Looking out my back door

This was the scene in my backyard the other day, video compliments of my son. So as I sat and watched the hummingbird I was playing Credence on the stereo. Guess which song?

Canadian Medical Association Seniors Survey

If you are retired and live in Canada there is an online survey regarding Seniors Health Care, created by the Canadian Medical Association. This survey asks a series of simple questions in order to understand the different dynamics that represent people’s experience with seniors care. It gives you as a citizen a chance to express how you feel about the health care system’s ability to adequately meet the seniors care needs that you and your family will have. Results from the survey will assist in the CMA’s advocacy for quality public health care. 

Participate in the survey by visiting https://www.demandaplan.ca/surveys/new-federal-seniors-measures

Visualize

I was wondering the other day about what part of "visualize" do you think most people misunderstand?

The use of visualization to present information is not a new phenomenon. It has been used in maps, scientific drawings, and data plots for over a thousand years. We look in awe at the early cave drawings of life before the written word. Our early ancestors used visualization and visual imagery to tell stories, to create myths and to honor each other.

It is a confusing term and one that is used or misused by many. On one level it is a technique involving focusing on positive mental images in order to achieve a particular goal
visualize or to form a mental image of (something incapable of being viewed or not at that moment visible).

On another level, it is a motivational technique which can help you achieve personal goals. If you really want something to come to fruition, then you have to put your imaginative mind to work. See the result in front of you, play the game you are going to play in your mind, or watch yourself accepting your degree at college. The only limit is your own mind. Visualization is also a useful mental skill which allows you to picture an image or scenario not immediately in front of your eyes.

Visualization used as a motivational technique is a skill that can be learned but like any skill, it must be practiced more than once a day. Many try visualization and fail because of many reasons. One reason could be that we only do it just once a day, for a few minutes a day, because we have yet to realize that whatever it is we most want lies only a little thinking away? So we stop when we fail, rather than continuing to try. Can you hear me now?

Could, woulda, shoulda

I was thinking the other day about life and I thought, when you think about life is amazing. I also think most people suspect that their approach to life is dead-on. But if asked I think that most of us can't think of anything we have ever done that we would have done differently if you had the wisdom you have now.

Well, is that true for you? I know that with wisdom comes the reality that I coulda, woulda, shoulda, done a whole list of things differently if I had only known. I bet many of us realize this as we reflect on our past. There is an old saying, “ If wishes were horses, beggars would ride", which is an English language proverb and nursery rhyme, first recorded about 1628 in a collection of Scottish proverbs. It suggests if wishing could make things happen, then even the most destitute people would have everything they wanted.

The same could be said for the coulda, woulda, shoulda thoughts we have about what we would change. The way we lived, the challenges we faced made us the person we are today. However, maybe you should think about visualizing more. Seeing the end result in all its glorious detail, bypassing the cursed how’s, and feeling the emotions you expect to feel.

Hey, we have more time and maybe, just maybe we can continue to learn as life is complicated but good.