You can give me unsolicited advice anytime! What great ideas you’ve shared with Coyote. I’m going to try some of these myself and I’m stepping away from pumpkin spice.
Ditto what @Bluebelle and @Anita wrote. Thanks for the ideas!
I can’t usually get away in the winter to a sunshine state, but I sure do soak up the sunshine when we have it. Even on a cold wintry day, if it’s sunny, I stand out and turn my face eyes close to the sun and feel my body my cells my skin soaking it up with happiness. I’ve read that the Scandinavians will do the same during winter and their winters are longer and their days much shorter than ours.
But the bigger issue is isolation. And I love the ideas here for finding people, and a good place to start is in a hearing challenged group or any group you feel you share a challenge with.The connection will light up your spirit And get you ready for connecting with others.
Sending love and kindness to people in your mind in meditation on a regular basis, also opens you to people. You’re radiating your own love to them and to yourself in this meditation, and it makes you and them naturally open to each other.
I recommend a loving kindness meditation - there is one on this website which you can find in the menu under guided meditations. If you find someone else’s meditation that works for you, by all means, whatever works! I do it often and send my love to people With whom don’t normally connect. Later I notice an openness between us that occurs. It’s magical.
The walk and talk helped a lot. I have discovered I am an introvert that needs people a lot. Without a certain amount of connection with others, I get painfully depressed.
That definitely resonates with me. And getting involved in structured group gatherings would be a good place for me to start getting to know more people in my area.
I can certainly incorporate some of your suggestions into my weekly routine. Per the aromatherapy, are you referring to essential oils?
The vast majority people with my condition (which is called neurofibromatosis type 2 [NF2}, by the way), do not go on to learn sign language. Psychologically, it's difficult to integrate into a new culture and adopt a different form of communication when doing so also requires admitting to the possibility of complete hearing loss, and I was of that mind for the most of the past 5 years. But lately I'm becoming more open to reaching out to the deaf community for the exact reasons that @Jeanne-Mayell highlights. Since I live in a major metropolitan area, this should be easy.
Thanks for all of the warm thoughts, everyone. I can feel the universe trying to help me. Just today I was driving home from work, and despite it being overcast and foggy, I felt content and very at ease. On Saturday I shared some of the same worries I posted above with my spirit guides (most of whose identities I'm unsure of). That night, my grandmother, who died 17 years ago, greeted me in one of my dreams. I hadn't dreamed of her in almost as many years, so that's a huge confirmation that I'm receiving guidance from the other realm.
Yes, essential oils or if you have some citrus handy, you can boil some slices in a pan and put it near you in a room.
If you decide to learn ASL, one focus for you could be helping out translating, at least up until your own hearing is gone. Also, if you find any deaf families with hearing children, you could be a good resource for them.
I've been meaning to respond to your wisdom. First, I have to thank you for the suggesting repeating positive affirmations to myself in the mirror. That, along with doing loving kindness meditations, has already made me more open to the people around me. And yes, hearing loss has slowed me down temporarily, but I think it's been to a purpose.
When I shared about my isolation on this thread, that was the first time I've really admitted to anyone else how lonely I was. Afterwrds, I had a thought: what if all of my struggles with NF2 have been to a purpose? Since this era of crisis for humanity was brought about by estrangement from nature and the beauty of our spirits, maybe I, as a light worker, chose to be born with NF2 so that I would be forced, through my body, to internalize that separation from community. Once I internalized loneliness to its fullest extent (a process I completed last Sunday when I first posted here), my job would be to heal my body by surrounding myself with as much love as I possibly could. In so doing, I would heal the people around me. That story of my illness is consistent with my intuitive feeling that I'm not going to go completely deaf and that the procession of doctor's appointments and MRI scans I'm constantly dealing with will end long before I die. In the past week I've started talking to my body, telling it that is free to be robust and healthy, and to the spirit of my disease, telling it that it's done its job and that it can rest. And guess what? In the past two days I've noticed that the tinnitus (ringing) in my ears is not as loud and intrusive as it used to be.
Again, thank you to everyone here who has lent me advice and healing vibes. I've felt the gears of my life slowly gathering steam for the past 8 months or so, but they've accelerated even more in the past week. To be continued...
What a great perspective you have and what great wisdom you have drawn from your experience. Everything you wrote has resonated with me and I am delighted that you've shared this personal journey with us. We can all learn from you as we all have our own struggles in life. As for the affirmations when looking in the mirror and the recommendation to do loving kindness meditation: those ideas are from spirit. I was just the channel.
You are setting yourself free from fears and negative expectations which should help your body and mind heal. Personally, I get caught up in agonizing over these troubled times we are living in, so much so that I forget to just breathe, live and love. Thank you, my friend.
I am delighted to hear that your tinnitus is less noticeable already--that is amazing! You truly have so much of life ahead of you and I know intuitively that your life will be richer and fuller than you can imagine.
I loved reading your story about Buddy and your new sweet bird. As I was reading about your new friend, I thought about your first name for him which was Rainbow. Hawaii is the Rainbow state. In Hawaiian, ʻOhana means "family" (in an extended way such as blood-related, adoptive or intentional).Your new bird is your Ohana. Maybe that name would fit? Whatever name you choose, it will be perfect.
May your new Ohana been filled with love and happiness.
Dear Bright Opal,
So sorry about Buddy.
I do think it is good, tho, to give another bird your good home.
A yellow bird, with black and white trim? How about... "Taxi!" ? (with the "!")
It could learn to fly to your hand when you do the NYC cab hailing hand-signal thingy. Just sayin'
@lovendures, thank you for Ohana, I feel like you have just told me "it's OK to have a new bird, eventhough Buddy has just past. I think I feel a lot of guilt for doing the deed and then getting a new bird so quickly. But he made me feel so good!