Having Joy and Satisfaction

Christina Bruni2 Comments

It’s true that doing the things that give you joy and satisfaction can reduce the impact of your disability.

Too often, a person decides to do something because she’s convinced she wants to do it or she’s supposed to do it. This happened when I took my first full-time job in 1990 as an administrative assistant. I was female so decided to work in an office as an administrative assistant. No true career assessment was given to me to help me figure out what might be a better option.

In 1996, a chance meeting with a therapist turned my life around when he gave me vocational counseling and told me I’d make a good librarian. The health insurance only authorized five visits because I had a preexisting condition. He was a career counselor to high-level executives during the week and I met him on Saturdays when he was still doing therapy on the side.

My life wasn’t so hot from 1987 through spring 2000: the first 13 years of my recovery. I floundered through one job after another in the gray flannel insurance field. I kept being laid off and in June 1997 I followed through with my goal of going back to school even though I was unemployed.

A job might not give you total satisfaction so having a good life outside of work can tip the scales for your happiness.

I’m confident when I tell readers that taking any old job just to pay the bills isn’t the way to go when you have a mental illness. The good news is that if you take a detour or make a false start, you can change course at any time in your recovery or your life.

Those first seven years in the insurance field are long gone so you can see that your life isn’t over when you’re first diagnosed. And you CAN change your life and change the course of your life for the better at any point along the way.

Finding out what gives you joy and satisfaction is as simple as trying on or trying out new hobbies and activities to see which things boost your mood.

I’ll end here by reminding readers to remember what you liked to do as a kid so that you can find inspiration for your life’s work today. I was luckier than most because I knew by the time I was seven years old that I wanted to be a writer. I was also sketching and painting and reading books by the time I was seven.

Rewind your own life to see what used to give you joy and happiness as a young person. Rule out nothing even though you might be an adult now. You’re not ever too old to have fun doing what makes you happy.

Joy and satisfaction. Each of living with a diagnosis deserves to have joy and satisfaction in our lives.

It took me 13 years to find a good job. It might take you longer to find your life’s purpose.

Yet when you do I can guarantee you’ll be able to shift the needle to the left of the dial, achieve a calm balance, and have mostly good days instead of having only not-so-good days.

Daring to Dream

Christina Bruni4 Comments

The third value I espouse as an author in my books is this:

Getting off the SSI dole can allow you to have a better life than you thought possible.

Today in 2015: permanent disability doesn’t have to be the norm once a person is diagnosed with schizophrenia, bipolar, or another mental illness.

Instead, most people diagnosed with schizophrenia can and do recover. Upwards of 85 percent of individuals with schizophrenia reach the stabilization, stable, and recovery phases of this illness. Fifteen percent have a refractory version.

The good news is that we don’t have to suffer in vain or suffer alone. With the right treatment and support, it’s easier to envision having the kind of normal life that a person who doesn’t have a mental illness lives.

The SYMS clothing store TV advertisements in the 1980s boasted: “An educated consumer is our best customer.”

Educated patients are the best customers of medical services as well. Research with due diligence the treatment options available to you.

I’ve been employed at full-time jobs since 1990. I’ve been a public service librarian for over 14 years now.

Your own idea of what you want to do with your life is all that matters. Collecting SSI or SSDI and working part-time at Rite Aid might be an option for some of us. Others might be able to go to college and get a degree and work at a professional job.

I take this imperative stance:

No one on earth has the right to judge another person for what we’re capable of doing or not doing.

I regret that most people buy into the myth that a person is only successful and worthy of praise if they are contributing to the economic stream in society by working at a prestigious full-time job like a JD.

Finding your niche might take time as it did for me. The first 13 years of my recovery from the diagnosis in 1987 to finding my library job in 2000 were not the best years of my life. Yet I prevailed, and that’s the secret: nothing succeeds like persistence.

It can take time and it often more so than not takes time to find your niche in the world.

Yet once you do you will be a lot happier and achieve emotional freedom and yes clarity of thought.

Collecting SSI the rest of your life is NOT a guaranteed outcome today in 2015.

You have options for what you can do and it all starts when you research the things you might want to do that you would like and be good at.

Giving up isn’t an option.

Numerous long-term studies of individuals with schizophrenia that review their recoveries at the 25-year mark or 30-year mark find that we are living in society with great success doing things that so-called normal people do with jobs, romantic partners, and satisfying lives.

Search for and seek out members of your treatment team who believe that recovery is possible and who wholeheartedly support you in your goal of living a full and robust life.

You don’t have to settle for less than full inclusion in society.

Next I’ll talk in here about the fourth value.

Taking Action to Achieve Goals

Christina BruniLeave a comment

The second value my books offer is this:

Taking action to achieve your goals is possible with the right support and treatment.

As soon as I got out of the hospital the first time I had the goal of finding a full-time job and living on my own.

I was shunted into a community mental health center system ill-equipped to help a young person like me with so much potential. Yet I succeeded because I took action in the direction of my dream(s).

Being goal-directed might simply be the number-one predictor of how far a person will go in his or her life.

You might not be able to achieve what you set out to right away (or at all) yet continuing to take action will help you succeed.

The goal is to not let setbacks along the way defeat you. If you can’t do one thing, try to do another thing.

A real-life example: a woman I know couldn’t cope with the demands of a rigorous university where she would’ve gotten an occupational therapy degree. This didn’t render her life a dead-end. Her life wasn’t over and the possibilities for what she could do were still evident.

The woman years later did get a masters degree and is now quite successful in another career.

That’s why giving up on yourself isn’t an option.

The corollary to this value is another value: that being able to adapt to what happens in your life and to change course to do something unexpected that can be better: is a valuable mindset to have.

Rule out nothing.

Remember:

Nothing’s Impossible.

The word itself says: “I’m possible.”

Closet Cleaning

Christina BruniLeave a comment

I recommend weeding the contents of your closet in the winter.

The Salvation Army is the charity I send all my good-condition clothes to when I no longer wear them. Remember: only give to charity clothes that aren’t stained or in tatters and are in good condition for others to wear. The item should bring a smile to the face of a person when he or she is the recipient.

Get a tax receipt for you donations that lists every item you’ve donated. If you itemize things on your tax return, you can deduct the value of the donations.

After originally resisting, I went out and bought matching huggable hangers for the shirts hanging in my closet. I still use wooden hangers for blazers and wooden skirt and pant hangers for those items. Yet the flocked velvet thin hangers are visually neater. This could put you in a positive frame of mind when you view the contents of your closet.

The way to cut down the clutter is to not bring it into your house to begin with. Only buy items on sale that you would pay full-price for. You can get coupon codes for a lot of online clothing retailers to reduce the cost of buying the items.

I recommend reading the Life in Color book to figure out your ColorType and StyleType so that you’re able to choose and use clothes that flatter you and reinforce the image you want to project.

I have a 3-tiered shoe rack on the bottom left of my closet and four see-through storage bins on the bottom right of the closet. The bins store scarves of all kinds: each bin holds winter or spring or fall scarves. You can get these bins from The Container Store online.

A solution is to install a second rod above the lower rod to hang off-season clothes. This doubles your storage space in the closet.

You do not need a ton of clothes to be well-dressed and stylish. You only need to buy the clothes that fit your StyleType and are in colors that you look good in.

I will end here by telling readers that as hard as it can be: sometimes you just have to let go of those items you don’t wear anymore. If you can’t fit into them, donate them to charity and buy a couple new items in your current size that fit and flatter your body and suit your personality.

And too: an item of clothing might be past its prime. You might have gotten seasons of wear out of it only to no longer wear that item because it no longer suits you.

Arrange the items in your closet left to right from light to dark and hang like items together: skirts, pants, dresses, shirts and so on.

Organization upfront makes choosing and using your clothes easier each morning.

National Clean Out Your Closet Week

Christina BruniLeave a comment

It’s National Clean Out Your Closet week.

I’ve always equated a neat apartment with a clear mind. Messy crib: crabbed thoughts. It might not be entirely true. Yet I’m convinced people diagnosed with mental illnesses need a clear path in our rooms to be able to enjoy our homes.

A home should be happy and healthy to live in.

I’ll share some feng shui tips that can clear your mind:

Only store clothes in bins under the bed. Storing papers and books and other things under the bed disrupts your thoughts.

As you search for an apartment, nix any building that is near electrical wires or a power station or on the side of a highway or on the dead end of a street or in the middle of the street where the street intersects another street.

Nix an apartment where you can see the door to the bathroom directly from the front door entrance of the house or apartment. And bathrooms at the front of the house or apartment are money-wasters. Put the lid of the toilet down not just the seat because in feng shui your money will go down the drain if the lid is left up. See about keeping the bathroom door closed too.

The flow of chi-pronounced chee-should be positive and flow beautifully not be stagnant or cut off. Sha chi or furniture or doorway configurations and doors that create sharp arrows against each other aren’t healthful.

The Chinese place woo foo dogs at the entrances of their homes to promote good fortune.

I will return on Thursday with closet storage techniques.

Nutrition Month

Christina BruniLeave a comment

March is National Nutrition Month as well as Women’s History Month.

I have an ongoing interest in clean living and will offer some information I’ve read in at least two places.

Divide your weight in half to arrive at the number of ounces of water you should drink each day.

Divide your weight in half to arrive at the grams of protein you should eat each day.

I’ll keep this blog entry short with a recommendation that Tera’s Whey Protein organic whey protein bourbon vanilla version tastes okay and has 20 grams or so of protein in a scoop.

Pour a cup of skim milk into a blender and add a scoop of the bourbon vanilla whey protein. “Blend” for about 30 seconds or so.

Voila: a cheaper post-workout shake you can make on your own in your apartment instead of paying $3.50/per pop for a shake at the gym.

Have Faith And Carry On

Christina BruniLeave a comment

I firmly believe God doesn’t make junk and he doesn’t make mistakes.

Having faith in YOURSELF as well as in a higher power is the goal when you’re going through a hard time.

I didn’t ever ask: “Why me?” I thought: “OK so this happened. What am I supposed to do now?”

Find your purpose and go do that. Seek to be your own version of well. Embrace the struggle and remember that today is what it is and tomorrow can be different.

The most beautiful thing is for all of us to be alive in the world. To live in synch with our personalities and as Oprah Winfrey wrote in her magazine: “to use your personality to do your soul’s work.”

Life can get better. It can truly get better as you get older.

You don’t have to go to church by the way if that doesn’t suit you. You can go out and be in nature. You can volunteer at a soup kitchen.

Having faith can be as original as you are.

I turned away from organized religion after the World Trade Center attacks on 9/11. I chose to have a Christian life in word and deed. Not by warming a chair in a pew and pretending I agreed with the Catholic church’s views on women and LGBT members.

If going to church is your thing, more power to you.

Having faith can make the difference between achieving goals and remaining on the sidelines in your own life.

The Zen quote tells us:

Leap, and the net will appear.

Top 20 Food Choices

Christina BruniLeave a comment

Dr. Phil has published another weight loss book. I checked it out of the library only to read the section on the Top 20 Food Choices to eat.

1. Coconut oil (virgin) is a fit fat.
2. Green Tea
3. Mustard (yellow or Dijon)
4. Walnuts
5. Olive oil (extra virgin) is a fit fat.
6. Almonds, unsalted raw or dry roasted
7. Apples
8. Chickpeas / garbanzo beans
9. Dried plums / prunes
10. Greens – any kind of leafy green -e.g. arugula, baby mixed greens, bok choy, collard greens, endive, field greens, kale, radicchio, red leaf lettuce, romaine, baby spinach, watercress, etc.
11. Lentils
12. Peanut butter (natural) – get the kind with no added sugar.
13. Pistachios (roasted, unsalted)
14. Raisins
15. Yogurt (nonfat, nothing added)
16. Eggs
17. Cod
18. Rye
19. Tofu
20. Whey protein, unsweetened.

This is going to be tooting my own horn however I can vouch for eating these Top 20 Food Choices. Along with my strength training routine for the last four years I have adhered to an eating plan that is comprised of a lot of these food choices.

It can’t be a coincidence that I’m in peak condition and fitness at the same time I’ve been eating these food choices.

If you think you can be helped by following Dr. Phil’s diet plan to the letter, by all means buy his book or check it out of the library.

In my estimation simply eating healthful food 80 percent of the time and incorporating these food choices will be sufficient to see long-term benefits.

Super Foods

Christina BruniLeave a comment

Years ago at HealthCentral I wrote about promoting health and wellness by eating certain foods. Now Dr. Phil has come out with a list of 20 kinds of food to eat to promote weight loss.

Our daily needs according to the workshop I attended years ago are comprised of: whole grains, Omega 3 essential fatty acids, low fat dairy, vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds, beans and protein.

According to research at Penn State, dieters who ate lots of whole grains lost more belly fat and improved their levels of an inflammatory marker that is linked to diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease.

In my estimation getting 20 to 35 gm fiber per day is beneficial. Two servings of whole grains a day before the afternoon is what Pamela Peeke, MD recommends.

Benefits of Omega 3 are improved lipid profile reducing cardiovascular risk, improved diabetes outcome,improved neurotransmission stimulation improving depression, reducing suicide and hostility and improved memory function. The American Heart Association recommends that all adults eat fish at least two times per week.

No-fat dairy is better than low-fat dairy in my estimation. Research from Brigham and Women’s Hospital of 30,000 women in the Women’s Health Study found that an increased intake of low fat dairy products reduced women’s risk of developing hypertension. Some research points to a weight reduction benefit of dairy calcium showing it to trigger the body to burn more fat, particularly around the waistline.

Benefits of eating vegetables include reduced cance3r risk, reduced risk of heart disease, lower blood pressure, diabetes prevention, and help with weight control. Benefits of fruits are similar to vegetables.

The recommend serving of nuts and seeds per day is 1/4 cup no more. Walnuts are the most nutrient packed of the nuts and seeds, and contain plant Omega 3-fatty acids, vitamins E and B6, magnesium, protein, fiber, potassium and polyphenols.

Beans contain low fat protein, fiber, B vitamins, iron, folate, potassium, magnesium, and phytonutrients.

Protein comes from meat,beans, seeds, nuts and fish. I’ve heard that you should divide your weight in half to get the number of milligrams of protein you should have per day. I would clock in at 61 gm.

In the next blog entry I will list Dr. Phil’s Top 20 Foods.

Hope Heals

Christina BruniLeave a comment

I’m tired of alleged “international experts” talking smack about people living with schizophrenia.

As early as 2007 when I first started to be employed at HealthCentral (nine years ago): I wanted to cheer people on and offer positive solutions for the challenges of living with this illness.

What good comes of a person talking smack about himself or others with schizophrenia?

I want to be given hope that I can live a happy life even with ongoing challenges. I want to read about people and hear from people who show us a better way: that we can transmute our pain by doing some good in the world to help ourselves and others.

I always sought to turn my pain into a thing of beauty for other people. To show that there’s a light on the road ahead. To extend a lantern of hope along the sometimes-dark road.

My point is: every human being needs light and love and laughter. Not to constantly be reminded of how hard life is. I make the case for attending a comedy club. Or watching a marathon of the old Looney Tunes Warner Brothers cartoons.

Life can be hard living with schizophrenia. Yet it can also bring us joy when we actively look for the silver lining. A silver lining does exist: we get to choose how we want to live our lives.

I wrote in my memoir that being diagnosed with schizophrenia gave me the opportunity to find out what was important to me and to discard the rest. That’s something beautiful: limiting the extraneous: what’s not necessary for us to do we should discard.

We don’t have to chase after another person’s dreams for what we should do. We can follow our own path. That was the whole ethic of left of the dial: that I chose a different path, later in life, after the narrowly-defined path I was on failed me.

Remember: a lot of times you didn’t fail; the job or lifestyle or activity failed you because it was at odds with what you needed to do to be truly happy.

Hope Heals. The road of recovery is a journey not a destination. The older I get, the less impressed I am with coveting achievements. We should each of us like ourselves for who we are not what we’ve accomplished.

I think I’ve written this somewhere before.

Light love and laughter can be as potent as any medication we take. Laughter truly is the best medicine in addition to our SZ meds.

Hope does heal.