Brain Health Expert: Patricia Faust
This year has been so extraordinary in that it has pushed us to our limits and then pushed even further.
Even our enthusiasm over the slowdown of the Covid spread was dashed over another variation of the disease. There is no consistency in our daily lives. What can we do to start this new year in a better frame of mind?
“When we turn toward life, we can be informed by each new moment, and are then prepared to meet challenges with skill and experience joy with abandon.”
The Gift Of Compassion:
Compassion allows us to be with the good and the difficult, thus giving ourselves the ability to approach life by turning toward it, not away from it. When we turn toward life, we can be informed by each new moment, and are then prepared to meet challenges with skill and experience joy with abandon.
That is the gift of compassion. The gift of opening up and knowing that you have the strength and space to embrace whatever comes your way. So, in these hectic days of preparing for this New Year, notice how compassion shows up in your life – where it rises to the occasion and where it might need a little work with some effort.
Stop, Take Notice:
Take this opportunity to see the dread, anger, resentment, outrage, or fear as the product of collision between things unfolding in the world and our deeply held and cherished core of beliefs and ideals. When you feel outrage over the way some groups treat others in our society, it is precisely because you deeply value justice, fairness and compassion. (Hickman,S. 11/17/20 Mindful)
3 Ways to Bring Compassion into Focus:
- Open Your Heart. To connect more deeply with others, we must face the one person that we are hardest on: ourselves.There is nothing special you must do to deserve love.
- Appreciate Your Community. When we remember what we share as human beings, as well as the beautiful ways we are different, we open ourselves up to compassion in a very powerful way. Mindfulness teacher Mirabai Bush invites us to remember that the people we encounter, even the difficult ones, are “just like me” – in this way we invite more empathy, compassion, and kindness into our lives.
- Consider How You Can Serve The Moment. Mindfulness teacher Michelle Maldonado asks us to be curious and open not only about what serves you – your self-care, and your capacity for resilience – but what wise actions you can take that can serve others.
(Hurlock, H. 12/9/2020 Give yourself the gift of compassion)
“Believe in yourself and find strength in your compassion.”
Another Difficult Year:
At the end of another very difficult year, we must take notice of how we feel physically and mentally. Throughout all of the worry and angst we have experienced again this past year it is critical that we recognize how we got through this. We have the power to move our life forward. Through self-care and being compassionate to ourselves we have a fighting chance to improve 2022 starting from January 1. This bears repeating: Believe in yourself and find strength in your compassion.
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About the Author:
Patricia Faust is a gerontologist specializing in the issues of brain aging, brain health, brain function and dementia. She has a Masters in Gerontological Studies degree from Miami University in Oxford Ohio. Patricia is certified as a brain health coach and received a certification in Neuroscience and Wellness through Dr. Sarah McKay and the Neuroscience Academy. My Boomer Brain, founded in 2015, is the vehicle that Patricia utilizes to teach, coach and consult about brain aging, brain health and brain function. Her newsletter, My Boomer Brain, has international readers from South Africa, Australia, throughout Europe and Canada. She has also been a frequent guest on Medicare Moment on WMKV and Cincy Lifestyles on WCPO.
