Inspiration Archives

Happy Physician – Happy Patient (The RX in Three Simple Steps)

By Michele Howe. Your doctor wants to see you happy and from the moment you enter an exam room, the attention is centered on you as the patient. Your physician takes notes of your symptoms, your pain, and every medical reason for being in his office. As he listens, your doctor is also making mental notes on how to best diagnose and then treat your condition. He is developing a plan of action scripted just for you. It’s his job to help you get better and he’s happy to take on the role of caregiver. What physicians aren’t happy about…

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First Steps to a Better You

By Donna Gates. We all have a tendency to look for shortcuts - easy solutions. We think life will be perfect if we lose 20 pounds, have a face lift, get a better job, find the person of our dreams . . . (fill in the blank). We put too much faith in passing fads that offer unrealistic guarantees—we will feel better, look younger, and have more than what we have right now. While there is no magic elixir that guarantees eternal health, happiness, and youthfulness, there are many important tools that can radically change our entire concept of aging…

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Harvesting Happiness: Secrets to a Happy Life

By Lisa Cypers Kamen. Here are a couple of self-reflection questions and secrets to a happy life. Ask: If I had one day left, would I forgive the person who hurt me most? Could I do so without demanding any form of punishment? Who are the people in your life who deserve your forgiveness? You will be surprised how wonderful you feel when you forgive – you may feel free. Miracles happen every day, when we least expect them. Have the belief that they can happen for you. Your value isn’t determined by the amount of money you make or the…

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Getting a Good Night’s Sleep at the Self-Help (or any) Hotel

By Michele Howe. If you know me, you know I value sleep. Good sleep. Every night. No exception. Everyone has a weakness and mine is being able to rest soundly night after night…and when obstacles such as (my loose shoulder) keep me tossing and turning throughout the nighttime hours my mind can wander…and lately it’s been wandering back to a trip I took with my good friend, Mary. She’s going back to Europe soon. I am not. Sadness. But, I can reminisce about our two wonderful trips together and dream. Here’s one snapshot of our travels….and how we learned to…

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Use of Time Travel to Inspire You Today

By Dr. Murray Grossan. In Stressed? Anxiety? Your Cure is in the Mirror I speak of time travel for health and relaxation. What works is to relax, then recall using five senses – smell, taste, feel, sight, sound and joy. When you do this properly, your body chemistry changes, sometimes significantly. If you recall that happy 18th birthday, maybe you will have a similar chemistry that you did then. You can monitor this effect. Your blood pressure may change. Your pulse rate may change. Your white count may change too as well as your blood sugar. As a medical student…

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Harvesting Happiness: Choosing to Be Happy Despite External Circumstances

By Lisa Cypers Kamen. Every day when we turn on the news, we see a world that seems filled with sadness, poverty, loss and grief. We ask ourselves, over and over again, how can we live amidst such difficulty and pain? The task of bringing relief to the suffering often seems insurmountable. The truth is that our hearts ache for those who suffer no matter where in the world they are or for what reason the suffering exists. Yet, as much as we want to offer support and assistance, there doesn’t seem to be enough that we can do to…

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How Your Child’s Sports Training Program Might Be Hurting Her Health

By Michele Howe. When my kids were younger, each season brought with it a different type of sport. That meant fall, winter, spring and summer, they were participating (or just enjoying) varied kinds of physical activity. As they got older, I started noticing that coaches were pushing for same-sport off-season training (year around). It bothered me for several reasons. First, I think kids need to explore a variety of kinds of activities to discover their giftedness (and they don’t know until they try new things). Second, the major push to be super competitive (at the risk of an athlete’s health)…

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Can you get me?

By Jean Adrienne. It's the big human question, isn't it? We all want to be appreciated for who we are. We want to be loved. We want to be wanted. But the underlying question is, “can you get YOU?” In order for anyone to get you, the first step has to be understanding you who are, and this comes from within. Until you get this piece, you will never be able to attract to you those people who will appreciate you for who you are. Think about it—if you don’t appreciate yourself for who you are, how can you expect…

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5 Suggestions for Staying Inspired

How does one feel more inspired everyday? Inspiration is the stimulation of the mind or emotions to a high level of feeling or activity. Inspiration comes from the Latin, inspirare which means "To breathe, to blow into the Spirit is within." If you want to feel and be inspired today, here are five suggestions: 1. Movies and music have always been a great source of inspiration. I recall that a key contributor reporting to me told me he was going after his dream to be a radio sports announcer after seeing the movie, Field of Dreams. The movie Forrest Gump continues…

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Harvesting Happiness: Can We Create a Happy Life for Ourselves?

By Lisa Cypers Kamen. Can we create a happy life for ourselves? The key word here is “create.”  Do we cultivate a happy life when we choose to live a life of creativity and passion? Does the secret to our ultimate happiness lie in the mere choosing of it? You see, everyone is creative.  When we expand our definition of creativity to include far more than the fine arts, we come to realize that all life is art, and we can apply our unlimited creativity and individual expression in any direction we choose. At this particular point in history, we…

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Keeping Your Orientation – In Life and Work (Avoiding Unnecessary Missteps)

By Michele Howe. Taking a misstep here would be fatal. Taking a misstep in daily life happens more often than we realize (with perhaps not fatal results, but otherwise unhealthy ones.) Why? It's so easy to lose our focus (lose our orientation) because of the demands placed on us by others (and ourselves.) Keeping your orientation is one principle that crosses over into every area of life. Home. Work. Health. Play. Not convinced? See how this phrase, "Keeping Your Orientation" put me on notice after a fast-paced morning in the operating room. Not too long ago, I was given the…

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How to “get” Inspire Me Today

By Dr. Murray Grossan. I have had the pleasure of reading Inspire Me Today for some weeks now. Really good stuff here. There are truly some outstanding ideas, like breathe in beauty. I have been telling my patients this every day with amazing results. And jot down emotional experiences to have for today. That is an outstanding idea. But I come from the world of brain wave recordings, MRI, and measuring electrical muscle output. I write in my own book that no one has ever been cured of stress by reading a book. You must have actions, movements, stretch and…

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Harvesting Happiness: What is Your Happiness?

By Lisa Cypers Kamen. Happiness starts with you. It is all about your attitude toward life and the situations you face in daily living. You have to look at what you have accomplished in a day, a week, a month, etc. - not what you haven’t accomplished. If you are having trouble finding happiness in your day and it seems like your attitude is shifting to negative things, here are a few tips for you: Try to change the way you look at things by looking at the bright side. Focus on solutions, not the problems. Listen to music that…

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Where Do You Find Balance?

By Gail Lynne Goodwin. Balance. It's something that we all aspire to maintain in our lives, but many times we fall a bit short of our desired outcome. In this day and age where always increasing pressures simultaneously pull us in multiple directions, it's critically important to take the time to reconnect and add balance to our lives. The question is, how do we do that? For me, balance starts with an intention to separate "me" from what's going on around me. It's making the time to recognize, acknowledge and appreciate the inner "me", and knowing that the world will…

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Post a Note – Sentiments That Stick

By Michele Howe. I was telling a good friend how much I had been appreciating reading two books on gratitude - the kind of gratitude that is not dependent upon having good things happen or experiencing favorable circumstances. In other words, developing an attitude of gratitude that “sticks” no matter what. This friend (whom I am always so grateful for…) recommended another book on the same theme called 365 Thank Yous by John Kralik. The timing of this book was perfect because this author, a lawyer, discusses his 15 months of sending out 365 thank-yous to different people who touched…

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Birthdays and Bone Density – How One Should Remind Us of the Other

By Michele Howe. Making the most of every birthday (every day)...aging strong (and healthy.) I love birthdays...my own and everyone else's! Call it a hangover from childhood memories and those early traditions...but birthdays are the single one day of the whole year when it's just fun to pick what you where you want to go (sitting on a warm beach) and what you want to do (sitting on a warm beach with a great book and playing my favorite music) and what you want to eat (sitting on a warm beach with a great book and playing my favorite music…

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Share Your Best/Worst Pregnancy Moments with A Million Moms

By Gail Lynne Goodwin. I'm in New York City today, taking part in the Million Moms Challenge. It's a cause to unite a million moms with a million moms in developing countries around the world. The best thing about this program is that you don't have to be a mom to help a mom. You just have to be "one in a million".  Join us to make healthy pregnancies, safe births, and children who survive and thrive a basic right around the world. As a part of this project, I've been asked to answer the question, "What was the best…

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Embracing In Between

By Brittney Schering. Life comes with a little secret: Every plan will not always unfold effortlessly. It is important to know that THIS IS OKAY. It is all a part of becoming who you dream of being, doing what you’re destined to do, and living that life that you’ve always wanted to. This is a lesson that I have recently come to realize, and am currently in the midst of grasping. So, I started a new blog to document what I call my in-between experience: coming back to Michigan after living a glimpse of my dream, writing for the summer…

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