LET ME COUNT THE WAYS ...
- Details
- Created on Thursday, 14 August 2014 18:00
- Written by Marian Moore
Marian @ Krysan
THE WELLBEING CONSULTANCY
Planting Golden Seeds in Northumberland, Tyne & Wear, and Durham
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May we grant one another the opportunity to live out our dreams, to care for the wounded child in one another, and to pass on to others still unborn an earth as alive and diverse and wondrous as the one we have inherited. Matthew Fox, 1988
I am grateful ... let me count the ways
- Email (1 of 3)
- 14 August 2014
- Dear Friends
Every day, the world wide web delivers e-mail hither and thither around the globe. Recently, I winged this message out into the ether in the early hours of the morning. It was a little longer than my usual email and a whole lot sadder. The e-mail is self-explanatory and I believe worth sharing with you, too.
Time to talk ...
Today, I mourn the tragic passing of the comic-genius, Robin Williams. To my mind, Robin Williams is yet another irreplaceable soul whose untimely death comes as a sharp reminder as to why I involve myself so totally in the field of mental health.
You know me only vaguely as the governor for older people's services; others know me more intimately as someone with first-hand experience of the extremes of the human psyche. Unlike Robin Williams, I survived the dark night of the soul.
For this I am grateful, something that leads me to posit a privileged insider view of academia via Durham University's Hearing the Voice research project. I attend regular meetings at this ancient seat of learning, welcomed in as an expert through experience — someone whose leaning towards the social model of mental health is appreciated and respected.
Thanks to involvement in the project, over the years I have listened with close attention to experts on hearing voices sourced from around the world. They include psychologist and author, Professor Gail Hornstein from the USA who explained her interest in challenging the status quo, thus:
"The US and the UK enjoy levels of material prosperity unprecedented in human history, yet they also have some of the highest rates of mental illness, anxiety, and depression anywhere in the world. Up to 25% of the adult population, and 10% of children under the age of 18, are now being diagnosed or treated for psychiatric symptoms." — Gail Hornstein
Time to talk ... 
- Marian Moore
(See AGNES'S JACKET)
- Email (2 of 3)
- 15 August 2014
- Dear Friends.
What follows is an email to a dear friend, a gentle soul whose life is challenged day and night by intrusive voices that others do not hear. As if that was not enough, her distress is compounded as she also lives with memory loss. This is my considered response to a heart-felt cry for help - an invitation to join 'a revolution in health care'.
iPads in health care ....
The one 'thing' I have found indispensable to my mental health is an iPad. Indeed, many elders - with or without 'a mind that plays tricks' - are realising its worth. For instance, some folk who hear voices (and there are many) store their favourite songs on their iPad and switch on whenever the voices become too intrusive. They thereby drown the voices out or even switch 'the story' from fear to love.
Although I am aware that buying an iPad may in itself present a challenge, I also know this is the very best advice I can give. Let me count the ways: an iPad gives me access to email, a camera, films, news, research, and (even) my very own website! My favourite App (application) is TED which enables me to watch videos from around the world on ideas that matter; I also have PAGES for word processing; and NOTES PLUS for jotting things down.
Easily available through the on-line Apple Store are many more Apps which are either free or surprisingly inexpensive. Like the iPad itself, all are simple to use. I can also buy books (my passion) and read them through iBOOKS and the little iPad screen is back-lit for ease of use. I am sure you have many young 'experts' in your family who (like my granddaughter) will always assist when all else fails. The 'guys and gals' at Apple are always ready to help, too - that's a given.
One of the most profound observations made by scientists recently is that adult brains are more adaptable and capable of change than was once thought, this through 'neuroplasticity'. Give the brain something new to grapple with and it will make new connections. As long ago as 2008, UK researchers suggested that when people learn new skills new brain cells bring into play pre-formed circuits that were wired but not yet fully functional.
For me, my iPad is the best technological investment I have ever made. I know it would be equally life-enhancing for you. And, through watching you enter into a creative experience like no other, for your family, too. iPads are both personal and inter-generational. At the very least, listening to one's favourite music from the past must be better than being so distressed in the present. At the very most - who knows?
Worth a try ...
- Highly recommended.
- Apple sold 70 million iPads in 2013.
- Join a revolution.
iPads in health care ...
- Marian Moore
- Krysan: The Wellbeing Consultancy
(See I WONDER)
- Email (3 of 3)
- 16 August 2014
- Dear Friends
This is the last in a trilogy of 300-word blogs. I enjoyed writing (and rewriting) them live on the web! I hope you have gained something from reading (and rereading) them and will be encouraged to join me in trying out activities of the 'cerebral kind' suggested therein - brain gym for all.
Thinking allowed ...
Despite all the trials and tribulations of the past, I am fortunate to have always lived within an interconnected family (and now within the interconnected world wide web). In my life, thinking is allowed - even encouraged. Whether this is in face-to-face conversation around the dinner table, or digitally-enhanced through electronic mail and social media, or via my website!
I am grateful.
"We all need to give each other space to grow, to be ourselves, to exercise our diversity. We need to give each other space so that we both give and receive such beautiful things as ideas, openness, dignity, joy, healing, and inclusion." — Max dePree
Let me count the ways.
Whilst my feet are now safely planted in 'consensus reality' and I am (even) 'weller than well', access to a virtual world is still my life-line. Thanks to this two-pronged approach - real and virtual - I am once more an active (and free) participant in the great theatre of life; again I am included. Through writing, I have found my voice ... and myself. Everyone has a story to tell.
Start here:
- sit down,
- switch on the computer,
- finger(s) on keyboard,
- start tapping
Thinking allowed ...
- Marian Moore
(See JUST SEVENTY)
"No money is better spent than what is laid out for domestic satisfaction."
- Samuel Johnson
"A sheltered life can be a daring life as well. For all serious daring starts from within."
- Eudora Welty
“Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”
- J K Rawling
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