What is the world coming to that teachers are straining their voices just to teach? To get their students' attention, they have to holler over the noise in the kids' heads. Kids nowadays are so overwhelmed with sensory input that things have to be louder, more urgent, more compelling for them to pay attention.
And it's not just the kids, of course. I had a patient come in today with anxiety and insomnia: he finds he can't turn his mind off. When at work he's thinking about things that need to be done at home, when at home, work follows him. Even when there isn't as much to be busy with, he finds he is worrying about the next thing looming on the horizon.
This sort of busy-ness is nothing new. And the solution is as old as can be. But it's contrary to our modern sensibilities: get QUIET!
What fear we have of being silent! What dread we have of being alone with our thoughts! And what anger we have at not being busy - what, we have to wait for the checkout? red light? bank machine?
Making friends with ourselves again, that's what being silent is about. Getting to know yourself all over again, getting to sitting and chatting with yourself, having yourself over to tea. Cutting out all the extraneous noise we call work, entertainment, fun... and getting into just being, just observing! When we quiet down to ourselves, we realize we can hear better. I heard someone put it that "Prayer is talking to God. Meditation is listening to His response."
Meditation sounds like a big word, and a big challenge. It isn't anything difficult, unless we make it so. It is just about slowing down, stopping the merry-go-round and enjoying THIS moment, this situation, this sensation, this person in front of me, this beautiful sunny day.
And when we listen deeply, then we know things. And we know we are loved, that we belong, that all is where it should be - for how could it be any other way? This whole game was set up for us to discover this for ourselves. If you don't yet believe it, you're playing the game well! Eventually you come to a dead end on that path, and you have to make other choices - only to discover there's always another trail that leads you back to love, belonging, and wellness. Let go the fight, because it's all good.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Health insurance
It seems that not a lot of people I talk to know about HSAs. Health Savings Accounts. It's a federally recognized form of health insurance.
The benefit: you put money aside every year for medical expenses, and unlike Flex Spend accounts, the money in the account can accumulate year after year. The money is pre-tax, and can grow tax-free. However, you can only put in a fixed amount annually - this year it was $3000. And the money is yours to use on whatever medical expenses you deem fit - and that is included on a list of covered medical expenses by the IRS. Also, if you don't use it all up, it can pass to your beneficiaries when you die.
The catch: you have to have HDHP insurance: High-Deductible Health Plan. This is like a major medical insurance... only there aren't a lot of options in NY. I found only one company carried this kind of plan when I was looking - it covers hospital, and even some preventative (an annual gyn and physical exam, well-child care, and mammogram). The company is Emblem Health, a conglomeration of HIP and GHI. It seems though that since I locked that in, the availibility of the plan or the cost of it changed... I have a friend who looked into it and didn't find what I did.
So I don't know what will happen to the insurance I have in place, but I figure now's the time to lock in something you want to keep, because with new legislation in the works it may or may not be an option in the future!
Being pretty young (38), and being in good health, I don't plan on using much of the money in the near future, so I can let it accumulate, and one day it may cover my long-term health needs... Which is better than just paying an insurance company every month only to find that they won't cover alternative medicine, and they won't cover long-term health care, and they give you a hassle for every other supposedly covered services! Pay them every month and they spend it, or pay myself every month and I can keep it. Hmm, the choice seems too easy!
The benefit: you put money aside every year for medical expenses, and unlike Flex Spend accounts, the money in the account can accumulate year after year. The money is pre-tax, and can grow tax-free. However, you can only put in a fixed amount annually - this year it was $3000. And the money is yours to use on whatever medical expenses you deem fit - and that is included on a list of covered medical expenses by the IRS. Also, if you don't use it all up, it can pass to your beneficiaries when you die.
The catch: you have to have HDHP insurance: High-Deductible Health Plan. This is like a major medical insurance... only there aren't a lot of options in NY. I found only one company carried this kind of plan when I was looking - it covers hospital, and even some preventative (an annual gyn and physical exam, well-child care, and mammogram). The company is Emblem Health, a conglomeration of HIP and GHI. It seems though that since I locked that in, the availibility of the plan or the cost of it changed... I have a friend who looked into it and didn't find what I did.
So I don't know what will happen to the insurance I have in place, but I figure now's the time to lock in something you want to keep, because with new legislation in the works it may or may not be an option in the future!
Being pretty young (38), and being in good health, I don't plan on using much of the money in the near future, so I can let it accumulate, and one day it may cover my long-term health needs... Which is better than just paying an insurance company every month only to find that they won't cover alternative medicine, and they won't cover long-term health care, and they give you a hassle for every other supposedly covered services! Pay them every month and they spend it, or pay myself every month and I can keep it. Hmm, the choice seems too easy!
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