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Natural Awakenings Central New Jersey

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Finding Calm During Trying Times

Apr 16, 2020 03:38PM ● By Laurie Nadel

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From the moment we wake up and log on to our day, we are flooded with news about people whose days started off much the same, with an expectation of going from point A to point B, to lunch, to point C and then back home.

But something happened. A tornado touched down in the neighborhood. Or a train derailed in a cousin’s hometown. Or, like now, an invisible killer stalks the globe, threatening to take our life or the life of someone we know.

Within seconds, we are flooded with horror and helplessness. Unable to stop the cascade of acute stress hormones, our bodies shift into fight-or-flight mode or leave us frozen like deer in the headlights. Whether we see what is happening online, on screen or in real time, we feel unsafe in our own skin. Although disturbing images can be swiped away, when something bad happens to us, we don’t know what to do. We can’t change the channel.

Even during these tough times, we can find opportunities to develop new strengths and grow individually and together. To start with, we need emotional first aid to help us find calm quickly. We can do this by locating the tension points in our body and asking them what color would help them feel calm. Then we can inhale that color, letting it find its way within to soothe our cells, and exhale our stress by breathing out a different color. We can repeat this technique as long and as often as needed. Teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in Parkland, Florida, report that this really works for kids, too.

To heal means to make whole. It doesn’t mean to make something go away. Hardship is part of life’s journey. Even this global pandemic can serve as our spiritual wake-up call to learn how different spiritual traditions heal from life-shattering events. Five gifts offer us the keys to wholeness:

- Humility helps us accept what we cannot change.
- Patience takes the edge off when the hurt lasts longer than we want.
- Empathy keeps us connected for the long haul.
- Forgiveness means forgiving ourselves, our leaders and God.
- Growth lets us look back with thanks for what we learned when the journey of life was anything but comfortable and easy.

Let’s journey together.


Laurie Nadel, a Manhattan psychotherapist, is the author of The Five Gifts: Discovering Hope, Healing and Strength When Disaster Strikes.
Tick Talk

Spring officially sprung on March 21. We have turned our clocks ahead. We are looking forward to warm winds, sunny skies and the smell of fresh cut grass. The daffodils and tulips have recently bloomed and we are just starting with the yard work that comes with the warmer weather.  Sadly, another season has started ramping up.  Tick season.

•             The best form of protection is prevention. Educating oneself about tick activity and how our behaviors overlap with tick habitats is the first step.

•             According to the NJ DOH, in 2022 Hunterdon County led the state with a Lyme disease incidence rate of 426 cases per 100,000 people. The fact is ticks spend approximately 90% of their lives not on a host but aggressively searching for one, molting to their next stage or over-wintering. This is why a tick remediation program should be implemented on school grounds where NJ DOH deems high risk for tick exposure and subsequent attachment to human hosts.

•             Governor Murphy has signed a bill that mandates tick education in NJ public schools. See this for the details.  Tick education must now be incorporated into K-12 school curriculum. See link:

https://www.nj.gov/education/broadcasts/2023/sept/27/TicksandTick-BorneIllnessEducation.pdf

•             May is a great month to remind the public that tick activity is in full swing. In New Jersey, there are many tickborne diseases that affect residents, including Anaplasmosis, Babesiosis, Ehrlichiosis, Lyme disease, Powassan, and Spotted Fever Group Rickettsiosis.

•             For years, the focus has mainly been about protecting ourselves from Lyme disease. But other tick-borne diseases are on the rise in Central Jersey. An increase of incidence of Babesia and Anaplasma are sidelining people too. These two pathogens are scary because they effect our blood cells. Babesia affects the red blood cells and Anaplasma effects the white blood cells.

•             Ticks can be infected with more than one pathogen. When you contract Lyme it is possible to contract more than just that one disease. This is called a co-infection. It is super important to pay attention to your symptoms. See link.

https://twp.freehold.nj.us/480/Disease-Co-Infection

A good resource from the State:

https://www.nj.gov/health/cd/topics/tickborne.shtml

 

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