Category: wellness

Adult Education Resources, Community, Education, finance, Gifts, health, health care, humanity, Legal, lifestyle, Mental Health, motivation, Non- Profit, Parenting, planning, support group, Uncategorized, wellness

Our Virtual reality- Providing resources to our neighbors in community!

unitywithcommunity

In hard times, I am always trying to find a way to help others. I am thankful that I am able to put on one of my hats to do so, especially in such a critical time. Having the ability to provide healthcare services to those with special needs couldn’t bring me more fulfillment and reward knowing that there is still available resources for this population.

As home shelter is in place for our nation and across the world, this can exacerbate ailments already in place for many. It is with out greatest efforts to stay safe but our hope to alleviate any additional stress. Families are home trying to manage each and every single role, and many are doing so with children. As these children are now forced into home school, this adds to the list and workload. It is a struggle for many families during this time. The challenges of keeping safe and sane alone is a struggle for all. Though it is more so for many whom lack supplies and resources as well. What is needed to keep their children active and educated all at the same time, managing minimal employment, childcare, even loss of employment are realities for the world right now, besides the highest concern for our health.

For those that are fortunate with being healthy and having a safe home, including their children, there are majority of families and single parents who are struggling with much more than just this aspect alone. Other concerns besides the basic resources that their children rely on so heavily by attending school each day. I also think about the fact that many have special health conditions and needs that are so crucial to be met. Other physical and mental health services that are scarce due to health and safety concern with the Corona Virus. Where their education and treatment is also at such a high risk for them as well as providers.

There is no underestimation to any line of healthcare professional and thank you to each and everyone in the world for your immense courage and passion for all that you tirelessly and selflessly do to serve each and every day!

Everyone is a hero and has the ability to share their gifts where they are able. There is always a need, especially during a crisis. Right now unity with our communities couldn’t be a better focus. Although, the physical part of us is not our reality, virtually it is. The truth is we are not alone, but together. We can thank technology for this. Think outside your walls and ask yourself, what special skill sets, professional training, and education do I have that I can share with my neighbors in community? What ideas are we implementing to make our lives a bit easier in the midst of a war on our health?Knowlege is power and as we come together, we are that much stronger!

Taking what we know, how can we begin to reach out and share this on a virtual level? Not only are you able to make productive and ample time for your talents, but you are providing resources and putting them to such a beautiful use. No matter how small or large a need is, no one should feel hopeless and left behind. Please continue to share!

 

Unity with Community!

-A. M. W

Adult Education Resources, Community, Education, finance, Gifts, health, health care, humanity, Legal, lifestyle, Mental Health, motivation, Non- Profit, Parenting, planning, support group, wellness

Letting Go.

unitywithcommunity

The thought of making a drastic change to any aspect of your life can be the scariest. When you look back at all of the time you have come up with every “solution” after solution in receiving that something you so desperately push for, but after each push to only find that the wall you are up against hasn’t moved. The persistence, strength, and power has brought you above and beyond your capabilities. Your resiliency doesn’t allow for you to give up.  Though when you find that after all that you could do, didn’t make a positive difference, is letting go not the worst idea?

You tell yourself that there is a greater goal that you wish to reach. One or a few that brings you greater peace, fulfillment, and provides for your greater needs. There are situations where others may be entitled or superior  in setting you back, pushing you in the opposite direction, and controllably imprisoned and stripping you from your best self. Maybe their power comes from a financial advantage. Perhaps an envious one against their views and wants. AS much as we humans keep going and pushing against our odds for what we feel is best for our future, we are not working for the present. Realistically this is where we are unable to see the clear paths we can take now for the latter road, and instead resisting the struggles we are going through trying to get to the place that is not yet available. Our fear comes from the uncertainty of what could come. Our faith can only bring you to what is there now. Each choice will lead you down a path. The best choice for the “now” will lead you down the path to your best future. When we continue to push to force what we feel is the best based on uncertain truths for what we want in the future, we create more struggle and loss of strength, time, and valuable assets. Trusting the process of working its best self out will only lift you to always being your best and bring that out of each of your days.

I know very well and understand the fight of never giving up, the don’t stop won’t stop, and sacrifice until there is gain; attitude. I have always had it. I have always been a fighter for all that I have believed in. The fighting will of goodness. However, when it comes to losing more than what has ever been positively given, the only conclusion is that it doesn’t work. Wen a certain situation doesn’t change no matter what solution and struggle behind it that you have come up with remains the same or negatively shifts you backwards, letting go and making that scary sacrificial change may be the answer you haven’t been listening to all along. I have seen others give a good fight for what was rightfully so. I have personally pushed against some of the greatest resistance for what I morally and justly pushed for, for years. Only finding that there will always be another type of strength that will deplete your strength and power as long as this power is more favored by the wrong and misguided perception of others. When do you know the difference of letting go versus giving up?

Letting go is not giving up once you have given all of your might to what you have been working for. The endless time of sacrifice, the struggle without borders, when the days and nights become one, and when your passions put your senses in overdrive. However, when you are pushing harder than what the position you are in currently in allows you to do, you are losing your strength, peace and self at a declining speed. You fall back harder than where you started and your recovery is much longer than what was necessary if at all.

After all that you have done to bring yourself to another door, you now have to make the necessary drastic change that will allow you to get there. Letting go is not giving up, but the ability to regain your strength and simple ability to open the next door, rather continue to push against the wall you cannot move. The best choices that are necessary for the present time can be some of the hardest, debilitating, and emotional journey’s for one to overcome. Our fear of uncertainty or the multiple paths of “what ifs”, will only bring you back to the very place you are currently standing. Have faith in letting go of the resistance you have been pushing against and see how far this resistance can actually propel you into the future you desire. Do not allow the uncertainty of a choice carry you through further danger. Carry on the best as you can in the present and you will arrive to the very place you wish and are meant to be. When you realize that letting go is not giving up, you will begin to receive the rewards and the very peace you were once losing before. This time it will come back, stay, and your gain will be greater than you could have ever imagined.

You know what is best for yourself and any situation that you may be facing. Don’t allow others to keep you pushing against the resistance and pulling you back in the process. Take the leap in making that drastic change that is only necessary for the only option that you have. Listening to others against your best interest is going against what is best for you. Listen to YOU and have faith in the strength that is within you to always carry you through. Let go of the pressure of others that breaks your abilities and peace. Give in to yourself instead, when it comes to reaching your best future.

– A.M.W

 

Adult Education Resources, Community, Education, finance, Gifts, health, humanity, Legal, lifestyle, Mental Health, motivation, Non- Profit, Parenting, planning, support group, wellness

Stepping out

unitywithcommunity

 

IMG_20190725_082932_972

 

Like everyone else on planet Earth, I relate to daily sacrifices, the bums and boo’s, an occasional outcry, and the disappointments that are inevitably uncontrolled.. especially by you. I even realized that most of us actually live with chronic stress in spite of how we think we manage it. The amount of relatable and contributing factors over at least a 6 month period of time may sound a lot less than a lifetime. Though, calculating what a lifetime of a system that is unbalanced, non-cared for (or properly), the daily risks are endless even for what we have come to believe is considered the norm. ie. Relationships, work, home, and add in the crisis situations most are actually faced with. We have a built in mechanism that helps balance what becomes unbalanced within our person. The fight or flight hormones released, or what I tend to call the “survive and thrive, don’t think, just do” that keeps us flying through our days of struggle. However, as our bodies are like our personal engines, they too get broken down over time of destruction.

I understood this mechanism of resiliency as a young person growing in this world. I was always in survival mode. It was an unfortunate practice that I adopted and ultimately what I only knew for years. Once becoming a young adult, it was habitual. My motto became “what next”? Sometimes challenges can be self inflicting, and often cured with a changed perception and value upon “what is”. Where we all go through the process of trial and error, learning and becoming; there are those too whom I relate to with the biggest challenges on managing what is uncontrolled with others. Growing up, you may have had the lack of support- even with the basic necessities that a child needs for healthy tools of development. This creates a survival pattern almost innately. However, what is most important is to grow up changing the order of others mistakes or their lack of, and not becoming yours. Count them as a blessing of lessons. Yes, we choose our friends, partners, employers, etc., over our lifetime, we also choose whether they fit well for the goodness in our lives and removing the toxicity when needed and not conforming and sacrificing otherwise. For those times we choose otherwise, you have to learn to understand that the only individual you can control is yourself. There is nothing wrong from stepping out and doing what is absolute best for you. Where many may stay in one place, whether it is good for them or not, due to the notion of “stability”, the truth of the issue is, toxicity is not stability. It is not nurturing, fulfilling, loving, and will never outweigh the benefits of what fulfills your absolute needs nonetheless.

The idea of others influencing you to settle down, stay with your daily routine of what ever that may consist of- that isn’t working for you, or bow down to the challenges that are unnecessarily placed in front of you; is not the best option I can imagine being available. However, studying yourself well enough to understand who you are, planting those seeds for the growth of those needs mind, body, and spirit first and foremost is one I will consider. Unfortunately, it seems that the world has lived according to the opposite of what seems to be simple logic. Complicating this and living a lifetime of chronic challenge before realizing it isn’t sustainable. Finally, starting to eliminate the modifiable factors in their lives. How is it that peace hasn’t been build innately in our person? Perhaps it is because it has become extinct in our society. The land in which we all share has been replanted and overturned. Peace is now becoming the biggest challenge for most to receive when we can teach love, kindness, compassion, giving, and unity early on. Replanting the seeds across our communities in which can be empowered with growth rather than demolished by self righteousness, selfishness, greed, hatred, envy, pain, violence, and disconnect. How is it we can’t be loathed with chronic peace instead?

Managing chronic stress is difficult when we fall into the pot of negativity that only continues to be stirred. Creating a sense of false hope and coping mechanisms that feed more to the toxicity which become a sustained release throughout our bodies. Through alcoholism, substance abuse, self discrimination, mental illness and even self inducing illness including: autoimmune disease and cancer is the result. These are real life conflicts which are produced by the masses. It is increasingly growing among communities and seen within the healthcare industry. Your most important concern should be attending to your person. Everything else will fall into the place it truly fits into your life that was freely given. Forget pressuring yourself in the wrong career, relationship, home, and everything else that makes this infinite list of life. What doesn’t fit, cant be pushed to do so and it will only push you against all that you truly are. Take your lessons from the mistakes provided by others to help identify your true path rather than being mislead by theirs. Manage the modifiable factors by process of elimination. This comes all to easy when you know who you truly are rather than what you may have been mistaken one time or another. It is absolutely OK to step out of an unstable structure that was once built and ultimately consumed you. Otherwise it is only a matter of time that structure will fall. Your recovery after that moment may be more painful and unnecessary than what should ever be in existence.

There are often times we are seeking a change in our lives but we allow the negative influences to deteriorate our being when we stay in that confined space. Your change begins with stepping out. Seeking ways to lift ourselves in the time of solitude is a practice we can give ourselves. Lifting and supporting others in a reciprocal matter is a simple unity that can easily be seen rather than overlooked. Recognizing where we each individually play a role in how we survive and thrive, and most importantly standing up and on a solid ground for what you only can provide for yourself. The path you pave will be visited by those who are seeking likeness. For those who don’t, one less factor to modify. Step out and discover your world and create it using the tools that you are given. What you are seeking will not be able to present itself unless you step out.

We were not born with cowardliness, but the continuous developing strength to form and uphold our power, knowing love, and self control. Not falling as a prisoner to anything that may fall short of this. Having your vision clear and plotting in an architectural form will allow you to build your visionary path in due time while becoming your map and keeping you on the track you pave. For those of whom you may come across on your path, understand this is by way of a common place. Each of you serving as a ripening strength and resource by sharing your journeys that brought you to meeting. Lifting oneself and doing so for others by sharing in unity.

Unity with community!

– A.M.W

Adult Education Resources, Community, Education, Gifts, humanity, lifestyle, Mental Health, motivation, Non- Profit, Parenting, planning, Uncategorized, wellness

Your Reality is in Your Hands. Explore the Wonder of Your Own land!

unitywithcommunity

In the most trying of times, the default feeling is of defeat. Bringing on greater fear and the inability to smile. The sleepless nights of worry to waking up to mornings that push you beyond your limits. In these times, it seems more difficult to see our light and gravitate to the light of others. A light that only reflects their shine, but not one’s shadow.

Adjust your lighting where you are always the over cast of your shadow. We all have one. It is a matter of which one you project the most. Are you choosing to guide your path by your light or closing it off with your shadow.

If you are drifting from your path because of the inability to see what is leading you  the only light we are able to see is that of others. Always remember this is not your path, and you are only seeing what others are choosing to shine for their own. Refocus and get back on your track. Set your goals and throw away what you have made your limits. Your reality is in your hands.

Redirect your energy with the ability to smile with the same smile you wake with.  Set your everyday up with your smile and keep this on your to do list!   This will always carry you through your day. No matter the stumps, you cannot fall as long as your light is guiding you.

Your journey is your wonderland. Take time to explore more of your path rather than drift off to those of others.
You will be amazed at just how magical yours truly is. Know your own roads like that of your hands. You hold much more than you have began to touch!
Let it be seen. Let it unfold.

 

 

Adult Education Resources, Community, Education, Gifts, health, health care, humanity, Legal, lifestyle, Mental Health, motivation, Non- Profit, Parenting, planning, support group, wellness

The Persecution of Parenting

unitywithcommunity

 

When it comes to parenting, there is not one manual, book of rules, or even clues as to achieving the “Best Parent” award. Being the best is non- existent as “the best”  is so abstract that it is impossible to accurately define. Such a premature conception only sets unrealistic standards and relevancy to others based on individual life circumstances and family situations. There is no doubt that every parent is guaranteed to face some of the most difficult challenges throughout the path of parenthood. With this, having to make the the toughest, yet best decisions for the time being. Most often those decisions are the hardest because it requires a sacrifice for something else. For example, losing something for the sake of another.  Sometimes even giving up one necessity in desperation of another that may have a slightly higher priority for the time being.  This can be a devastation in itself. There are battles we have within as these experiences may come, and perhaps we have with others when it comes to the view of the art of parenting.

Over the period of my time as a parent, I have not only faced my own challenges, but I have witnessed some of the hardest battles from that of others. I can tell you that as a parent, I would never give another parent unsolicited advice on how to deliver their tools to their children. I had no information to their truth nor the knowledge of the tools they had or even those they may have lacked. It is not right to judge ones ability to deliver anything less or more than I could my own. For the life of one family is impossible to identify with for another. Within one individual, they are unique in their own self. The role of a parent, no matter the form, is uniquely based on life experiences, education, cultural background, support system, lack of support system, unexpected life events, loss, gain, and the list goes on. Our individual journeys are so different that the meaning of the title role of parent will not serve as the same meaning for all. However, the defining language of parenting can be described as the ultimate sacrifice and love. A language that will take you beyond what you can ever imagine being capable of. A language that only a parent can understand, but in the same to serving respect and support to another rather than placing judgment on a situation you truly are not capable of experiencing first yourself.

One should never judge another parent based on unforeseen circumstances. For instance, an economic status change. Where a parent could have been newly widowed or divorced. One leaving domestic abuse or a a two- parent household losing a job or making a career change. What about the single parent that is going back to school for a higher education and opportunity for brighter future for their child. The parent who became ill or disabled or even one that of a child. Consider the parents whom are living outside of an area of their core support, or the many who have very little to no support in place. Unfortunately when there are life changes or an occurrence of events, it can truly shake up the entire world of a household. For those families who are already lacking resources, this can be extremely altering and can be a very difficult road to recovery. For those who are blessed to have room for cushion, understand that your reality can be subject to change at anytime, but most importantly cannot be compared to that of others either. However, the unfortunate reality for those lacking is the unjust biases coming from society and more-so in the family court room. The lack of understanding and the remote ability to do so leaves for wrongful judgements and accusations. Closed- ended biases are only closed doors for those trying to prevail. When there is such a large discrepancy within one population to another, the lower of the denominator is often the sufferer and victim of oppression. What should be considered as logic, is instead a shunned truth. Where there is law, there are loopholes. What should be served morally, is done so righteously and unjust.

There are so many special circumstances in life that the world cannot count alone. Some cases for families can be more extreme or rare to see than others. Most factors uncontrolled but also unfairly controlled by another. The empty- minded norms that are unrelated from one family to another. The temporary altering circumstances as well as universal laws and rules written do not fit the mold of every family, which ultimately are under-served. When it comes to packaging a family, there is never a one size fits all. There are life changing disabilities short term and long term, career layoffs, going back to school to get a higher education, perhaps going to school to get an education for the brighter future for your family. Where these factors bare the truth of a portion of our community, all of these require sacrifice and enforce suffering. What should be remembered in these circumstances, this does not make one an incompetent parent and certainly does not make one a bad one either. There is a small percentage of people who have been very fortunate to not experience a traumatic event or loss. However, it is seen more within this portion of society, especially within a public system as the most biased when it comes to deciding what is best for a child. The majority of time where one parent is vulnerable, they are most often oppressed by society and the justice system. Even found to be pulled into an unnecessary battle at the expense of their child, job, and education path. Where the things that served as the climbing ladder to their future, is now taken away before their feet. How is this fair by any means and where does this benefit the person that matters the most- the child?

Where there are so many parents who may sacrifice tremendously to hold a job (sometimes multiple), juggling a full time school schedule in order to reach the desired future for their family, it can be misconstrued to instability. Sacrifice does not make one unstable, but in the long run, more secure.  Sometimes the boat of life is shaken when there is unexpected winds and storms, but as long as we are pulling the ropes where we need, we are able to keep sailing smoothly along to our destination. However, if one is continuously stricken by lightening throughout their journey, it makes it very difficult to maintain the momentum of the sail. Most often losing and sacrificing even more than before during the time of recovery.

To all parents (no matter the form) who are facing some of the biggest challenges and searching for the face of hope, remember that you are doing the absolute best under each and every one of your unique circumstances. This is what defines you as a parent. Keep pushing through those challenges and take it as your strength training. You need to keep building for your children as they only need you, and the best version that you can be. At the end of the day they are hugging and loving you. Not the size of the house they live in, the abundance of toys, the car they ride in, or the empty space they stand when they are not with you. Nothing in this world can compete with the love between a child and their parent, especially when it is the biggest love they know. At the end of the day, the only thing that matters is the Quality time and love that they receive. This is not something that can be given to them by anyone else. Therefore the persecution of parenting is not justified.

In the times of distress, just keep reminding yourself that bettering yourself for the sake of your child’s future is the most selfless and loving act that a parent can do for them. A role model who teaches work ethic, determination, strength, compassion, understanding and truly the greatest love for their child. In the times of adversity it is the easiest for anyone to give up and surrender, but it doesn’t move you forward and only pushes you further back than where you started. That alone does not bring goodness. Giving up is never the best choice. Only rest when needed. Keep your eye on the prize as it is closer to your reach than you think. There is so much more to your journey than what may appear. Something much larger than you and is only realized when you are determined to go above and beyond to to have it within your grasp.

Love and support others where you can during the times of adversity. Share your stories and offer them as a resource. Place no judgement on another but only a loving hand over those in need. Unity with community!

-Amanda Marie Wilkinson