Meditation to Predict Mood Changes

Meditation has helped me a lot in managing my bipolar disorder.  There are so many promises made by mindfulness teachers, and so much contradictory information about meditation, that people have lost sight of the fact that the real reason to meditate is to notice things.

Embracing the Limits of Faith and Ritual

"Live without limits" may be the worst self-help advice anyone has ever given.  Maybe we need to look back toward the rules that formed us and bound us together as a caring society.

Finding Hope and Meaning at Life's End

End of life experiences like redemption, reconciliation and transcendence, are rarely considered by doctors.  To them, death is a failure, and the clinical aspects of treatment leave little room for anything but last-ditch attempts to prolong life and manage pain.

Enhanced Short-Term Healthcare Plans

The law that established the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or Obamacare) mandates several criteria that health insurers must meet.  Among them are requirements to cover pre-existing conditions, and a limit on maximum out-of-pocket expenditures.

After several court rulings and Trump administration regulation changes, states can now permit policies that don't include these requirements if the policies cover the insured for less than one year.  Such policies are designed to cover short-term gaps in coverage and to bring more healthy people back into the health insurance market.

Try to Just Do Nothing

Now that they've made mindfulness completely overwhelming, how about trying nothing at all?

Meditating to Help Manage Mental Illness is not Buddhism

People who are drawn to meditation often are interested in the Buddhist beliefs that underlie much mindfulness practice.  People who won't meditate often object to the Buddhist roots presented in mindfulness training and believe the practice must offend their own faith.

When it comes to using meditation as an adjunct therapy to help manage mental illness, both positions are misguided.

Possible Changes to SSDI

If you've read much of what I write, you'll know I am an advocate for getting off of disability insurance, if at all possible, and gaining productive employment.  Only meaningful work and love can truly cure.

Social Security Disability Income and Supplemental Income have been in place a very long time, and have helped many people with severe mental illness have the financial cushion to stabilize and eventually re-enter employment, or live independently if re-entry to the workforce is not possible.