprove what is being suggested.

“The more we speak out, the more medical professionals will feel comfortable talking to us instead of at us. If we stay silent, care providers sometimes think we don’t want to participate in our own medical life. So, make it known that we want to be very much involved in all procedures.

“If we’ve never asked questions, habit change is in front of us. If we have been expressive about our involvement in our own medical care, it’s always great to reinforce a good habit.”

HOW PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT CAN CHANGE THE WORLD (ISSUE 111)

By Diane Gold

When one person betters herself, the world is better by one person. When many better themselves, this is multiplied. Therefore, personal development changes the world, one person at a time.

But, we may say, personal development is evolution of the individual, and changing the world requires understanding government, corporate and independent machines and acting upon given situations. So how can working inward affect working outward?

The main thing to remember is that we are not stagnant beings; we grow in one direction or the other, so when we cultivate ourselves on a regular basis and facilitate our own flourishing, we are, in essence, changing and improving the world.

PRELUDE TO BEGINNING OR NOT?

Before we can work on ourselves, do we have to stop any downward spiraling that exists from any part of our lives or from any self-limiting beliefs? ABSOLUTELY NOT, NOT NECESSARY, BARRIER THINKING, NO.

There is no need to work toward beginning. We just begin. Yes, in order to be able to pass a standardized test, we may have to take some courses to qualify. But, this is not a prelude; beginning constitutes beginning from wherever we are, so that we can go from there to achievement.

Let’s bold this rule to live by and make it an action step.

ACTION STEP

BEGIN FROM WHEREVER WE ARE. It makes no sense in comparing ourselves to someone else, because we are not someone else. We will always be ourselves, so let’s begin from where we stand. We can learn characteristics and skills of others, but we will always be ourselves and available to become higher humans.

TYPES OF PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

Let’s look at some of the different ways people develop themselves.

Some of us read books. Many of us believe we are helping ourselves by the mere fact that we have purchased and read a book from the self-help section of the book store (the placebo effect). That’s a good thing, though. It promotes balanced people which creates a more stable world.

Others of us mingle with great humans and take on a little of each of them through every connection.

Others of us go to support groups or prayer groups, where there is a leader. The leader discusses, speaks; hopefully we get a chance to speak. Definitely we get the chance to learn to learn.

There is also the newer group model for creating a solution, where there is no leader for an agenda-driven gathering, but participant’s input creates the solution.

Another type of personal development fortifies us by our absorption of the very method we are studying. Tai chi, the other martial arts, free dance, meditation, yoga are disciplines in this mind-body arts category. Music, visual art, poetry are in the creative arts category. By studying any of these methods, we consume a system of learning. This system develops who we are. This development fortifies the world.

MY RECENT PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXPERIENCE AT  5-RHYTHMS’ DANCE SESSION

I had the pleasure of attending a 5-Rhythms’ dance session on Friday, January 3, led by Amber Ryan, in Miami. The purpose of the session was to spread goodness, to cleanse the body, mind and spirit and resonate with learning about ourselves. The ultimate goal was use the dance method (which is a method of doing your own steps with a little bit of guidance) to shake off all our own personal garbage so that we could let our own inherent love shine through.

What is important to me about this session is that we are not told what to do or what step to dance. This freedom allows me to learn and grow. The instructor guides us on what part of our body on which to focus. Most of the time, though, we are dancing freely, with no instruction, just moving to the music, between 100 and 126 BPM (beats per minute, which you may remember from some of my other articles or from your own knowledge base – for reference, the heart beats at about 60 or 70 BPM). It is the least egocentric dance discipline I have seen. That’s because people are busy getting to know themselves, rather than comparing their dance moves to others. There is a guide, but there are no leaders.

I was very involved in the dance. But the word love came up several times. One of the other partners in the event kept expressing how she felt “so much love;” whether this was inside herself or from the group, I will not speculate. Although I could speculate because I felt some kind of love-y feeling inside, radiating out to the group and back to me. Nothing ethereal, I was heated from dancing. I was happy from releasing the tension in my body through dancing. I was dancing with others, one of my favorite activities. And I was socializing with people who had nothing, at that moment, to prove.

EUREKA

I realized that developing this positive inner feeling was personal development at its finest. If everyone were developing this joyous feeling within, we would be employing the changing the world principle, making positive humans, one individual at a time. By multiplying one times the number of people working on themselves, the world became kinder, more confident, more respectful, more social in a gentle way, with better human beings.

TAI CHI ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I know this EUREKA PRINCIPLE to be true from tai chi, also. Because of the biological effects of doing it and the concentration required to execute it; we feel balanced, moral, cleansed, helpful to others from the inside out as well as the outside in. And, here, I can clarify that the dancing I mentioned earlier uses the same principles to move the arms, the body, the legs, the head and to personally develop the self.

CONCLUSION: HOW PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT CAN CHANGE THE WORLD

We know that personal development is individualistic, but individuals make up the world. We know that if we develop ourselves through certain disciplines, we will become spiritually rich humans and contribute good acts in the world.

When we as people become better rounded, we contribute good deeds. Lots of individual good deeds changes the world, as the more personal development we do, the more our generosity prevails and the more, we contribute 1 individual at a time.

When we as people become better rounded, we contribute good deeds. Lots of individual good deeds changes the world, as the more personal development we do, the more our generosity prevails and the more, we contribute 1 individual at a time.

ACTION STEPS

Here are several steps that might be of interest to further our personal development.

1)   Choose a discipline to do on a daily basis. (It works best if you are receiving non commercial gain from said discipline. Example: this is not about painting a picture in order to sell it.)

2)   Decide on an amount of time to which you commit that is comfortable to you: 10 seconds a day or 15 minutes a day. Once you pick a number, it cannot decrease. Also, take note: once you increase your time on any one day, your increase now becomes your new daily duration of time for the discipline.

3)   Do the discipline every day before the end of your day (works best in morning, if this works for your schedule).

4)   After 30 days, decide whether you are a better human being because of this discipline.

5)  No matter what the answer, do it another 15 days. Remember this can be 10 seconds a day or 15 minutes.

6)   At the end of the 45th day, decide whether it is making you peaceful, happy, relaxed, creative, motivated, balanced. If yes, keep going. If not, go to 1).

RESEARCH NOTE

According to neuroeconomist, P.J. Zak’s research, we do good acts to maintain our position in the community because we are social creatures and wish to stay in favor in our society. When we have our food and shelter, it’s easy and we produce an adequate amount of hormone oxytocin, which gives us our generosity. When we have no food, we are out of balance, will not produce enough oxytocin  and will do anything to survive, thus lose our generosity. This research also mentions the 5% of people who are in great socioeconomic situations but do anti-generous things like take billions of dollars in Ponzi schemes that hurt others. And another 5% of people who renounce their good socioeconomic status to be generous and Mother Theresa-like to others.

____________________________________________________________________
FEEDBACK

We value your feedback very much.
Please leave  a comment below.

Please LIKE us on the website and at WarriorsOfWeight on Facebook. Thanks.

DIANE GOLD, 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 that, in order to change the world, we must first change from the inside, each of us, individually. She says,

“Each of us needs personal development, be it tai chi, music or weekly self-help meetings. In order for us to accommodate our own changes and grow ourselves, this is best done on a daily basis.

“If we all do it, we will all become better people. If we are better people, we are changing the world for the better.”

HABIT CHANGE: OUR NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION (ISSUE 110)

By Diane Gold

Habit change, New Year’s resolutions, success. That’s what we want. That’s what is possible. Whether we want a total make-over or a tiny change, now’s a motivating time to make it. This begins with a tiny plan, 1 step and repetition. Along with this, an inventory of our own personal foundation is in order.

OUR FOUNDATION

We, as humans, have a variety of requirements. To be at our best, we need a balanced infrastructure to support us. The simple version of this concept is that we need great nutrition, a little exercise, a way to be creative, love and companionship, daily relaxation, enough rest and a place to do this in. Each of us has a little bit different make-up and needs more or less in each of these areas, depending upon who we are.

GREAT NUTRITION – this means getting most of our enzymes, vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients from food, not supplements, with little or no pesticide present. Hard to do in an age where we use genetically modified seeds that live through toxic pesticide sprays so that we get maximize crop yield for maximum profit, without regard for the damage the sprays and the genetically engineered seed do to our bodies.

DAILY EXERCISE – this physical fitness can be anything from stretching to walking to climbing stairs to bicycle riding.

CREATIVITY – being creative can range from telling a joke to writing a letter to mixing an album. When we communicate with others in a way where we are expressing our own uniqueness, we are creating.

LOVE AND COMPANIONSHIP –

we are social creatures. Reaching others is truly important for us.

DAILY RELAXATION – although we see the need in others, sometimes we leave out this all important area of what’s necessary to keep us whole. We would never think of skipping our daily hygiene. In the same way, we need to keep our insides clean through some type of calming activity. Daily.

ADEQUATE REST – can anyone relate to having gotten too little rest? I start to fall apart most quickly without just the right amount of rest. And that makes sense, since we are like machines with electrical signals for our brain and our heart. We need to recharge ourselves regularly and completely to work well.

Sometimes, we take these beauties for granted. They are important to upkeep so that our habit change, New Year’s Resolution, whatever it is, will have a leg to stand on, so to speak.

THE NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION

No matter what we want to change, if our foundation is solid; we will do well. This means if we monitor our nutrition, exercise, creativity, companionship, relaxation and rest; we have a super chance of breezing through our task. Our New Year’s resolution may, in fact, be in one of the areas mentioned.

ONE-POINTED FOCUS

As with any goal, it’s important to apply one-pointed focus and go in one direction. Once 1 step is taken, then another comes. So often, we attempt 2 things at once before we have an understanding of one path. So nothing gets done because our attention is not exclusive. Here’s another factor that might help.

PERCEPTION

The way we perceive things makes the difference between bewilderment and understanding, collapse and success. There is only one small difference between the two. It’s our perception, whether we are victims or conquerers. When we realize that we are replacing a new and wonderful action in the place of the old action that we wish to change, we can focus on that new action and all its joys, rather than becoming victims who are depriving themselves of something.

If we have the capacity to think, we have the capacity to be our own heroes. Make sure to leave the victim mindset in a small box outside the door. There’s always opportunity to go get that box later. Leave it outside for the first 21 days of the habit change, and let’s see how that goes. It’s only 21 days. If it’s not necessary to get it after the first 21 days, leave it for another 21 days, etc., etc.

If we are not sure what that one New Year’s Resolution is going to be, here are several action steps that may help.

ACTION STEPS

1)   Write down 5 habits that you wish to change. (Don’t worry if you don’t have 5.)

2)   Next to each, write down a replacement action you could do in place of the action that is your habit. It can be fun, creative, unrelated, as long as it is immediate and available to you within 10 seconds of getting your original cue.

3)   Next to that column, on a scale of 1 to 10, write down how much you wish to change each.

4)   Use the 1 to 10 guide to decide which habit will be your New Year’s Resolution. Keep judgment out of it. This is for you, alone. If one is more pressing than others, but everyone thinks you should change another, go with your gut. It’s your New Year’s Resolution, and it’s your habit. And you know better than anyone else what it feels like inside you.

5)   Now that you have picked 1 of the 5 habits you have written down, decide whether the replacement action is accessible to you 24 hours a day. If it’s not, pick another one. If what you picked requires eating food, drinking water; make sure that you can carry the food and water with you at all times.

6)   Get ready to start by buying any food or bpa free water container you will need and preparing it now, since your plan starts January 1, 2014 for your Happy New Year.

SPECIAL EMPHASIS

The plan must be in place before you move a muscle so you will be ready when the cue (the trigger that makes you want to take the old action) shows up. That’s what 6) is all about.

7)   Tell a friend, storekeeper or some online social media connection about your decision. Keep talking about your resolution behavior on a regular basis. It will encourage follow through.

8)   Do it! You can, you know!

CONCLUSION

1 step at a time will get us changing whatever habit we choose. We can make a list. We can manage to have water or carrots with us all the time. We can go to a public grocery store or library and tell an employee there what we’re doing. The employee will listen. This declaration usually helps us stay on track.

Most important, though, is to be consistent with keeping up with the new behavior, and, if this involves food or drink, prepare it. We need to be ready so that the first time and the 100th time our body or brain tells us to act out the old habit, we are ready with the pre-planned all, new behavior.

To succeed at our New Year’s Resolution Habit Change, repetition is key. Whatever our new behavior, it must be repeated for a good 3-week period as a humble beginning. I just read an article saying how 21 days to change a habit is a myth, and 66 days is more realistic. If you’re like me, it can take 90-180 days to take hold, and repetition is still necessary on a daily basis after that.

Bottom line, a strong foundation is extremely helpful when changing a habit. It makes the efforts that will surely be difficult, a little less difficult and absolutely possible. Wish you an extra bit of energy for your resolution! Follow the steps and see if it works. We’re all together.

SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT MAX-NEEF’S HUMAN DEVELOPMENT MODEL

It should be noted that Alfred Manfred Max-Neef developed a more complicated, yet more complete, human development model which he based on fundamental human needs and discussed in his 1991 book, Human Scale Development. This model includes:

subsistence, protection, affection, understanding, participation, leisure, creation, identity, freedom. The reason I favor the simple version is it is more concrete at spelling out our needs. It is a lovely list that is worthy of thought.

New Year’s Resolution 3-Question Survey
For All Survey Participants: Free Habit Change Plan.
Click HERE to proceed.

but don’t forget to read Diane Gold’s comments below!

FEEDBACK

We value your feedback very much.
Please leave  a comment below.

Please LIKE us on the website and at WarriorsOfWeight on Facebook. Thanks.

DIANE GOLD, 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 each succeed at our great New Year’s Resolution. She says,

“With a simple instruction of how to walk a path, the path does not have many holes. That’s because we are prepared for the holes when they arrive. In the same way, with a little planning and straight-ahead focus on our part, we can proceed with habit change and have a positive outcome. Rather than think about whether or not we can accomplish our task, let’s just do it. That is the way!

“Happy New Year! Be safe.”

THE HABIT OF FORGIVENESS: HOW TO FORGIVE WHEN IT SEEMS IMPOSSIBLE, 7 WAYS (ISSUE 109)

By Diane Gold

“Forgiveness is to set a prisoner free, and to realize the prisoner was you.”

This quote is associated with  Lewis B. Smedes, author of The Art Of Forgiving. It is also associated with Corrie ten Boom, author and Dutch protector of Jews and resistance workers during World War II. When Corrie, who was imprisoned for hiding Jews and those who didn’t support the Nazi way, came face to face with one of her captors, she walked the walk of forgiveness. She and one of her former concentration camp guards came face to face. They held hands, and she forgave his acts, according to review of her book, which mentions that, in her experience, those who are able to forgive are best able to rebuild their lives.

Forgiveness author, Smedes, quotes,

“Forgiving does not erase the bitter past. A healed memory is not a deleted memory. Instead, forgiving what we cannot forget creates a new way to remember. We change the memory of our past into a hope for our future.”

This is the way habit change works. We don’t get rid of it; we replace it with a new action and reward.

THE CUE

All of us have experienced hurt, whether it is a small trauma in our lives or an unspeakable wound that is life changing. We always attach the event to a person or people involved. If that person or group had not hurt us, we would not be hurt.

Being hurt is the cue that triggers our action.

THE ACTION

In many cases, we are led to defensive behavior. For small infractions in our lives, we may cry, stomp our feet or laugh it off. For larger, more devastating experiences, we may go to a support person or group. Whatever action we take leads to a reward of some kind.

THE REWARD

The reward we experience from crying is relief from the outlet. Same with stomping our feet. These behaviors help us cope. We may have a moment of patting ourselves on the head through crying or foot stomping. When we laugh something off, we are experiencing the joy of living and being able to deal well with discomfort. Not always possible.

For larger events, being supported by others leads to being able to cope with a situation. Coping is our reward.

ACTION AFTER TRIVIAL HURT

Here’s a good place to mention that trivia is in the eyes of the beholder. If we think we have been wronged, then we act in a way to get comfort. What is trivial to you may be traumatic to me.

I am reminded of one of my neighbors who often holds on to the spats she has with local merchants. When she feels violated by the merchant, her action is to talk about the experience at length and to announce that she will no longer patronize the merchant. This leads her to her reward, getting recognition for her plight and for personal grandeur.

With any trivial hurt, people act timidly, angrily or in a tempered manner.

ACTION AFTER IMMEASURABLE HURT

Once we are hurt in a life changing way, we still act timidly, angrily or in a tempered manner. We probably reach out for support which brings us the reward of lessening the pain.

UNDERLYING OUR HURT

As we all know, we feel more than one thing at once, such as anger and vulnerability or happiness and confidence. Next to these emotions, we place responsibility for our being hurt on someone; often we put it on ourselves. Other times, we put it on the person or group who created the hurtful situation.

When this underlying responsibility lingers, and it usually does, we are blaming someone. This is part of the reward phase when we blame others. It helps us cope. It is reverse reward when we blame ourselves.

Either way, that’s where developing the habit of forgiveness comes in.

DEVELOPING THE HABIT OF FORGIVENESS

There are 3 scenarios when we were hurt:

1) it was our fault.

2) it was someone else’s fault.

3) it was no one’s fault.

In the first 2 scenarios, the forgiveness habit can move mountains. People do religious rituals, go to forgiveness classes, go to support sessions, read forgiveness books, all in order to learn to forgive. These avenues are fabulous. Every one of them develops a new pattern of action when we feel hurt, just like the way we develop or change any other habit. And just like with any other habit, we have to replace the old habit for the new one to be currently accessible.

WHY FORGIVENESS?
The reason it’s so important to forgive is because blame eats us up. We may think that if we mortally hurt the responsible person, we will be healed. This is one of our baser instincts that is worth looking at. It’s not legal to wound someone, so it’s not a solution. It’s not moral to wound someone. It’s not wise to stoop to the bad behaviors of others. This is where forgiveness comes in.

HOW TO FORGIVE?

How to forgive? We must develop it.

People have always thought of me as a forgiving and understanding person. They have not seen me in the face of being assaulted, having family members hurt, being cheated out of money, having a car accident because of a drunk driver. Fortunately for me and mine, I have not had to experience all of these atrocities, although some have crossed my path. I don’t feel cool, calm and collected when I am hurt. But, I do have certain methods of dealing with forgiveness that I will share.

When people lash out and hurt us, they are insecure, self-absorbed, immature, impatient, fearful and hurt from a broken heart. They have become this way because someone has taken a part of their life, and they have not been able to forgive it. Do they always know it? No. In the odd cases where this is not the case, the individual is usually broken in some other way.

Every time we get hurt, we must look at how ethical we have become, how much we have grown as humans. Even if we have had a bad day every day of our lives, someone has had it worse. If we have 4 limbs, we’re ahead. If we went to school, we’re ahead. If we have a toilet, running water and have seen a doctor, we’re ahead.
Just because others are in worse shape is not going to develop forgiveness in us. However, this concept can prepare us for new action.

The hardest thing to forgive is when someone hurts our child. It is unthinkable that we could ever forgive this. Deep hurt might be 50 years old, and we still sit with it. Does it help if we sit in anger, torment and vengeful scheming? No. We are probably shortening our lives. And, yes, this feels like the right thing to be doing. Because we have let this behavior develop.

WHAT IF?

Here are some action steps that may lead us to begin the path of forgiveness. It is not impossible, no matter what it feels like. It’s like any other habit that requires a starting point and constant repetition. In the spirit of any holiday that may have to do with forgiveness, these action steps may be surprisingly useful.

ACTION STEPS

These steps are based upon our tendency to forgive someone who shows remorse. Even though the person who hurt us may not show it, and this lack of it can conjure feelings of revenge in each of us, these steps take us one step back in the life of the hurter who is still acting out revenge from the day she was hurt, in the first place. So the remorse is the acting out.

There is no justification for hurt; the explanation of why, though, helps us to forgive.

1)   When someone hurts you or your family member, think of the person as an abused child. Even if it is not specifically the case, in some way, it very definitely is the case. Take that thought action immediately. It will calm you down and allow you to help yourself forgive a person like that. Realize that you would make allowances for a child who had been hurt in such a manner.

Or

2)   When someone hurts you or your family member, think of the person as the victim of someone who stole her limb at an early age. Even if it is not specifically the case, in some way, it very definitely is the case. Take that thought action immediately. It will calm you down and allow you to help yourself forgive a person like that. Realize that you would make allowances for a child who had been hurt in such a manner.

Or

3)   When someone hurts you or your family member, realize that the person feels as small as a small crawling insect. Otherwise, the person would not take liberties with someone else’s life. It is not too difficult to forgive someone like this, especially someone who may have been made to feel this way all her life.

Or

4)   When someone hurts you or your family member, picture the hurter as having just experienced the same, exact hurt. Think of how surprised this person must have been and consider that it’s your responsibility to act well.

And

5)   When someone hurts you or your family member, join a group of people who have also experienced the same hurt. Type in your type of hurt followed by the word group in your favorite search engine or card catalog. Many groups await you.

And

6)   When someone hurts you or your family member, watch this trailer and decide if you want to watch the movie. It depicts The Parents Circle Families Forum’s group of bereaved Palestinians and Israelis, all of whom had a family member killed by the other side. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzJkBxQC4Tg

And

7)   When someone hurts you or your family member, realize that every negative thought or action we have or take creates negativity for the world. Likewise, every positive thought or action we have or take impacts the world in a positive manner. Consider choosing the positive road in the name of those who were hurt (including yourself) for the sake of the evolution of morality.

CONCLUSION

I believe that we are all one, that all energy falls into one big vat with all the positive and all the negative thoughts, emotions, actions. Therefore, the more goodness we bring, the more goodness there will be. Forgiveness is part of this pot. The more we contribute to it, the richer and more beautiful our civilization will become.

Happy Forgiveness Season. May we develop the habit of forgiveness and be the shining examples we all need.

FEEDBACK

Please leave  a comment and LIKE.

DIANE GOLD, 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 develop forgiveness. It is one of the hardest habits to develop. She says,

“We don’t let go when someone hurts or our family. But that is commonly because we see the hurter as different from who we are and forget what makes most people hurt: being hurt. In looking at ways to forgiveness, we can go back to the life of the one who hurt us and realize the pain that is being acted out now.

“We are civilized and have will power. We were also raised with some sense of morality. With these traits, we have a chance at forgiveness. It may not happen overnight. I know it didn’t for me. But pre-planning and repetition will make it happen. And then, we will be free.”

HABIT CHANGE: SOLVING NOT COMPLAINING (ISSUE 108)

By Diane Gold

All of us have developed the habits of solving and complaining. The very assertive yet ineffective method of complaining has been reinforced into our beings since our families and our teachers said,

“Speak out,”

without giving us parameters about what that meant in terms of effect and solution. Many of us thought it meant speak about a topic, and point out what’s wrong with nothing further. Informing is a crucial part of the process, but it is not enough. Once we have informed, we have to start a path to solution, if solution is our goal. Speech

Because society keeps changing and each generation latches on to slogans, I remember,

“Question authority.”

The point of this commandment was to get us to think, communicate, create and solve. However, many people neglected to encourage the create and solve mechanisms necessary for us to accomplish change and allowed us to gossip, nag, criticize, whine and moan since this piece of the speaking out concept occurs without much effort.

The slogan, as I see it, was meant to stimulate the mind into founding new solutions. Parents wanted children to think for themselves and accept not what others fed them without critical thinking and deduction.

What transpired for various reasons has been a culture of speakers with no solutions, many just “orating for ego” (good T-shirt). Since there has not been a focus solving vs. complaining in modern times, it is more common to hear groups of complainers than groups of problem solvers. Plus, it’s more difficult to create than to condemn (another good T-shirt, “create, don’t condemn”).

HABIT CHANGE, FROM COMPLAINING TO SOLVING

In order to solve vs. complain, we follow the process for any habit change: cue, replace the old action, reward.

In the old scenario, we saw something we disagreed with (the cue or trigger that sets off the action).

We went on our internet radio show (well, not when I was young) and complained or preached about it (the action).

We felt good because we had talked (the reward), but what we saw as wrong did not change.

In the new scenario, we see something with which we disagree (the cue, same as original).

We have a pre-planned new activity such as going to a focus group strictly to work on a solution (the new action).

We feel good because we have created or are on the path to creating a viable solution to the issue (the reward).

THE ACTION (AFTER THE CUE, IN ORDER TO GET THE REWARD)

Of course, it is important to communicate our thoughts, desires, opinions. Exclusively talking about the wrongs, the negatives, the bad situations may bolster our egos or get us into a clique, but it deludes us into feeling accomplished and obstructs our path toward solution.

What if all the people in our clique used our wonderful brain power to brainstorm about how to solve something? We would use up the same amount of time and energy. We would be sharing ideas that could sprout into solutions. True, we would expose ourselves to ridicule if our clique did not agree with our solutions. But, creating a solution is what everyone wants, right?

If we truly believe in an idea, we will want it to have a result. This means acting toward moving it forward.

We can ask,

“If I could be instrumental in solving a national feud through some super technique, would you want me to talk about how terrible war is or would you want me to administer the technique so that we could accomplish cooperation and harmony?”

Or,

“If we all had a loved one who was sick from a disease, would you want me to talk about how terrible the pharmaceutical industry is or would you want the cure to the disease?”

Or, let’s get personal.

“If you had nightmares, would you want me to talk about how many illegitimate techniques offer to alleviate them or would you want that one super relaxation technique that stopped nightmares?”

SYSTEMATIC APPROACH

I’m pretty sure we would all rather have a solution than to hear the story about the problem, rather than the process for solving it. I’m also pretty sure we all have many useful ideas that can turn into brilliant formulations toward solving or beginning to solve a situation or preparing a solution. All we need is a systematic approach to discovering a solution. In order to limit the possibility that we go off track, we could employ the following systematic approach:

1) Use no statements that self-aggrandize.

2) Make no judgments when an idea is brought to the table.

3) Minimize kvetching (Yiddish word for complaining) as soon as it arrives out of our mouths.

4) Keep doing it. Place as much energy on solving as we have on complaining; and we will make a difference.

CONCLUSION

Now that we are evolved enough to understand this, it is time to consider the solution process with every speech. We may have to change our habit, if we are used to being critical, not constructive. We can certainly slap the wrist of education for lack of emphasis on oration without solution. And we can change how we educate from now on.

I am reminded of the 2013 engineering toy for girls, built on the premise that girls need engineering concepts as do boys. This toy is breaking the gender-biased stereotypical mold that girl toys should be dolls and boy toys should be construction sets. The creator, whose training is in engineering, saw the need and created the solution. She could still be talking about it, but she executed a solution and talks about that.

In the same way, educators can start forming the creative solution process at very young ages. And families that encourage their children to speak out can back that up with the importance of solving, rather than complaining.

ACTION STEPS

Here is a process for creating a solution. Do it to see what happens. Using a simple process of writing down the first 5-10 things that come into your head, come up with your own process for the scenario in 1):

1) Family 1 lives on 1 side of the river. Family 2 lives on the other side of the river. Each family has had one of their family members hurt by the other family as a result of war or land disputes, and the families currently have sworn animosity toward each other.
Family 1 needs a special berry that grows on Family 2’s side. Family 2 needs a special root that grows on Family 1’s side. Both the root and the berry will save lives, but the families do not speak to each other.

What process can we offer the families to start talking again, and how can they curb their hate?

2) Email us your process. It will be kept anonymous.

3) To get thinking about solutions, not complaints, let us know how you would respond to the following:

a) On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being a lot, how much do you believe you can make a difference of any size in your community?

b) On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being a lot, how much would you like to contribute to human rights and social harmony?

FEEDBACK

Please leave a comment and LIKE.

DIANE GOLD, 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 knows from personal experience how easy it is to get caught up in opinion sharing which can take people away from creating solutions. She says,

“It’s pretty natural to speak out when we see wrong. Especially if we were encouraged to do so as kids. Based on all the speakers and regular folk who are complainers, we, as parents, and the education system from which we come, did not appropriately teach that solutions are a large and necessary follow up to any criticism. Without it, we are just exercising our mouths.

“Solutions are scary because we do not have a whole crowd around us when we are the solution creator and sole discoverer. When we complain, there are always people who can relate to our complaint. But when we solve, this leaves us completely vulnerable to disapproval and social scorn. Which is part of why we gravitate toward complaining and not solving, in the first place.

“Let’s make sure, from now on, we show by example that we devote as much energy to solving a situation as we do discussing what needs solving. This will guarantee positive direction for all humanity.”

HIDDEN CLINICAL TRIALS (ISSUE 106)

By Diane Gold

Hidden clinical trials is a real phenomenon. And, I use the word “hidden” because its opposite is “visible,” “disclosed,” “public.” With all the government regulation in the United States, the European Union and other areas; we would think that the regulations would arrange to remove drug trial misconduct.

We are sophisticated, ethical, socially minded, philosophical healers of our brothers and sisters. Right?

Not so right.

Here are 9 edicts that would insure the ethical handling of clinical trials. They would make it unnecessary and highly unlikely for any personal decisions to be made that would favor a sponsor, government, outside loyalty or trial recipient in any way so that empirically true results would prevail. It would also almost guarantee publication so that trial recipients who may have chosen to do the trial because of the added benefit of helping others, actually get to help others. And doctors who read the literature about certain drugs almost would be guaranteed that the literature they are viewing is complete literature on a particular drug.

PROPOSED EDICTS

1)  Sponsors shall not have access to trial progress or results.
2)  Every person who signs up for a trial shall be told the truth up front.
3)  Every person who signs up for a clinical trial shall receive a government stamped copy of the final trial, or of the results as far as the trial goes.
4)  All trial results, whether the trial goes to term or not, shall be published.

5)  There shall be a monitoring body for all pharmaceutical trials, government or private.
6)  The monitoring body of all clinical trials shall not be nor shall ever have been connected to the sponsor.
7)  The employees of the monitoring body shall be paid an extensive salary.
8)  Government trials shall be monitored by the monitoring body.
9)  The monitoring body shall not know the name of the sponsor, including government trials.

THE REALITY

Unfortunately the edicts above are not clinical trial reality. Although pharmaceutical drug trial regulations are many, they are not carried out or the monitoring of their execution does not exist, strangely enough.

To date, according to Ben Goldacre in his book Bad Pharma, drug companies are the ones who pay for the trials. Here’s a quote from the book, also used in an article by Forbes,

“Drugs are tested by the people who manufacture them, in poorly designed trials, on hopelessly small numbers of weird, unrepresentative patients, and analyzed using techniques which are flawed by design, in such a way that they exaggerate the benefits of treatments.”

Most of Bad Pharma talks about the fact, though, that trials are not published all the time and put patients at risk by non-publications. He was inspired to write the book in the first place when, after reading all the published research on an approved drug, his prescribing it to his patient based on the facts that were public, led to patient complications that could have been avoided if all negative results had been published.

OUR RIGHT TO INFORMATION

What Henry I. Miller says in his Forbes article, taken from his experience as an FDA  medical officer, is that many drug studies that are not published are not negative but inconclusive. What I say is there should be some sort of very accessible bank to everyone, patients, friends of patients and medical personnel, alike, with all study results, so that those who are evaluating a drug, whether taking it or prescribing it, can make the most informed decision based upon all previous experience that anyone has had with it, regardless of why its results may not have been published.

Plus, having a transparent archive would insure that drug companies, politicians (who support drug companies for political contributions) and editors of medical journals would not be in control of what becomes available information. Unfortunately, more medical and lay people hear about medical journal reviews; but, doctors who are prescribing and patients who diligently do research on behalf of themselves would have a complete overview from which to make as informed decision as possible about any drug or treatment with the transparency factor in place.

It’s pretty complicated as to whether a trial is negative or whether a trial is inconclusive. But all work should be available, in fairness to the patients who give their bodies for the trials.

ISN’T IT OUR RIGHT TO KNOW?

This reminds me of the waiver to a clinical trial I considered. One of the questions they asked is,

“Do you want to give your permission for us to use your DNA in future studies?”

I asked about whether I would have access to track where it went and the outcome it achieved. Of course, the researcher said they could not include that caveat. Based on not knowing the ethics of the users of my DNA and the fact that there might not be transparent results of its use, I declined, although I considered the opportunity to contribute to humanity an honor and my decision to say no weighed heavily on my heart.

I believe it is our right to know.

BIAS

Getting back to parameters for fair drug protocols, here’s a question.

“Do we have the exact same interpretation about an altercation at school that involves our child as the same situation when our child is not involved?”

Of course, the answer is a big, whopping,

“No,”

Even when we are trained specifically for this situation, it is nearly impossible to keep our emotions out of it.

This comparison is similar to a drug company and its bias toward the drug trial it sponsors, akin to its offspring or child. We are human, and, therefore, have biases toward our own.

CONCLUSION

What can we do about hidden clinical drug trials?

We can be aware that all information may or may not be reported to anyone outside the sponsoring drug company. We can express our concern to our friends, our doctors and to drug companies.

We put up with common ways of corporations because we want their services. If we are more demanding of what we deserve and demand an end to hidden drug trials, the breakthroughs in pharmaceuticals will be more meaningful, more honest and more healthful.

ACTION STEPS

Here are several action steps for the concerned human, which I know we all are:

1)   Ask to see the literature on any drug that you are considering. This means the actual data on the drug, rather than a consumer brochure.

2)   Don’t be intimidated by any medical professional who tells you s/he wants to start you immediately on some drug – unless your life is immediately at risk – to the point where you agree to a drug without knowing its information.

3)   Take excellent control of your own health care. After all, if you won’t, who will? This means review the literature on any prevention, disease or drug that may be part of your life.

4)   Make your own informed decision on whether or not you CHOOSE to accept a recommended drug, drug trial or therapy of any kind.

5)   Lastly, survey the drug manufacturers who are involved in any drug you may be considering taking. If a drug has already been approved, ask whether you can see the data of trials that has not been published. If there is a clinical trial, ask the following:
a)   Do you register this drug trial through a government agency, and which one?
b)   Is there a document I can have that mentions this registration?
c)   Do you post the results of this drug trial, and where?
d)   Is there a document you can give me that mentions this posting?
e)   If this trial does not go to completion, will the information at the time it ends be posted?
f)   Do you have ongoing access to the testing results during the trial?
g)   Do you have the right to make modifications during the trial?
h)   If I participate in the trial, may I personally receive results of the trial I am entering through my referring medical professional?

FINAL NOTE
In 2007, the FDA Amendment Act required all trials of any drug or device must be registered. Also, for a drug to be approved, its results must be posted to clinicaltrials.gov within a year of the end of the trial.
According to a paper by A.P.Prayle et al, BMJ 2012;344:d7373, that looked at compliance:

The paper included a partial sampling of trials. Of those trials required to be posted; only 1 in 5 trials had been reported;  next, the daily fine for non-compliance of reporting is not high enough to be meaningful to a drug company that makes $4 billion a year per drug (the fine is $10,000 per day/$3.65 million yearly); and very surprisingly, no fine has yet been assessed to any drug company for not posting their results.

One last bit of info that makes the pharmaceutical system shockingly cloaked is this. According to rules that are different in every country, referenced in Bad Pharma; drug companies apply for authorization to use a drug for a specific purpose with a specific market, such as using a drug for adults with depression. The clinical trial data for adults, for an example market, with depression, for an example disease, must be furnished to get approval. If clinical trials are performed on children, a different example market, for the same or different disease, and the company does not apply for authorization to use the drug on children with that disease, the drug companies are not required to report data or side effects. Also, they’re not required to report results if their trial is done out of country.

Doctors often prescribe “off label,” which means using a drug originally approved for one market or disease, but now being used for another. In one such case, one of the major 10 drug companies did not report that suicide was a suicide effects in children for 10 years. Why? It wasn’t a requirement, and revealing this would have cut their sales volume. They knew about the side effects through hidden clinical trials that could have warned doctors not to prescribe the drug to children.

Don’t we all have the right to know?

FEEDBACK

Please leave  a comment and LIKE us.

DIANE GOLD, 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.

The topic of clinical trials being hidden is rather controversial. She says,

“It’s a matter of pride, not money. It’s more advantageous to announce the results of every clinical trial. It is certainly the only ethical thing to do, even though it may not positively affect the bottom line of the drug company, immediately.

“What a great PR opportunity, though. Any of the major pharmaceutical houses first to comply could take the huge opportunity directly in front of them to gain brand dominance. By being the first company to regularly register and report drug trial outcomes, they would be trusted and save money because this would be free advertising.

“If we remind the drug companies that they would gain huge loyalty and trust by making their clinical trials transparent, they might be interested.”

EXTRA ACTION STEP

“Give a drug company’s marketing department a call this week with the reminder. They just might be interested in listening to all of us.”