Organizing to De-Stress a Major Illness by Hazel Thornton


A


prolonged illness can result in decreased energy and mobil-


ity. The more organized you are, the less you will worry about things getting done, freeing you to focus your en- ergy on getting well. Here are four ways you can do this:


Organize Your Medical Records Keep all your medical records together in such a way that you can easily find what you are looking for.


Make a Control Binder for daily use and to take with you to medical appointments. Get a 3-ring binder, hole punch, tabs, business card pages, and a plastic pouch for pens. Create sec- tions for symptoms, contacts, medical history, appointments, treatment plan, billing, doctors, chaplain, resources, and medications. Add inspiring cover art. Use an accordion file, or a file


cabinet, for overflow paperwork that you don’t need daily access to or want to lug around with you.


Organize Your Support System People with a network of family, friends, neighbors, loved ones, and professionals are healthier, and recover more easily from illness, than those without them. It can be uncomfortable to ask for help, but there are ways to make it easier for everyone involved. Ask a friend or relative to be your spokesperson (a strong, objective, trusted person to speak on your behalf when you don’t feel well). This person can accompany you to medical ap- pointments and keep others apprised of your condition. You, or your spokesperson, can use these online tools to let friends know what’s going on and what you need help with: Lotsa Helping Hands, Care Calendar, Meal Train, ChipIn and Car- ing Bridge.


Organize Your Home A clutter-free home is easier to main-


18 Northern & Central New Mexico


tain, and is less stressful to be confined to, than a cluttered one. The more organized your living space is, the easier it will be for you to physically get around and keep your house- hold functioning smoothly. Eliminate mystery


piles! Manage incoming mail and paper using a desktop action file. (Instructions can be


found on www.org4life.com.) Simplify your systems. A bit of housekeeping can be included in your own daily routine, or provided by your support system. If you cannot provide your own meals, ask for help. Keep medications and medical supplies organized, handy and easy to use and monitor.


Organize Your Self Do whatever you can to free your mind from clutter, and reserve your strength for building up your health and positive energy.


Don’t try to remember everything!


Keep a little notebook handy for jotting down calls you need to make, grocery list items, questions for doctors, etc. Create and use checklists to make your morning and evening routines and doc- tor visits easier. Give yourself a break! You don’t


feel well, and you’re tired all the time. This is no time to beat yourself up for all the things you are not doing. What you should be doing is recuperating. Start a gratitude journal. Gratitude can be a huge happiness booster and stress reliever.


Here’s to your return to health!


NOTE: A longer version of this article, with more tips and clickable resource links, can be found on org4life.com. Hazel Thornton, founder of Organized For Life, is a professional organizer in Albuquerque with a background in both engineering and fine arts. She created The Clutter Flow Chart Collection to help individuals visualize the decision- making process of decluttering.


NaturalAwakeningsNNM.com


10 Points to Consider for Cancer Recovery


by Dr. Anne Merkel I


f you have received the diagnosis of cancer, as an Energy Psycholo- gist I would urge you to consider the


following 10 points where you have undoubtedly stored emotion that may slow down your recovery and healing process.


When you hold emotional stress


or charge around an issue, the body goes into constriction mode and natural healing is a challenge. In your case you need all of your reserves without any additional obstacles. At each point feel the pain, symptoms, stress, and tap on your “Heart Center” (fingers spread wide vertically on sternum between your breasts) as you breathe out the negativity or stuckness. [If you know EFT tapping, use that.]


Pain and obvious symptoms: whenever there is pain or when symptoms show up, it is easiest to clear these first so they are out of the way as we go deeper into clearing the cause.


Fear: we have been taught by society and many doctors that we are victims of our bodies, and that when the body has a problem we must turn outside of ourselves to find help. When we feel powerless in any situation we feel fear, so this is a good time to clear that by tapping.


Victimhood and lack of control: while we are focused here, this is a good time to clear all feelings of being a victim to our body and health.


Emotions around the diagnosis: often a diagnosis has been made—or not, and there might be fear, dread, confusion, frustration and many other emotions around this news (or lack thereof) and how it was presented to you. Just the word “cancer” is terror-


provoking to many people, so it is im-


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