The Portal to Boomeranger World

$$ Money on Monday: What Do you Need to UNlearn?

 A few years ago in a conversation with a woman who turned out to have blind dated my ex  (after we were exed!), I had an epiphany about my inner vision of money. In this picture, I was like Kilroy pining after the riches on the other side of a thick wall. (I related this story in an earlier post, but I think it bears repeating because of the deep lessons I am still unlearning.)

After being smote with this sad image, I had another bloom in my mind's eye--this one was of the wall transforming into a very BIG dam in front of an even bigger reservoir. 

I have spent a lot of time in the past months imaging on that dam and the reservoir and the streams and rivers that feed the reservoir.

UNlearning that inner image was a deep lesson that connected to all kinds of myths, personal histories, and assumptions about money.  The most basic one for me was that I was not a person who would or could receive money/riches/abundance in any form.

And undeRstanding that this image, expectation, basic deep belief was in my mind's eye literally set in stone in the form of a BIG STONE WALL, was one of the most profound UNlearnings.

I began thinking about walls and all they can do for us beyond separating us from what we want and need, besides being barriers to abundance, wealth, good health and love.

WALLS can:

• Protect from attack
• Have magical properties with magical openings
• Can be high or low
• Be beautiful to provide structure and definition
• Contain--water, gardens
• Retain--shore up and strengthen and support and hold up structures and information
• Guide in dim light
• Safe enclosures
• Provide borders between

Walls then are a very good thing and much needed. This I have firmly in mid. What is not so clear is RECEIVING the contents of the reservoir that my VERY BIG DAM is retaining.

In your life--what do you need to UNlearn? What is a deep lesson that you learned at an early or vulnerable stage of life that is preventing you from some desired end or state?

Mine now is to UNlearn not receiving and RElearn to receive--love, abundance, health, long life.
In terms of health...I am UNlearning laziness. Here's a simple tip for you. Keep a set of small hand weights in the bathroom. Do several sets of exercises during the day. I have been doing 3 sets of 10--biceps, flys and triceps everyday for the past several weeks. Makes it very easy and since the weights are right there on the floor beside me, I am reminded to do these quick repetitions. Remember brain plasticity--the hallmark of a "young" brain is building new neurons and exercise is a key method to doing so.

What are YOU UNlearning??

Lady M on the Mend: An Amazing Jazz Singer Gets a Second Chance

Just a quick post to say that Lady M, amazing jazz and R&B singer, is cautiously on the mend from her liver transplant. She has a chance for a fresh start. And I ask all out there to send her your loving and supportive thoughts. You won't be sorry when she has healed and begun singing again. .

I don't know the circumstances of the person whose life is over--giving her a second chance. But as her friend and admirer who wants to hear her sing and sing and sing, I am grateful to that person.

We all get second chances. Sometimes they come as shocks, as sorrows, as if the world as we know it has ended. They come to us unbidden or even against our will. They come to us whether we want them or not. The test of character, of self-belief, of faith in an unseen future, is meeting those chances with an open and believing heart. Of moving into an unknown future, when all is murky, miasmic, when the next stepping stone in the path seems to hang over thin air and the way forward is dark. I am not a believer in fate--too much predestination indoctrination in the ARPs as a child turned me off on that score--but I am a believer in trusting to your deepest inner voice/direction/light to show where the next step or steps forward might be and who else is there to travel the path together.

Robert Frost taught us years ago about the road less traveled and  how taking it makes all the difference.  

The Beatles Taught Us "Money Can't Buy Me Love," But If There Is Too Little, It Compromises Health, Happiness and Longevity

Can't buy me love, can't buy me love, can't buy me love--nononononoooooooo...

The Beatles definitely got the larger picture right. Money can't buy love.

But according to www.realage.com in an article on happiness and age (http://www.realage.com/WellnessCenter/Articles.aspx) the stereotype of getting older, being lonely and unloved,  and getting crotchty is just that--a stereotype.

Older people today--or we boomers--are by and large happier and happier as we age, because larger and larger numbers of us are being very attentive to our health. And the connection between good health and happiness has been documented in numerous studies.We certainly have been knocked for being too concerned with self--The SO-CALLED ME Generation--trailing edge Boomers are called.

But what this really means is that Boomers in general have begun to unravel some of the secrets to happiness--that given enough money, decent health care can be purchased.

That massages, and other destressors can be gotten. That choosing to focus on the good things in one's life even in the worst of circumstances contributes to a happier frame of mind.

And this happier mindset contributes to overall calmer condition, lessening stress hormones, better heart health and a stronger immune system. And given a happier frame of mind, we have more heart to share with the world and with and on behalf of those who are suffering from severe lack.

To wit Bill Moyers Journal reported on PBS tonight (last night, because my post would not upload!!) about the collusion between OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) under the Bush (mis)administration and companies such as poultry plant owners in 27 states, with huge numbers in SC and NC. Not only has there been tricky reporting by the companies that obscured the outrageous numbers of injuries to workers. But under Bush the key OSHA rules that set critical standards were removed in 2002 as was a column on injury report sheet that previously had collected data on injuries.

UNBELIEVABLE!!

In order to slide around reporting that would have flagged a plant for inspection, employers have forced injured workers to return to the plant directly after surgery--thus avoiding lost work time reports. Because these workers are at the bottom of the labor market--poor, largely immigrant and sometimes undocumented, they are terrified of losing their jobs and are generally economically, politically and health-wise disinfranchized. See that six part story in the Charlotte Observer (http://www.charlotte.com/716/index.html).

And Karl Rove has the nerve--no arrogance--to call Sen Obama arrogant! Beggers the imagination. Read Rove's remark here   Rove and his other ARROGANT Bush minions have been the architects of  this inhumane administering.So while money can't buy us love and by extension happiness, we can choose our happiness in the small moments of life. One of those acts of happiness is to be grateful for one's blessings and to serve others. Keep a positive attitude, get laughs.

VOTING THE BUMS OUT would make me VERY happy!

Boycott House of Rayford chicken products.

And let's not forget McCain't who thinks is it funny to make a wife-beating joke McCain's joke.

That's a sick idea of love.

Money on Monday (On Tuesday!): Do You Receive the Treasure of Friendship, Giving, Helping?

  Sorry everyone for posting  Money on Monday on Tuesday.

The last few days have been helper days to friends. One couple needed a yard for a whole house yard sale and borrowed mine. SO this past weekend from 7:30AM-8:30PM, we were yard selling.I made some dollars; they made some. We donated some money to a charity and gave the rest of the unsold stuff to the Vietnam Vets. If you do not know this--Vietnam Vets will pick up from your house and take everything away. http://www.clothingdonations.org/accepted.htm is the official website for Vietnam Veterans of America donations pickup service. Log on and search your state.

Then Lady M's daughter called to ask if I could drive LM to the hospital in Newark for a possible liver transplant. Her daughter was working in the far north of NJ and could not get back to our town in time to drive her mom to Newark and she was wanted pronto and possibly underwent a transplant this afternoon. I don't know if it was a match yet, but I am hoping there was one. When I called to say are you ready to go--she sounded fearful and reluctant. I asked her, do you want to sing? Or do you want to die? Sing, she replied. So let's go and we went.

Money Attitude:  For the past few weeks, I have been asking about your attitude towards money. Is it a positive one? Do you think about money as a means to enable you to create, care for others, provide stability for your family, even have fun? Do you have a sense of what is (your) enough?

Do you receive the treasures of friendship, giving, helping?

Hugs:

I attended a workshop two weekends ago (given to me). There I received feedback about receiving hugs. I got a little miffed and said I am a very huggy person. I grew up in a huggy family. All my southern elders always said to us kids, "Come here and let us love your neck."

But, over the years, I have gotten away from receiving hugs, even while I am very good at giving them.SO now I am getting back to the practice of getting hugs--of receiving. Of recognizing when I am receiving--appreciation, help, support, community, a hug. LOTS of hugs. Today there have been many--from Lady M, from my daughter, from my other "daughter" who  lives next door and is going off to Europe for the summer and then to college. There will no doubt be more today. I just have to recognize them and receive them. I am plugging the drain on my heart and turning on the faucet--to fill my reservoir to overflowing.

I want to sing in many voices and have my life sing!

Do you want your life to sing? How do you want to sing?

Boomer Brain Power: What Are You Doing to Keep Your Brain Growing?

All the latest research shows that brains are plastic--NOOOOOO we are not internal Barbie Dolls, but that brains  grow and change daily, even moment to moment.

Now as a social scientist, I find this a fascinating concept, having studied social change in China in the 1990s. I was boggeled at how fast seemingly "carved in stone" beliefs and practices changed. This new brain research helps explain that social phenomena, by thinking through the lens of how individuals changed so rapidly. For a researcher, it helps to explain social change in an exciting new way. As an individual, it is SOOOOOOO exciting and intriguing.
Below are just a few of the thousands of resources out there.

http://www.sfn.org/index.cfm?pagename=brainBriefings_brainPlasticityLanguageProcessingAndReading

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/helthrpt/stories/s10302.htm

http://bfc.positscience.com/about/neurogenesis.php

http://www.lumosity.com/landing/cc_brain_games?refer=6816&og=true&OVRAW=brain%20plasticity&OVKEY=brain%20fitness%20program&OVMTC=advanced&OVADID=18896765512&OVKWID=72759005512

Also treat yourself and read Dr. Norman Doidge's 2007 book, "The Brain that Changes Itself." Fascinating and so inspiring. For one such as I who is dyslexic--that's why you sometimes see typos and spelling errors--I can't see them, even with spell check some slip through!!--the notion that there are techniques that might erase  those brain glitches and at my age!! is just fantastic.

Another really inspiring real life story is the memoir written by vaboomer, Madonna Siles called "Brain Heal Thyself: A Caregiver's Approach to Recovery from Stroke, Aneurysm, and Traumatic Brain Injuries." (Hampton Books 2006). Siles writes from the caregivers point of view and with some concrete methods she developed to help her roommate heal from a devastating stroke that was supposed to leave her little more than a vegetable.

And see http://kanosboomernews.blogspot.com/ for a list of healthful and helpful tips to keep Alzheimer's and dementia at bay--or at least slow their onset. Read Dr. Daniel Amen's book, "Change Your Brain Change Your Life." also excellent. .

All reFIREMENT activities challenge your brain and keep it growing and changing. Think of it as a muscle--not a machine. SO it is use it or lose it. Learn a new language, take up a musical instrument, play Brain Age with your kids or grandkids on their DS's. I'm planning all three. I learned Mandarin starting at 46. And now I think I will be gin Spanish and learn the guitar, something I have wanted to do for years.

What will you learn today?